From cow to bottle.
We ran a few of these courses last year and had a great response, so we’re bringing them back with a slightly improved format.
If you want a a real look at how a working micro dairy operates, from the cows in the field through to milk in the bottle.
We’ll cover the full system: • how the cows are managed • the cow–calf setup • milking routine and equipment • handling and bottling milk • and the practical side of setting something like this up
It’s aimed at farmers, smallholders, or anyone thinking about producing milk and selling direct, but also anyone who just wants to better understand where their food comes from.
We’ll keep numbers small so it stays practical and there’s plenty of time to ask questions.
📍 Pentrefelin Dairy, North Wales
🕚 11am start, multiple dates available | Approx. 4 hours
💷 £80 per person
If you’re interested, head to the link in bio or drop me a message.
Our one-day conservation hedgelaying courses are now live - practical, steady days at Pentrefelin Farm where you can learn the craft in a supportive setting and understand how good hedge work supports the wider landscape.
Each date is taught by Phil Lewis (@smithy_farm_ ), drawing on years of experience in traditional land management.
Booking is required, and thanks to support from the Royal Countryside Fund (@countrysidefund , we’re able to offer free places for 18–25-year-olds living in North Wales #ysgolytir
Swipe for dates → and follow the link in our bio if you’d like to join us.
#hedgelaying #conservationtraining #traditionalskills #ruralskills #northwales #denbighshire #hanesypridd #ysgolytir #learnoutdoors #landlinked
Our honesty box has a new home 👋
Since February we’ve been working (very slowly) on giving one of the old brick buildings here at Pentrefelin a new lease of life, and from this weekend it’ll be open for you to use.
Like always, it’ll be stocked with seasonal food from Pentrefelin and Smithy Farm. Sometimes plenty, sometimes just a few bits — it all depends on what’s ready at the time.
It’s nice to be able to put these old buildings back to use again. A huge thank you to Sion for his help along the way, and to Phil @smithy_farm_ for sharing his knowledge of traditional skills that we’ve been able to use while doing the shop up 🙌
Most importantly, thank you to everyone who’s supported the honesty box over the last few years. We honestly wouldn’t be where we are now without you.
And don’t worry about the trailer, we’ve got plans for that too 😉
If you’d like to stay updated on what’s in the honesty shop, keep an eye on our socials, or drop us a message to join our farm WhatsApp group so you don’t miss a thing.
We’re looking forward to developing this space and growing it over the next few years. Nothing fancy, just a steady supply of good food, straight from the farm. 🌱🌱
A little bit of behind-the-scenes from the farm.
If you’ve visited the farm shop recently, you might have noticed a lot of work going on in one of the old buildings.
We’re currently converting it into a new bottling and pasteurising room for the milk.
What makes it quite special to us is that this was originally the old dairy Dad used when he was milking here years ago. Since the cows left, the room hasn’t really been touched.
Now it’s slowly being brought back into use again, just in a very different way.
Still very small-scale and still milk from our own red poll cows. Just trying to build something solid for the future with better workflow and a simpler process!
Truthfully, some people dream about fast cars or big houses… I’ve spent the last six years dreaming about a new dairy 😂
Quite nice seeing the old one come back to life really and will keep you all posted on how it goes, and a massive massive thank you to Phil @smithy_farm_ for all his help with this #microdairy #cowcalfdairy #farmshop #directtoconsumer #localfoods
Meet @huwfoulkes1 - dairy farmer at @pentrefelin_ in Denbighshire, Wales 🏴
Listen to the episode in full wherever you get your podcasts, or read on Substack
#farming #farm #welshfarm #dairyfarm #wales
From cow to bottle.
This weekend we’re opening the farm gates again for our “Micro Dairy Day” here at Pentrefelin.
The aim is to give a real, honest look at how a small-scale dairy actually works, from grazing and cow management through to milking, milk handling and bottling.
You’ll walk the farm, see the system in practice, and we’ll talk openly about the realities of running a micro dairy, including the challenges as well as what’s working for us.
