Since 1957, when D.H Mitchell moved into Whiteheath Farm we have been committed to providing the highest quality dairy products.
Donald, and his 4 sons - Colin, Philip, Duncan and John, plus their respective extended families - all contribute to various aspects of farm life, whether it is milking, bottling, delivering or financing all mixed in with the classical hard graft.
An excerpt from the Guardian, in June 2010, emphasises the importance of keeping supply local, the ethos of the service and how it is vital businesses like ourselves continue to flourish:
'The Lea Valley in east London used to have the highest concentration of market gardens in the world, and there are still some there, worked by the descendants of the Italians who came to work in them in the 1950s, but many were torn down to make way for housing. In Uxbridge, Duncan Mitchell says there used to be a dozen dairy farms, and now there's just his and one other.
It's another bizarre spot. Just inside the M25, I turn off down a side road and a mile or so on is White Heath Farm, a handsome, ungentrified Georgian building that local property developers must be itching to lay their hands on. The London County Council bought up the land for the green belt after the war and Don Mitchell, Duncan's 85-year-old father, has been here since 1958. The family still rent the land – 130 acres with 120 cows on it – off Hillingdon Council.
"They've been very good, they haven't put the rent up much, but it's difficult to make a living. If we sold the milk to the dairy, we'd get 22p a litre and it costs 25p a litre to produce." Instead they do a doorstep round and make ice cream, and I take a tub of it, and some milk and cream."
- taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/20/urban-farms-local-food
Donald, and his 4 sons - Colin, Philip, Duncan and John, plus their respective extended families - all contribute to various aspects of farm life, whether it is milking, bottling, delivering or financing all mixed in with the classical hard graft.
An excerpt from the Guardian, in June 2010, emphasises the importance of keeping supply local, the ethos of the service and how it is vital businesses like ourselves continue to flourish:
'The Lea Valley in east London used to have the highest concentration of market gardens in the world, and there are still some there, worked by the descendants of the Italians who came to work in them in the 1950s, but many were torn down to make way for housing. In Uxbridge, Duncan Mitchell says there used to be a dozen dairy farms, and now there's just his and one other.
It's another bizarre spot. Just inside the M25, I turn off down a side road and a mile or so on is White Heath Farm, a handsome, ungentrified Georgian building that local property developers must be itching to lay their hands on. The London County Council bought up the land for the green belt after the war and Don Mitchell, Duncan's 85-year-old father, has been here since 1958. The family still rent the land – 130 acres with 120 cows on it – off Hillingdon Council.
"They've been very good, they haven't put the rent up much, but it's difficult to make a living. If we sold the milk to the dairy, we'd get 22p a litre and it costs 25p a litre to produce." Instead they do a doorstep round and make ice cream, and I take a tub of it, and some milk and cream."
- taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jun/20/urban-farms-local-food
