THE Sandford Gate Milk Company has been vending fresh milk from its kiosk in the Mole Avon car park since July 2019 and has been overwhelmed by the continued support from customers.

One of the original attractions was the ability to buy fresh local milk in re-usable glass bottles every day of the year, any hour of the day.

However, it soon became apparent that customers were really enjoying the taste of the pasteurised, but crucially non-homogenised, whole milk.

The slow pasteurising process the company uses also enhances the flavour and retains all the natural goodness. The message was reinforced this year with the presentation of a Gold Award from “The Taste of the West”.

The cows responsible for this delicious product spend nine months of the year grazing the pastures of the Munday family farm around the village of Sandford, in the notoriously fertile Creedy valley. Being just up the road from the vending machine, means this truly is a “Local” product, with a maximum of two food miles from the point of production to the point of sale!

If you haven’t yet tried The Sandford Gate Milk Company whole milk and fancy giving it a whirl, just pop down to Mole Avon, just off the Tesco’s roundabout.

There you can either use your own one litre glass bottle or buy a new one from the bottle vending machine, then place your bottle in the milk vending machine to fill it with delicious fresh milk. Both machines only use credit or debit cards (contactless, chip or swipe), so no need to take any coins!

You can now also pick up a one litre re-usable glass bottle of milk from Sandford Community Store or Cox’s butcher’s on Crediton High Street. Alternatively, if you love a coffee, The Hayloft café, Crediton Coffee Company and The Lamb Inn, Sandford all serve coffee with a unique local flavour.