Our Values
COMMITMENT
Easy to say and very trendy nowadays. However, a real commitment requires having ideas and convictions… and actually standing by them to make them real.
Everyone has their own little bubble and their own reality. We all want to change things in our own way.
I am rooting for a fairer agricultural world and quality nutrition with a low environmental impact.
This is the reason why I switched careers: from railway engineer to cheesemaker. I went back to (dairy) school. I did internships. Then, I created my little dairy three years ago. Here, we produce, transform and share. Thanks to all your messages, I have come to believe that I have found my own path.
Day after day, we dream of improveing ourselves, pulling others along with us and setting an example.
In the upcoming posts, I am going to introduce you to all of my methods.
LOCAL RAW MATERIALS
Let’s be locavores! It is not a cuss word. It means being part of a global movement that advocates buying local food.
We are all already aware of environmental issues. We all want to contribute, on our own scale, to reducing our environmental footprint.
Our dairy stock its milk from farms close to Toulouse (less than 150 km away).
If you know a bit about how to make cheese, you probably know that it needs rennet (our supplier is the best: Granday in Burgundy) and starter cultures (suppliers: Standa in Normandy and LIP in Auvergne. They are all small-scale French producers.
There is something that you probably don’t know. The most important starter culture suppliers in the world are Danish (Danisco and CHR Hansen).
The animal coagulant (rennet) is the most natural and the most suitable one: we all have some inside us rennet to digest milk… even though we lose this ability over time. There are other coagulants: plant-based (generally from thistle in Spain or Portugal) and fungal (as a powder – very common in the industry).
FAIR PRICES
Paying a farmer what their milk is worth. Easy to say but, concretely, hard to know the real cost.
First of all, the functioning of a livestock farm is really complex. Many factors need to be taken into account. There are few farmers but a lot of animals. And, no matter what we say, farmers love their animals. They don’t count their hours and earn, by the sweat of their brow, a low wage – much lower than what the average Joe earns.
They “benefit” from a system of European subsidies that allows them to survive a little better at the end of each month. Moreover, farmers have a « work ethic » that is far above average. So they want to sell their products at a low price to make them attractive to everyone.
In France, cheese is not expensive because we don’t pay its true price. It is subsidized and doesn’t allow farmers to live as well as the average French worker. By the way, there are fewer and fewer people who want to do this job.
At our dairy, the farmers are able to chose their own prices – way above the supermarkets prices. My job, as a cheesemaker, is to make quality products, which means quality milk. I want the milk to be good and the animals to be healthy – so I respect the farmers’ prices.
HIGH TASTE AND NUTRITIONAL QUALITIES
Raw milk is a safe bet!
Quality raw milk, of course. Not from a Prim’Holstein kept in confinement and pushed on soybean silage 😱
It allows its microbial flora to develop and provide us with a beneficial microbiome for our gut flora (like reducing allergy risks).
Moreover, raw milk cheeses usually have more flavor than pasteurized milk cheeses. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the flavors are stronger, but rather more complex ones. It is the same as with wine and head, heart, and base notes.
At our dairy, the milk does not go through any thermal treatmpent (except for yogurts). It helps maintain high taste and nutritional quality. Sanitary analyses are frequently conducted by an external lab in order to validate our methods. Clients keep coming back and are really pleased.
Just a quick nutritional detail: dairy products have a rather good reputation. Well, it depends on wether you prefer cottage cheese or raclette 😅. Hard cheeses (rather dry) have more fat than dairy products rich in water (yogurt, cottage cheese, fromage frais,…). Please, eat a balanced diet.
Finally, some people are allergic to dairy protein or lactose intolerant. You must learn to recognize the difference and not to put your health at risk.
LOCAL FOOD NETWORK
Before being an engineer, I had heard of intermediaries. So I thought they were unavoidable in our system. How many of them take their cut on the finished product? That cut helps feed a white-collar in his car with his phone, pay the diesel of a transporter,… I do think that some of them are useful and sell good products. Anyway, the more industrial a product is, the less we pay for the raw materials. The biggest slice of the cake belongs to the intermediairies.
Now, when I’m buying food, I want the farmer or the artisan to be paid as fairly as possible. That is why I opt for a local food network: open-air market (the one in Saint-Aubin every Sunday morning – the best in town 😉), directly in our dairy, …
Buying directly at La Laiterie Toulousaine means supporting an ultra-short supply chain: only one person, the cheesemaker, between farmers and you.
ECO-FRIENDLY PACKAGING
Yes, packaging is very useful when we forget to bring our own containers.
Yes, plastic is amazing – but plant-based plastic is way better! Cellophane, invented in 1908, comes from cellulose. However, it is 10 times more expensive than modern plastic. Well, I’d rather pay that price when I want to place my cheeses in the display case and not let them dry out.
At our dairy, we offer 2 types of packaging to help you lower your environmental footprint in just one purchase:
- For the cheeses: eco-sourced waxed paper made from plant-based paraffin
- For the yogurts/mozzarella/cottage cheeses: eco-sourced cardboard pots with a certified recyclable polyethylene layer (but yes, there is petrochemistry involved)
PRICE TRANSPARENCY
It is easy to showcase the meticulous selection of our quality products. Many businesses mention the super-producers that they source from. But how many of them are honest about their margins?
Money is the sinew of war in business!
Most retailers (resellers) apply a markup of x2 on the ex-VAT price (typically between x1.6 and x2.5). That means half of the revenue goes to the producer – or to the intermediaries, if we’re talking about wholesalers. The rest covers the merchant’s expenses. But keep in mind: market prices are lower than in a well-established store.
At our dairy, the way we calculate our prices is the following: 33% for the milk, 33% for the cheesemaker and 33% for the expenses (social contributions, rent, electricity, …).
For resold products, we apply a markup of x1.5, to cover the VAT and social charges. We can keep this low markup because La Laiterie Toulousaine is a micro-business with low social contributions, located on a small street in Toulouse.
SHARING MY PASSION
There’s nothing better than exchanging ideas about dairy products and the agricultural world. I love answering your questions – whether simple or complex – and chatting, face to face, with farmers, sharing both their ups and downs.
Cheeses, yogurts, butter, creamy desserts, ice cream… We eat these French essentials almost every day, but most of us don’t know how to make them. There is something magical about it. They are all made from the same single ingredient. You just need to know the « recipes » and some key techniques.
A lot of you come by our atelier-boutique, and I am always pleased to give more details. During the Cheese Workshops, you get to step into a cheesemaker’s shoes for a few hours and take your creations home with you. For professionals, we offer more advanced training to master specific skills: soft rind, stretched curd, lactic cheeses, …
I’ve also had the opportunity to teach future farmer-cheesemakers (via CFA or Chambres d’Agriculture), agronomists (via INP Purpan school) and dairy retailers (via Cifca).
Dedication and rigor are THE secret to making quality products. Because yes, milk is a living thing (except when pasteurized). You have to respect and tame it, day after day, until you know it completely. But be warned: there will always be surprise sooner or later! We question ourselves, we search for answers … and sometimes we find none… So we stay humble.
GREEN ELECTRICITY
A small detail, but a very important one: when making cheese, the temperature needs to be checked constantly. That doesn’t mean that if you don’t check it, you won’t end up with something edible. Anyway, you need to master your environment and that usually means using temperature/humidity-controlled aging caves, cold rooms, refrigerators, display cases, … So you need energy to heat the milk (including for pasteurizing yogurt) and energy to cool everything down.
To reduce our environmental footprint, we chose to source our energy from an eco-friendly electricity supplier. Enercoop is a cooperative that offers green and locally sourced electricity. A truly activist company!
Being a dairy that’s committed to promoting better consumption habits means we pay more for our electricity. But at least I know where it comes from – and I’m really proud of that!
ETHICAL BANK
Why are we talking about banking here?
Because they run the world!
I don’t like to talk about money, so let me clear the air and tell you that I keep my treasure in a French cooperative bank with strong values – transparency and traceability. Crédit Coopératif stands for a sustainable, solidarity-based economy. This bank chooses to invest in ethical and local projects and refuses to finance sectors that go against their values (and that we share).
So, naturally, I’m giving a shoutout to @creditcoopératif, even though they don’t do me any favors – no free credit card, no customer perks, no overdraft fee waivers, … But thanks to them, I’m contributing to a solidarity-based economy. And that makes me really happy!
I invite you to think about it, so that one day, you will switch banks and be part of a fairer economy.
METICULOUS SOURCING
In order to offer unique products that embody strong social values, it is crucial to choose your suppliers carefully.
At our dairy, we mostly offer our own creations. But you will also find quality wines, honey, kid goat terrines, and more…
It is not easy to have such a diverse selection, but the people we meet and the farms we visit lead to some wonderful discoveries!
We offer great moments filled with great stories. At the end of the day, we are all big kids who love a good stories.