If you’re interested in regenerative farming, direct selling, small-scale dairying, or simply understanding where your food comes from, there are still spaces left.
📍 Pentrefelin Dairy, North Wales
🕚 11am start
⏰ Approx. 4 hours
💷 £80 per person
Booking through the link in bio.
Diolch 👍
#microdairy #cowandcalfdairy #regenerativefarming #smallscalefarming #northwales
Milk has been devalued for decades.
We started Pentrefelin Dairy with 4 heifers in 2022 to prove it doesn’t have to be that way
Full story on YouTube, link in bio.
#MicroDairy #RegenerativeFarming #NorthWales
#GrassFed #CowCalf
Our favourite day of the week again.
The fridge is full today with milk, cheese and yogurt from our herd of pasture-fed Red Poll cows, fresh bread and cinnamon buns from @surdeig_bakery , herbs and salad from @smithy_farm_ , and plenty of duck eggs from Mum’s ducks.
Simple, local food produced by people who care about doing things properly.
Open all day.
Diolch yn fawr iawn 👍
#farmshop #localfood #northwalesfood #pasturefed #cowandcalfdairy microdairy regenerativefarming supportlocal farmtotable
We are passionate about serving amazing quality ingredients while sourcing and supporting other local businesses where we can.
- Our coffee is from our good friend Nath @apricity.roasting whose dedication to great taste but also passionate about ethically sustainably sourced produce is something we want to get behind.
- Milk is from @pentrefelin_ which is fully grass fed and Huw is at the forefront of regenerative farming. Every bottle we use is also recycled.
We are doing things differently and want to be known as a brand you can trust.🫶
We talk and shout a lot about the way we farm here, and what we try to achieve. One thing we’ve been thinking about is how often we actually measure whether we’re achieving any of it.
Over the past few weeks we’ve started putting sensors in around the farm. It’s something we’ve been working on together, myself, my dad and my brother, with a lot of it being driven by Dad wanting to better understand what’s actually going on in the soil and across the farm.
We’ve now got a weather station, soil moisture probes at different depths, and sensors in the stream to monitor water level and clarity after rainfall, it’s basically just to give us something to measure against.
If what we’re doing is working, we should see more water going into the soil, less running off, and better outcomes leaving the farm.
Farming will always rely on observation and instinct, but it doesn’t hurt to have something to back it up, and it’s going to be interesting seeing the data come in as the year goes on.
The chickens are now following behind the cows.
Once the cattle move on, the birds come in and start working through what’s left, scratching through dung, spreading it out and picking up insects and larvae.
That does a few things. It helps break the manure down quicker, spreads nutrients more evenly across the pasture, and keeps more life moving through the soil.
Instead of fertility sitting in one place, it gets cycled back into the ground where it can actually be used.
It also means we’re making better use of what’s already on the farm, rather than relying on bringing more in from the outside.
It’s a simple setup, but over time it makes a difference to the soil, the pasture, and everything that depends on it.
And that all feeds back into the food we produce that ends up on your plate! #pastureraised #regenerativefarming #pasturepoultry #outdoorpoultry #grassfed
From the outside it probably just looks like we have a few random things going on at the moment, but there’s more to it than that..
Cows in one field, chickens somewhere else, pigs in the veg patch, and we’re still planting trees across parts of the farm.
But it’s all part of the same system.
The cows build fertility through grazing, the chickens help spread and cycle it, and the pigs come in where they’re needed to clear ground and turn it over ready for growing again.
The veg we grow sits within that as well, making use of what’s already there, and the trees are something we’re putting in for the long term.
Nothing here really stands on its own, even if it looks that way.
We do it this way because itbuilds soil, it makes better use of what the farm can produce, and it means we’re not relying on bringing more and more in from the outside.
It’s also the kind of farming we believe should be part of the future, producing proper food, in a way that people can see and understand.
Still plenty to figure out and a lot to do, but it feels like it’s heading in the right direction and coming together slowly
