Caroline’s Dairy Ice Cream
It’s summer and the sun is shining - the perfect time to think about ice cream! An ice cream we particularly love is RSPCA Assured branded ice cream made by Caroline’s Dairy in West Sussex.
We got in touch with Caroline to find out how she started making her ice cream and what makes it taste so good.
From I.T. to Ice Cream
“I don’t come from a family of ice cream makers that’s for sure!” says Caroline. “I was working in a corporate job in technology based in Surrey, having to travel to client meetings both home and abroad.
After a traffic accident on the way to work, I found it hard to make the commute each day so it was agreed that I could work from home. I was able to work on a self-employed basis which also allowed me to work on my husband’s family dairy farm. I would spend time there looking after the cows which I loved.
My husband, Chris and I were engaged in 1999 and around that time when we decided that we needed to diversify the dairy farm and find a product that we could make using the milk our cows produced. We went on a cheese-making course, as we both liked cheese, but decided that ice cream would work better for us. What could be better than a product that brings happiness?
Then life got busy, the following year we got married and our dairy farm in West Sussex became home. We started our family and it was during these first few years when our boys were small that a little thought kept popping into my head saying…
‘You still have to make the ice cream!’
Ice Cream Daydreams
I had this feeling that our ice cream would taste wonderful as the milk from our cows is so good. I started looking into grants to convert an old outbuilding which we received and that’s when I took the leap. I raised some money to buy the machinery needed and that little idea became reality.”
Our First Customers & Beyond
It began to get quite exciting. I knew we had managed to create a wonderful product so taste testing began with friends and family. I even asked people I found walking past the farm to taste our new creations! My first customers were a local farm shop just across the fields and a nearby holiday park. They loved it - and the story of our dairy herd grazing close by giving us fresh milk to make ice cream right here at the farm began to circulate.
On Your Bike
I moved on to local farmers markets and my mum brought me a traditional ice cream bicycle so that I could cater at events too. This was a wonderful way to get the word out about our ice cream as I could spend time with customers telling them our story. This in turn brought in new retail customers and events to attend.
Word certainly has spread as we now deliver to customers across West and East Sussex and have our ice cream vans at the local beach, harbour and local events.
Our ice cream speaks for itself as now we have enquiries from businesses who have tried our ice cream and ask if we can supply them!
The Higher Welfare Secret to Success
When we started making ice cream it was with the belief that we wanted to make a product that reflected the quality of the fresh milk that our wonderful dairy herd produces. We are proud to display the RSPCA Assured label on our ice cream. It shows our customers that we meet over 300 important higher welfare standards and that our cows have the best life we can give them.
I honestly believe that the secret behind why our ice cream tastes so good is that happy cows produce the creamiest milk!
Naturally Good Taste
Our ice cream is different from mass-produced ice cream in both texture and taste. I wanted our ice cream to be as natural as possible, made using traditional methods in small batches and using the best ingredients. I didn’t just want to make ice cream, I wanted to make the best ice cream!
All our flavours are the best quality we can source. We melt Belgian Chocolate into our Belgian Chocolate recipe, our vanilla is sourced from a wonderful company that campaigns for real vanilla and encourages farmers on the equatorial belt to keep growing vanilla – regenerating the rainforests and benefiting us all. Our Alfonso mango comes through a small company that buys it straight from the plantation in India ensuring we receive the best quality with nothing added.
We have consistently gained Great Taste Awards each year since 2014 - the expert judges blind taste the ice cream and we are proud to have been awarded 24 Great Taste Awards to date.
Healthy Cows Are Happy Cows
My husband, Chris works hard to keep our cows in tip-top condition and each one of them is special to him. The welfare of our herd is everything to us. All of us are lucky to be living here in this special corner of Sussex, especially our cows! We have water meadows that are part of the RSPB Pagham Harbour Nature Reserve and from springtime onwards, weather permitting, our cows spend their days outside grazing by the brooks.
Healthy cows are happy cows. Keeping them in the best condition and caring for them to the RSPCA’s higher welfare standards is at the core of what we do.
An Ice Cream Come True
We have been delighted with the success of Caroline’s Dairy ice cream. We are so grateful that we have been able to grow and that people love what we do. I even have people telling me now that they can’t eat any other ice cream!
It means a lot to us that we can provide a traditionally made product which uses the best ingredients. By caring for our herd of cows in the way that they deserve, they reward us with the creamiest milk. It makes us happy as a small busy team, that we can offer a little bit of luxury and joy with our high-welfare ice cream!
Your Choices Make a Difference
By choosing RSPCA Assured products when you’re out shopping - even when you are buying ice cream - you help farm animals to have a better life. RSPCA Assured standards mean higher welfare for farmed animals from cows, to sheep, turkeys, salmon, pigs, chickens and egg-laying hens. Take action by lobbying your supermarket to only sell higher welfare produce.
About the author
Jodie - Website Manager
Jodie is RSPCA Assured's Website Manager.