The BuffaloFarm Making Scottish Buffalo Mozzarella

Aim

We are raising money to become Scotland's first producer of Buffalo Mozzarella, so you can enjoy fresh Scottish Buffalo Milk products.

The Buffalo Farm is on a mission to become Scotland’s first producer of delicious, fresh Buffalo Mozzarella.

Since we established the business in 2005, we have been asked on a weekly basis if we can supply Buffalo Mozzarella – and we believe we are now in the position to make it happen.

We have worked hard over the last 14 years to build our business and we now have 3 butchers shops, a destination coffee shop and bistro and a successful event catering business, as well as supporting an ever expanding portfolio of trade clients including restaurants, hotels, farm shops and supermarkets. 

We have also established a good working relationship with LIDL supermarket who asked us to sign an agreement to give them first refusal on our Buffalo Mozzarella, should we be in a position to supply them – not a bad first customer, if we can make it happen. 

We have assembled a fantastic team for our Buffalo Mozzarella project which is being lead by Jim Ritchie, our fantastically experienced Head Cheesemaker, who has honed our plans to ensure we have a production facility which enables us to achieve our ambitious plans.

Buffalo Mozzarella has always been part of the vision, but I knew I would need a fair bit of funding to make it a reality and become the first Scottish producer of this popular and delicious cheese. 

Why are we asking for support?

Many of you may have followed our story on This Farming Life, the BBC 2 series and understand Steve’s determination to make this dream a reality, we have had set-backs along the way - but those have only made me more determined than ever!

We pursued traditional investors and we were unfortunately let down back in 2017, but the silver lining to that cloud was that we were awarded a substantial grant through the Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation Scheme to fund 40% of the cost of building the mozzarella factory, and we are seeking investment of £1.5m to fund the remainder of this exciting project. 

But... time is not on our side! The grant must be claimed by the end of the financial year. 

We are going to use the money we raise to contribute towards the build a Mozzarella manufacturing facility, together with slurry store and milking parlour. Creating a first within Scotland, a tourist and education destination and ultimately more secure jobs within our local area.

Where are we now? 

We have been running our own fundraising campaign where we have worked with our customers offering a rewards based membership scheme, through that we have raised over £700,000.00 

We are in a position where we are able to go ahead with the first phase of the project, a very exciting time ! but we still have a gap to fill and whilst we will be working with our bank - the more we can raise, the easier it becomes to deal with the banks, demonstrating the commitment and value of our customer base. 

Why Crowdfunder? 

We have been overwhelmed by the support that has been shown to us, not only through the membership scheme but, by all those people who have got in touch to say they wished they could donate £10 or £20… or a little bit more ! to help us on the way to making the mozzarella dream a reality ! 

We will be eternally grateful to every single person who contributes, we have always wanted to be able to give something back to those that have helped us, and we hope that you enjoy our rewards as our way of saying thank you.  

The Rewards

Without our founder members and this crowdfunding scheme, we would not be able to progress this project.  We cannot put into words how grateful we are to every single person that has contributed so far.

We wanted to reach as many people as we could, we have fans from all over the UK, Highlands, Islands, Ireland, and even emails of support from America and Australia. 

We hope that some of our thank you rewards can reach those further afield, or you may even choose to make the journey to our beautiful part of Scotland, to join us on a tour or better yet our launch party. 

We have a bit of a reputation of being able to throw a good shindig… and our launch party, Buff in the Barn 2020 is destined to be one to remember.  A line up of comedy, live music and dancing.  A BBQ banquet like no other, you will be fed like royalty.  A bar stocked with local beers, gin, cocktails and more! Dependent on your level of donation, you will be invited as our VIP guest with meal tickets included. 

Support from you at any level will help us bridge the gap and make our dream a reality, and we can’t think of a better way of doing it than with our customers. 

You can help by contributing to this Crowdfunder, sharing our story, or buying our products from our website. 

Help us make Scottish Buffalo Mozzarella a reality. 

Thank you    

This project successfully funded on 22nd November 2019