Milk from Murray King's farm on the lower Waimea River flats is crafted into award-winning ice cream. "We had to find a way of generating better income than we would by producing whole milk powder with the major dairy companies," he said.

Milk from Murray King's farm on the lower Waimea River flats is crafted into award-winning ice cream.

"We had to find a way of generating better income than we would by producing whole milk powder with the major dairy companies," he said.

The third-generation farmer wanted his small dairy farm, which is surrounded by horticulture and lifestyle blocks, to remain economically viable, so he co-founded Appleby Farms with his neighbour, Julian Raine.

The challenge was coming up with a unique milk product that they could build a story around.

After a lot of research, including taking part in Te Hono Ideas Bootcamp, they settled on ice cream.

"Because we thought it would be relatively easy, and most importantly, we knew somebody who could make ice cream, which is Kristy Giles!"

Kristy came on board as a co-founder. She is a food technologist and ice cream maker extraordinaire.

That was seven years ago and, initially, Murray said it was a rocky road.

"These things always take longer than you hope and cost more than you expect."

"We built a factory and, you know, steel and concrete isn't the cheapest thing to build, plus all the machinery and the plant that's required to churn ice cream."

The factory in Stoke is only eight kilometres from the milking shed on Murray's farm.

"We moved onto site at the beginning of July 2017 and we were making ice cream by December of that year, so it was quite a project!" Kristy said.

She drives production and development and wants Appleby Farms to be the cream of the crop.

"So I designed how I wanted the factory to be laid out, I formulated the ice cream and now I look after the operations, which is essentially from the farm to the customer."

The business now employs about 10 full-time staff and makes more than a dozen flavours of ice cream. Vanilla and chocolate are the perennial favourites.

So what makes a great ice cream?

"Mostly it's fresh whole milk and lovely cream," Kristy said.

"The quality of your dairy material is critical and because we source our milk from just down the road, that's an excellent starting point."

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details