Farmer Gosden's Luxury Jersey Ice Cream, Hampshire

The Gosdens have been farming their 450 acres in Sherfield-on-Lodden since 1983. They have a pedigree herd of 250 Jersey cows and produce 3 500 litres of milk a day.

Instead of selling the milk to MilkLink at 19p a litre, Ivan Gosden and his family wanted to add more value and increase the profitability of the farm. They wanted to diversify and turn the farm into a business their son, Matthew, could develop in the long-term.

They knew their milk would make delicious ice cream and they sought our advice on their business plan and product training.

The Gosdens started making Farmer Gosden’s Luxury Jersey Ice Cream in June 2003. They set up their business using some of our smallest equipment but within a year progressed to some of the largest batch equipment available!

They operated a systematic approach making the base mix, cooling it and storing it over night and making the ice cream product the following day. The amount of time needed to make the volume of base mix to meet the demand for their fantastic product proved too great – the outcome they’d hardly dared dream about. It gave them the confidence to invest in the larger equipment to continue to develop their business – and allow them to get more sleep!

The ice cream is available in half-litre tubs in 18 flavours. The ice cream is on sale in local farm shops, village shops, post offices and delicatessens as well as farmers’ markets.