The Story of Cowichan Milk

Some stories begin with a grand new idea. Others begin by returning to something wonderfully familiar—like finding fresh milk waiting on the doorstep in the morning.

Cowichan Milk Company is a family-run dairy farm in the Cowichan Valley, but its story reaches back long before the first of its glass bottles was delivered. The land on Koksilah Road was first cleared for farming by the Inglebright family in the late 1940s. Herman and Ida vanBoven purchased the farm in 1960 with 55 acres and 14 milk cows, beginning a family legacy that has continued across generations.

Over the years, the barns, herd and farming methods have changed, but the relationship between the family, the cows and the land has remained at the heart of the farm.

For many years, the vanBoven family dreamed of being able to pasteurize, bottle and sell their own milk. Planning began in 2012, and when the next generation joined the farm, that long-held idea began to take shape. In 2019, Cowichan Milk Company officially started delivering its own farm-fresh milk to homes in the Cowichan Valley. Read more about the farm and its history.

I began working with Cowichan Milk Company a couple of years ago, and since then I’ve been able to photograph many different sides of its story—from the cows and farm stand to the glass bottles arriving on people’s porches.

There is something so charming about home milk delivery. It feels nostalgic, but Cowichan Milk Company has reimagined it for the way people live now. Customers can order online and have milk, cream and hundreds of other foods from Vancouver Island farmers, bakers and makers brought directly to their homes. It makes supporting local producers feel less like an occasional outing and more like part of everyday life.

Some of my favourite days have been spent following one of the local delivery drivers, Ken, from home to home. At times, I’m essentially his personal paparazzi—appearing around corners with my camera as he carries bottles to another porch or arranges an order inside a customer’s cooler.

Luckily, Ken is always a good sport (and I think he enjoys being a bit famous on Instagram! ;)

The delivery drivers are some of the friendliest people you could meet, and it’s obvious that they genuinely enjoy what they do. They aren’t simply moving products from one place to another. They become familiar faces along their routes, getting to know the homes and families they visit each week. That warmth is part of what makes Cowichan Milk Company feel so rooted in its community.

Of course, every delivery begins back at the farm.

The family milks approximately 50 Holstein cows and grows its own grass to feed the herd throughout the year, supplemented with purchased grain and alfalfa. The entire herd produces only A2 beta-casein protein. Some people who have difficulty digesting milk containing the A1 protein find A2 milk gentler on their digestion, although it is not suitable as an alternative for someone with a true milk allergy or lactose intolerance. Learn more about Cowichan Milk Company’s A2 milk.

The barn is also home to a Lely robotic milking system. Instead of being milked according to one fixed schedule, the cows can choose when to enter the robot, allowing them continual access to milking throughout the day and night.

It’s fascinating to watch—and quite different from the image of dairy farming many of us grew up with. The technology may be modern, but its purpose is deeply practical: helping the family care for the cows while giving the animals more freedom to follow their own rhythms.

Photographing at the farm is always fun. There are curious cows peering toward the camera, rows of glass bottles and all the small, everyday details that connect the finished product to the place it came from. The self-serve farm stand offers Cowichan Milk Company’s milk and cream, and recently it became an even more tempting place to visit with the arrival of the company’s own ice cream.

Once a year, the farm opens its doors more widely for its popular Open Barn in September. Families can tour the working dairy, learn how the farm operates and, most importantly for many young visitors, meet the cows. It gives people the opportunity to see where their milk comes from and the family, animals and work behind every bottle.

That sense of connection runs through everything Cowichan Milk Company does. Milk travels from the cows to the plant, into returnable glass bottles and then out into the community—sometimes arriving only a few steps from someone’s breakfast table. Along the way, the delivery service also creates a route between customers and many other Island producers whose food might otherwise be harder to find.

For me, photographing Cowichan Milk Company has been about telling that larger story: not only how milk is produced, but how a family farm can help bring an entire local food community closer together.

It’s a story of cows and farmers, drivers and doorsteps, familiar traditions and thoughtful innovation.

Most of all, it’s a story about Island food being grown, made and shared with Island people—one glass bottle at a time.