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Where to buy Channel Island/Jersey milk

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I'm looking to buy what is known as Channel Island or Jersey milk in the UK (it's sold in gold topped bottles over there). It's a creamy milk at about 5% fat, more than whole milk. Do you know where it's available in Toronto? Thanks.

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  1. I've seen Jersey yoghurt here, but never the milk. I think the yoghurt if from the States, too. I used to see it in Edmonton, but possibly no-one here is keeping a Jersey herd. Too bad, I love Jersey milk too, but I guess the yield is lower and money talks.

    4 Replies
    1. re: munchieHK



      1. re: simplepieman

        Giving the marketing board rules, it would take a sudden overwhelming demand to ever bring this into a store. Milk producers must sell to the central supply and milk bottlers must buy from it. I would imagine you'd need to find a farmer and buy from the farm gate.

        It probably won't satisfy your craving, since it's all UHT, but there is a 5% milk product available at many supermarkets, usually labeled "Light Cream".

          1. re: embee

            There is a way around the rules as i understand them: I recall reading about it many years ago, and it did involve a Jersey herd without quota a while after quota was introduced. If a herd's product is processed and marketed by the herdsman it falls outside of quota, So the farm involved established its own dairy and went direct.

            Please correct me if wrong, but Mapleton Organic falls into this category. I don't believe that they are on quota yet their Holstein herd allows them to produce their excellent ice cream on-premises.

            Some operation may exist and if it does it would most likely be in Southern Ontario's "cow-belt." If I were doing a search I would be checking entries for federally or provincially inspected dairies.

      2. Homo milk in Ontario is limited to 3.25% bf. Anything above is skimmed off for other products such as butter or cheese.
        Goat's milk is above 4% bf and not subject to the marketing board rules. Hewitt's is in most large marts.

        1 Reply
        1. re: jayt90

          Actually, Harmony Organic produces whole milk with a higher fat content (closer to 4%). Their whole, unhomogenized milk that comes in the returnable glass bottles is absolutely the best-tasting milk I've had in Ontario. And it has that fabulous little bit of cream on the top!

        2. Unfortunately, the Ontario Milk Marketing Board has decided that cow milk is cow milk and it's bad for business overall to market any of it as different from any other.

          In fact, all cow milk is technically sold to the OMMB by farmers and is then resold to processors to package as table milk, cheese, yoghurt etc.

          Upper Canada Cheese, which makes two great artisan cheeses at Jordan Station in Niagara, obtained on of the few exceptions to source and label as such its milk from a nearby Guernsey herd.

          It wasn't always that way. When I was a kid in southern Ontario in the 1960s, we still had access to "Guernsey Gold" milk, and a Jersey brand as well (delivered to the house, mind you.) Then along came the twin hammers of the OMMB and Becker's low-price corner milk stores.

          It's interesting to note that while the quota system has served dairy farmers fairly well in the ensuing 40 years, no one's getting rich from the actual dairy farming these days. You're only guaranteed a profit if you can produce your milk for less than what the OMMB is paying. The price is intended to take into account ongoing input costs etc. but profit is not guaranteed. Until, in most cases, when it comes time to wind up the operation and sell off the quota licence. (You can't sell cow milk legally without quota in Canada. Nothing to stop a person from buying a cow and milking it for themselves and themselves alone.)

          Unfortunately, most Ontario dairy farmers milk Holsteins because of the efficiency issues (they produce the most volume) while Jerseys, Guernseys and even Shorthorns produce less milk in a year but it's higher butterfat. Because farmers are paid partly on the composition of the milk some have a few cows of these other breeds in their herd to boost the BF of the overall milk. And then some farmers are just plain contrary and have the an entire herd of Jersey, Shorthorn etc. because they like the breed and always have.

          All this is a big reason that most of the innovation you see in dairy products in Ontario comes with sheep and goat milk -- the OMMB does not oversee these products (although dairy farms and processors are all licensed by gov't.)

          1 Reply
          1. re: lamancha

            thanks for the info on that. that explains why our butter doesn't taste as good as I remember growing up.

          2. hi, unfornutatley you can only buy the proper jersey milk from here in jersey, channel islands. although you can buy jersey milk around the world from a jersey herd, it doesn,t taste the same. think it,s something to do with the climate and the sort of grass we have. unfortunatley there are hundreds of different types of grass seeds in the world..oh and jersey milk is 10 times creamier than guernsey[ donkey] milk. that,s what the guernsey people are called. us lot from jersey are called crapauds it,s french for toads.. yea i know, but we love it

            1 Reply
            1. re: rosiep

              Are they our best looking beasts or not?

              Another matter not mentioned is their high feed conversion rate coupled to high BF ratings. Who can add to this with knowledge?

            2. Millersdairy.com

              Sell delicious straight Jersey milk in a variety of forms. Check out the web site. They are located just north of Toronto, and may have outlets in Toronto.

              There are 3 other on farm dairies now in Ontario, and Miller's is the only pure Jersey milk one.