The pioneering origins of Rachel's Organic Dairy really began with Rachel Rowlands' grandmother, Elizabeth the first ever woman Dairy Technologist at Aberystwyth University, Wales. Having fallen in love and married Abel Jones, the Professor of Agriculture, Elizabeth was tragically widowed at the age of 45. With no job and three young children to care for, she soldiered on as a tenant farmer and single mother.
In 1942 she moved to what was eventually to become the family farm Brynllys, near Borth. At that time, practically all farms were 'organic' in that they were farmed using traditional methods. However, by the late 1940s, the shortage of food during World War II had prompted many farmers to switch to more intensive forms of agriculture, using chemicals to boost yields. But Rachel's family firmly rejected this option, preferring to stay true to their beliefs in traditional organic farming - working in harmony with nature, the elements, the seasons and wildlife.
During this period, Rachel Rowlands' mother Dinah became one of the earliest people to sign up to the Soil Association, thus supporting the foundation of the organic movement in Britain. Following a visit in 1952 by Soil Association founder Lady Eve Balfour, Brynllys became the very first certified organic dairy farm in the UK and today has the longest continuous record of organic production. Dinah was also responsible for introducing Guernsey cattle to Brynllys which was then built up to a prize-winning dairy herd.
Dinah, now in her nineties still lives at Brynllys, as do her daughter and son-in-law, Rachel and Gareth, who took on the farm in 1966. Together they went on to found the company Rachel's Organic Dairy.
Initially the family simply concentrated on being efficient dairy farmers, selling their milk to the Milk Marketing Board (MMB). But by the early 1980s, Gareth and Rachel began worrying about the effects of milk quotas on the farm and their family's future.
Meanwhile Rachel had always regretted that her special, delicious quality Guernsey organic milk was only ever mixed in with all the other milk. But in 1982 fate took a hand. Severe snow storms in the winter of 1982 prevented milk tankers collecting milk produced by the pedigree herd - the farm was completely snowed in. To complicate matters, Gareth was also in hospital with a broken ankle, yet it was during this period that Rachel first conceived the idea of adding value to the farm's milk.
Faced with frozen water supplies, Rachel skimmed off the cream from the daily milk to give back the cows skim milk to drink.
Once the snows cleared enough to reach the next village, the family began distributing emergency milk and cream. Also to cope with the extra cream that had built up, Rachel resurrected her grandmother's butter churn and delved into her book of dairy recipes, including those for yogurt. Within weeks the Rowlands faced an enormous response to their cream and demand for stock from local shops and hotels.
By 1984, yogurt was being made regularly in the farmhouse kitchen and Gareth and Rachel soon realised they had started something potentially very successful. Meanwhile throughout the UK, consumers were becoming increasingly concerned about how their food was being produced and interests in organics was spreading.
Between 1985 and 1990 national UK demand for Rachel's yogurts had grown so much that a new purpose-built dairy was commissioned. By now supermarkets such as Sainsbury's were looking to companies like Rachel's to develop regional organic food supplies. Partnerships like this with stockists remain just as important today. Rachel's Organic products are also stocked in Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Morrison's as well as by a host of independent retailers.
Rachel's work was recognised in 1997 when she received the MBE from the Queen for services to agriculture. In 2003 Rachel was proud to be appointed Wales's first True Taste ambassador and during the past year, has carried out many representational and promotional duties. Recently she was also appointed Deputy Lieutenant for Dyfed.
Rachel's Organic remains a UK company with its registered headquarters in Aberystwyth, West Wales. All Rachel's Organic milk and milk supplies for its dairy products are sourced only from certified British organic farms. As such, all Rachel's Organic products comply with the strict guidelines of the Soil Association, the lead British body for the certification of organic food and farming standards in the UK.
Rachel and Gareth are now semi-retired and act as consultants to the company they founded - not least to continue those special recipes and to ensure new products adhere to the highest organic standards. Indeed Rachel's remains the gold standard of organic yogurts.
“I hope my grandmother would approve,” says Rachel. “ She instilled in us all a fundamental belief in the miracle of nature and the importance of good husbandry to produce wholesome, nutritious food. She never wavered from her beliefs and neither have I.”