A FARM in Solva is sending its milk just a mile down the road to a new vending machine at the village's Bay View Stores.

The Richards family have been farming in Solva for three generations. Since late summer the family has been supplying a vending machine in the village to great success as well as delivering Mount Milk to local eateries.

The farm even had a Black Friday promotion, selling its milk for 50p a litre (half the normal price) on November 27 and 28.

"We love our farm and we love our cows," said Mount Milk's Lindsey-Anne Richards. "We have a strong dynamic team who always prioritise our cows' welfare, working towards raising the profile of farming."

Lindsey explained how the vending machine fulfils the green agenda of Solva Community Council; the glass bottles are refillable, saving on plastic waste and the milk is pasteurised on the farm before driving just over a mile down the road to Bay View Stores, cutting down on food miles.

The technology used to pasteurise the milk is also energy efficient making the whole process as environmentally friendly as possible.

Because the milk is pasteurised but not homogenised it has a great farm fresh flavour and a layer of delicious cream on top.

Linsey said that setting up the milk vending machine had brought a dynamism back to the farm as well as allowing it to become more sufficient.

"For us as farmers it's trying to inject a bit of life and soul back into the farm," she said. "Farm life is pretty difficult going and it's often hard to strike the right balance and reap the rewards from it.

"The reward from this is instantaneous; we see where our milk is going and get to directly interact with our customers. We get down to Solva once a day and fill up the machine there's a little queue of people waiting, they tell us how amazing the milk is.

"It's injecting the dynamic back into the farm. It keeps it real for us."

Lindsey said that the family had had a lot of local support and positive comments.

"It gives the local community the opportunity to buy food products that are made around them and increases everybody's understanding of where food comes from and where it's made," She said.

"The reaction has been really good we've had a lot of local support a lot of positive comments about the taste.

"A lot of it is also to do with people wanting to make their choices more sustainable, they tell us they've had a lot less plastic in the red recycling bags, that's been a positive comment.

"They say the children love coming to the machine and using the machine.

Mount milk is available from the vending machine at Bay View Stores. One litre costs £1 and half a litre costs 65p.