September 10, 2020 5.36 pm This story is over 42 months old

Lincolnshire farmers opening cheese shed for contactless shopping

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Michael and Mary Davenport, with their son Joe and his wife Laura at The Cheese Shed.

A new shopping experience including a cheese and raw milk vending machine has been created in a shed by a farming family near Market Rasen.

The Davenport family run the award-winning Cote Hill Cheese in Osgodby and have seen a rising demand for their products of cheese and raw milk, during the coronavirus pandemic.

The family will be launching The Cheese Shed on their dairy from on Friday, September 18, which will offer a range of cheeses and raw milk, as well as other local produce and people stop for a coffee.

It will be one of the first sights visitors see, along with the diary cows, when they head down Lincoln Lane, with the new shed fronted by two separate pathways. This will allow pedestrians and cyclists to approach from one side and cars to park from the other.

There will be a cheese vending machine stocked with the firm’s cheeses and also Lincolnshire Poacher cheese and butter.

There will also be a ‘Local Provision’s’ vending machine, which will stock Lincolnshire Plum Bread, Jenny’s Jams, Stokes Tea and Coffee and local free-range eggs.

Mary Davenport demonstrates The Cheese Shed’s new raw milk vending machine.

There will also be a raw milk vending machine, which is self-service so customers fill the bottles themselves.

Customers can select what they want and pay contactless. Visitors will also be offered free flavoured syrup to add to the milk to make milkshakes during the opening weekend of September 18-20.

The Cheese Shed was created by partners Michael and Mary Davenport, their sons Ross and Joe, and his wife Laura to help encourage more people to shop locally.

The farm’s stars: Cote Hill’s dairy herd.

Ross Davenport said: “Many people who initially tried our milk did not realise that full fat milk is actually 96% fat free, with the layer of cream settling on the top. Many have discovered they preferred the taste and keep coming back for more.”

Cote Hill produces a range of five different artisan cheeses – Cote Hill Red, White, Yellow, Blue and Cote Hill Lindum. They are all made by hand using the morning milk produced by the family’s own herd.