Hattie McPhee’s Goat Cheese is an independent, family run dairy farm with 85 goats. Hattie is a Cumbria based cheese producer who used our Appleby Maker Space facility towards the end of 2023. She was being filmed at the time for a Channel 4 documentary on local food producers at the time with the series to hit screens soon!
You can follow them on Instagram and Threads: @meaburnhallgoats
Hattie’s farm was also featured in a news piece last year, where it is explained how AI breeding is helping them create goats that will transform their herd, its health status, reduce the risk of bringing in animals that can harm the health status of their animals, and enhance yield and income.
We caught up with Hattie to get more background on her business and how they have used he Digital Dairy Chain’s Maker Space to develop new products.
Q) Please can you summarise your business and what it does/produces?
A) We are a small family run independent dairy farm with 85 goats. We’ve been milking since March 2020 and supply several artisan creameries across Cumbria and Yorkshire with our milk. In addition, we have 400 sheep plus a few pigs and suckler cows which keeps us a little more than busy!
Hattie’s two year old son, Charlie, assisting with goat transportation!
Q) Please can you explain what you used the Cumbria maker space for?
We used the Maker Space equipment and expertise to make a Feta style cheese and some Raclette.
Q) What were your goals/expectations when using the space?
We wanted a product that we could sell that would add value to our milk and our business, this would help to improve cash flow and a general expansion of the herd.
Q) What were the outcomes or impact on your business of using the Maker Space?
Together with the Creamery at Appleby we have developed two excellent quality products to introduce to high end restaurants and retail outlets, it demonstrates a great ‘field to fork’ approach which is highly sustainable. The ‘golden circle’ of Michelin starred restaurants in Cumbria are starting to show interest already and we intend to develop the reach even further.
Q) Do you have any feedback on your experience of using the Maker Space or the support provided by the Digital Dairy Chain?
The experience was very good, to be fair, the Channel Four filming held us back a little in being able to spend time learning more about the cheese-making process and using all the equipment. Overall it was a very positive experience that we may not have had without the Digital Dairy Chain.
