Butter is a natural product that has been a valuable food around the World for thousands of years. It naturally contains a range of important nutrients, especially the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K2. Natural butter is a wonderful food to include in a healthy diet.
As with any animal product, we believe the quality of life and the diet of the animal makes a huge difference to the food value when we eat it. We only supply butter of the highest quality. When a cow eats grass, its natural food, the butter produced is naturally a yellowy colour, indicating good levels of Vitamins A and D.
In our shop we supply a range of butters:-
- Organic Butter - both salted and unsalted made from organic pasteurised milk
- Unpasteurised Raw Cultured Butter - a superb quality, hand made raw and unpasteurised cultured butter from an artisan dairy in France
Unpasteurised Raw Cultured Butter
The cows producing this butter graze on lush, green pasture in the Vendée region of France. To ensure the quality of the raw milk and cream, it is only produced by a select group of farms within a few kilometres of the dairy. These farms enter into a contract with the dairy to ensure they maintain very high standards of hygiene, feeding practices and health for their animals. There is careful monitoring of the health of the cows, and milk is never collected from cows that have been given antibiotics or are ill in any way. The cows are never fed any GMO products or any grain. When there is a shortage of grass, due to seasonal variability, they are fed on green crops such as alfalfa, clover, beans or dried herbs.
The cows produce milk with a mixture of A1 and A2 proteins.
The milk is so fresh it is still warm when it reaches the dairy. Firstly, the raw cream is cultured for 24hours. It is then churned in traditional wooden butter churns (the last dairy in France using these traditional butter churns). It is then formed into pats, stamped with the Beillevaire "cow eating grass" logo and the resulting fresh butter is packed in paper wrapping by hand.
The only additional ingredient is an option of unrefined local sea salt, produced again by hand, using traditional methods - wind, sun and time, to produce a truly natural whole salt, complete in its balance of minerals.
Many people who have lactose intolerance find they can tolerate raw milk products.
As mentioned earlier, butter contains a wealth of fat soluble nutrients such as
vitamins A, D, E and K2. These vitamins play an important role in maintaining health, like looking after our mucus membranes, enhancing eye health and aiding the absorption of minerals. Butter also contains important trace minerals, including iodine.
Butter provides appreciable amounts of short and medium chain fatty acids which support immune function, boost metabolism and have anti-microbial properties. Butter from cows eating their natural diet contains a great balance of omega 3 and 6 fats. The arachidonic acid in butter is important for brain function and prostaglandin balance. When butter comes from cows that eat grass it contains high levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a compound that is known to give protection to the body and to aid in building muscle rather than storing fat. There is also a special category of fatty acids called glycospingolipids that have been shown to support gastrointestinal health.
Butter is a dietary source of cholesterol which is a vital nutrient needed by every cell of the body, and it particularly aids the health of the brain, nervous system and the intestines. Raw dairy contains a 
substance that has been named Wulzen or Anti-stiffness Factor. This is a hormone like substance that seems to ensure the calcium in our diet reaches the parts of our body where it is needed, like the bones and teeth.
Until the early part of the last century we all consumed our butter raw, and in many parts of the world this is still the tradition, as it is in France. This raw butter is considered to be safe, healthy and delicious.
Many people believe unpasteurised butter from cows kept on pasture to be nutritionally superior to a commercial pasteurised product. Weston A. Price was one such person. He became well known for his work studying healthy traditional cultures around the world, and he wrote a book “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” that documents his findings. Dr Price identified what he called "Factor X" in butter, particularly from pasture fed animals. We now believe this to be vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 is difficult to find in many modern diets, and seems to be heat stable.
Dr Price also recommended consuming raw butter as a source of the Wulzen or “anti-stiffness” factor. The Dutch researcher Dr Rosalind Wulzen found this nutrient to protect against calcification of the joints, degenerative arthritis, as well as hardening of the arteries, cataracts and calcification of the pineal gland. This nutrient is destroyed by heating and so is found in raw, unpasteurised dairy products.
Butter is a rich dietary source of dietary cholesterol, which is an important nutrient. Cholesterol is an anti-oxidant that floods into the blood when we take in harmful free-radicals, such as the ones from damaged, rancid fats like those in margarine and processed vegetable oils. The short and medium chain fatty acids in butter have been shown to strengthen the immune system.
For more information regarding healthy butter please refer to https://www.westonaprice.org
We have three options of raw, unpasteurised butter avaiiable:-
Unsalted - creamy and delicious, perfect for all uses, but especially good in recipes - like raw ice cream making and fresh coffee blended 
with raw butter.
Semi-Salted - using finely ground unrefined Celtic Sea Salt - naturally rich in a balance of minerals.
Crunchy Salted- using crunchy crystals of unrefined Celtic Sea Salt - gives a pleasant "crunch" and great flavour.
Other Dairy
Local Raw Cream - delicious for many uses, including your own butter making at home.
Raw, Cultured Cream- this is a very thick, creamy, raw crème fraiche also called crème cru. Fat content 44%. Wonderful as a base simple sauces to enhance your meals.
Raw, Unpasteurised Goat’s Milk - from an organic, farm. For more details see our Raw Goat's Milk page.
Raw Cheeses - wide selection, that changes throughout the year, with the seasons. These include cheeses from cows, sheep and goats, some are also organic and local.
Kefir - some made with local raw cow's milk, some organic jersey milk and also we have an organic goat's milk kefir.
Organic, Live Plain Yoghurts- one from cow's milk a, sheep's milk and also goat's milk, all yoghurts are produced on organic farms.