The gleaming glass Gloun Cross Dairy milk bottles (with the cream on top as nature intended) will catch your eye when shopping in West Cork's quality food stores, such as Field's SuperValu in Skibbereen and the wonderful little URRU beside the river in Bandon. Going back to glass is just one of the brilliant USPs that set this family-owned dairy's products apart, but it is a good one and regular customers appreciate the sustainability credentials that making this choice has flagged about the small but expanding business.
Thanks to their success at the West Cork Farming Awards and Dingle's Blas na hÉireann Irish Food Awards in recent years, the Gloun Cross Dairy story is widely known... How several years of low milk prices instigated Kevin and Liz O’Donovan's transition from being traditional dairy farmers on their farm near Dunmanway to becoming suppliers of the unique non-homogenised (but pasteurised) milk, cream, buttermilk and butter that they produce from the milk of their own Jersey and Friesian cows... How hotels, in particular, were quick to seek out the cream that is thick and full of flavour 'like double cream used to be' and whips up like a dream....How coffee shops are falling on it with glee because the old-fashioned full milk froths up brilliantly for their cappuccinos ... And the feel-good factor of being able to return the glass bottles to the dairy for re-use.
Low-fat and skimmed milk alternatives are also available in glass bottles and the growing number of USPs offered by the O'Donovan family's Gloun Cross Dairy products continues to bring new customers as they develop their unique range. And all the milk is pasteurised and bottled in their own dairy, purpose-built to the highest standards on the family farm, with the aim of supplying a vibrant local market. So next time you visit West Cork, keep an eye out for Gloun Cross Dairy products on menus, in coffee shop and good shops. You'll be glad you found them.
