With milk straight from the cow produced on a picturesque farm just outside Cobden, Colin and Jody Cudmore carved out a customer base by offering something no-one else was doing in the region.
With 55 years of milking under his belt, Mr Cudmore said he woke up at 10pm on Friday and just knew he could not do it any more: getting up before 5am to work seven days a week. Mrs Cudmore has been milking for 26 years.
"It’s been hard going," Mrs Cudmore said.
"There are still others around, we aren’t the only raw milk," Mr Cudmore added for those who would be upset by the closure.
"There are kids who grew up on our milk and now they’ve grown up and are coming back to buy our milk for themselves."
The couple say at the time they launched CJ’s Fresh Milk the prediction was that they would sell 500 litres a day.
"Our best day was 220 litres," Mr Cudmore said.
If they had chosen to go with pasteurised fresh milk it would have been a lot easier on the pocket, since they would have been able to sell in shops and supermarkets, whereas selling unpasteurised milk came with strict rules that meant they could only sell on the farm.
But they decided right from the beginning they would only sell the unpasteurised — "the real stuff ", they said.
"We’re sad to see it go."
CJ’s Fresh Milk had been open 24 hours a day seven days a week for 12 years, with milk sold for $2.50 per litre. Customers were able to drive up and get milk at any hour day or night.
"We wanted to bring real milk to our community and make sure everyone could afford to buy it," Mrs Cudmore said.
"We live in a really cash-strapped community — we wanted to look after people."
But now it has come to an end. The couple are looking at semi-retirement after they both worked separate jobs while also running the raw milk service for more than a decade.
They are looking forward to having a little extra time.
"We’ve got seven children and grandchildren we want to spend time with," Mr Cudmore said.
Mrs Cudmore said they had "to thank our 15 girls — our herd". — The Greymouth Star, Arianna Stewart
