St Joseph's School Stratford pupils get tour of raw milk business

St Joseph's School Stratford pupils with Dolly's Milk owner Margaret Dalziel. Photo/ Alyssa Smith

Some Stratford tamariki had a taste of the farm life with a visit to Dolly's Milk last week.

Room one pupils from St Joseph's School Stratford, their teacher Kay Linders, and parent helpers visited the raw milk business on Warwick Rd last Wednesday.

Margaret Dalziel, who owns the business with her husband Peter, says their success is thanks to their customers.

"We have a lot of loyal customers. We have around 700 customers around Taranaki. We're open 24 hours a day so people can get their milk when they need it."

One of those customers is Kay herself, who took the opportunity to get more milk while she was there.

Laney Sheehy (6) was interested in the vending machines and says it's interesting that the raw milk comes from one vending machine, while the other supplies the special bottles and cooler bags.

Margaret Dalziel and Laney Sheehy (6) were wearing matching jerseys during the visit. Photo/ Alyssa Smith

Margaret filled a bottle while she explained how the vending machine worked.

Kay says pupils are currently learning about farming in the region.

"We wanted to visit Dolly's as it has a lot of differences from a normal farm."

Pupils could see those differences themselves, with the group heading to classmate Corey Tobeck's farm after their visit to Dolly's.

Corey (5) says there are plenty of differences.

"Dolly's Milk only has 19 cows in their herd while we have 200. We also have chickens, lambs and a tunnel house where we grow seedlings."

Margaret Dalziel filling up a bottle of milk for Kay Linders. Photo/ Alyssa Smith

Pupils learned a lot from the visits, Kay says.

"The visits also fitted in with the work we're doing around the Enviroschools programme. We saw Corey's tunnel house where they grow seedlings which was interesting because the pupils have been growing seedlings at school. They've also made beeswax wraps and harvested honey."

Margaret says she's welcomed many groups onto the farm over the years.

"It's always wonderful to show people the business and I love taking school kids through and showing them what we do. I'm passionate about Dolly's Milk and I love showing people something different."