Sunnyside Dairy becomes the second dairy farm in Canada with its own milk vending machine
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A Martensville, Sask. dairy farm is acquiring a unique piece of equipment that can only be found on one other Canadian dairy farm.
Sunnyside Dairy plans to install a milk vending machine this winter. The Swiss machine will be housed inside a pasteurization facility that’s currently under construction.
Morningstar Farm in Parksville, B.C. is the only other Canadian dairy farm to have a similar piece of equipment.
Guests to the 30-cow Saskchewan farm can bring their own bottles or pitchers and fill them with milk that’s pasteurized on site. The milk will not be homogenized.
Being the first dairy farm in the province to request this type of approval meant officials needed several questions answered, said Martha Froese-Kooijengas, co-owner of Sunnyside Dairy.
Froese-Kooijengas graduated from a pasteurization course in Winnipeg earlier this year and used what she learned to help the Saskatchewan Health Region with the approval process.
“There are a lot of hoops to go through,” she told Farms.com today. “It was new to health officials because we’re the first in the province, so we had to send some blueprints in. For the things they didn’t understand, they had to talk to Sask Milk. But there’s also a lot of excitement around this, so they didn’t wait very long before giving us the approval.”
Part of the inspiration for the milk vending machine came from interactions with customers.
Along with her husband Bas, the pair own Farmyard Market, an on-farm market which includes several local vendors. But milk isn’t among any of the products sold at the market.
“So many people would come in and want to see the cows and wondering how milk gets produced and into the stores,” Martha said. “People are craving that kind of information and they appreciate being able to buy food right from where it was produced.”
The on-site milk offerings will also help Sunnyside Dairy separate itself from larger operations.
“We don’t have the equipment or land to compete with some of the bigger farms,” she said. “Having this machine will hopefully bring more people to the farm to try something they’ve maybe never seen before.”
Richard Marjan photo