A popular village farm shop is celebrating after fighting off competition from top dairy companies to bag a national award for their produce.

Lacey’s Family Farm in Bolter End managed to beat the likes of Arla, Muller and Wensleydale Creameries to win the prestigious title of best tasting dairy product in the UK 2018 for their single cream at The Dairy Industry Trade Awards. 

Will Lacey, who is the seventh generation of the same family to run the farm, along with his brother Ed, said the award is a “huge achievement” for the team, who only opened their successful farm shop two years ago.

He said: “We’ve really grown and developed over the last five or six years and it’s all off the back of our milk. My family has been farming here since the 1880s and the past we were just traditional farmers, we milked cows and grew crops and sold everything off to the wholesalers but in 2006 we started to bottle and retail the milk ourselves.

“Even to be asked to enter the awards is a huge achievement. It’s an industry award, there are 10,500 dairy farms in the country and then the dairies on top of that and it’s open to everyone. We were invited to enter last autumn, I filled in all the forms and they asked for samples.

“They went off to the Morrison’s tasting team and it was for any dairy-based product. There were 25 cheeses alone in the final, but they said as soon as they tasted our single cream they knew it was the winner. It is a really good achievement.

“We have beaten all the big boys – Wensleydale Creameries is massive, they came second. Some of the big dairy processers like Arla and Muller entered as well.  It is nice to be recognised against the big boys.”

Will said the support of their loyal base of customers has helped them achieve big things over the years.

He said: “We started to bottle the milk in 2006 and as we have grown and developed, our customers have grown with it and they are all really pleased and proud for us.

“Two years ago we opened the farm shop and it has become the hub of the village.”

A total of 7,000 litres of milk goes out to the surrounding area every week – either door-to-door or to other retailers and is popular for cheeses and chocolate.

And Will is proud that the farm shop helps support other local businesses in the area.

He said: “We try and make everything as local as possible, the milk comes from our own cows and its pasterurised and bottled on site, we use local labour, the bottles are made down in Sands, the labels down on the A40, everything is from Wycombe.

“By the time you get the milk home, the furthest it’s gone is to your house.”