The precise English translation for Llanddarog, Carmarthen, Wales may be hard to pin down.
Llanddarog incorporates Llan, the Celtic word for enclosure or church settlement, and ‘Darog’ the name of a high-ranking official, perhaps Hywel Dda. County Carmarthen, Caerfryddin in Welsh, is interpreted as ‘Merlin’s Fort’ after King Arthur’s wizard or possibly ‘Sea Town Fort’.
Lyrically-beautiful when spoken in Cymraeg-accented English, its origins might still confuse. What does translate perfectly however, is the attraction of Red Dragon Dairy founders and owners’ Ellis and Hazel Morris’ for their lone granddaughter Hallie, turning three this May while living in that Welsh community.
They keep in touch via phone and face time, Ellis laughing about a recent call, interrupted when Hallie, whose enthusiasm for chatting with grandma runs to 50 seconds on a good day, hid the phone from parents Catrin and Jamie.
“I’ve been trying to lock her (Hazel) in the cupboard for 40 years and had no luck with it,” Ellis laughed. “Hallie does it no problem.”
All joking aside, Ellis and Hazel are caught between a lock and a lost face, two of the great loves of their lives separated by thousands of kilometres of Atlantic Ocean. Hallie is growing up in Wales, while the dairy business they built from the ground up through vision and work ethic is anchored at 387723 Salford Road, Salford.
“It is a dream come true as far as I’m concerned,” says Ellis, who along with Hazel, has made the difficult decision to put the property up for sale. “To be honest, if and when the day happens, I’m going to miss it.”
The family’s dairy roots reach back to Narberth, Pembrokeshire where Ellis built up a top-10 yielding herd of 70 registered Holstein cows across two decades of work. Struggling to make the transition from tenant farmer to owner/occupier however, the family investigated opportunities afield, discovering a 125-acre property for sale at their current location and emigrating in 2007.
“We came over with a handful of shillings, just enough to put a down payment on that farm,” said Morris.
In recognition of the cost of dairy quota, he ultimately made the transition to milking 450 goats and 250 sheep. Although milking twice a day and working on a ‘decent’ wholesale margin, Ellis was always aware of the mark-up in retail outlets.
“That vexed me a bit.”
Morris experienced a heart issue in 2019, which took a year to diagnose.
“They just couldn’t put their finger on it.”
Forced to adjust, the family sold a majority of the farm, retaining three acres and their residence. Not wanting to ‘throw in the towel’, Ellis investigated the possibility of a retail outlet on the property. Plans came to fruition in conjunction with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We opened the shop when the government said ‘Everybody stay home,’” said Morris, able to laugh about it at this point. With perseverance and determination they weathered that potentially fatal financial storm, not only surviving but growing.
“It’s been a blast. Something I’ve dreamed about since college.”
The Red Dragon features a range of sheep milk products including cheeses made onsite by the couple’s son Sion, part-time around his full-time job as a licensed mechanic in Salford. Their hottest seller is curds, available fresh three times a week, along with pasteurised milk, cream cheese, flavoured cheddar and a range of other cheese styles.
Their own fare is backed up by popular and unique items from the area and beyond including smoked meats from Carmichael’s and Brubacher, maple syrup, confections and beeswax candles from Thamesford. Ellis and local employee Masen LaRose share baking duties including fresh sourdough bread. Ellis also stocks a range of products for Great Britain ex-pats, haggis ahead of Robbie Burns day, meat pies, crisps (potato chips) and cockles and mussels produced three miles from Ellis’ Welsh home, delicacies popularized in the song Molly Malone.
Locals, along with those previously driving to Cambridge or London to find familiar flavours, have embraced the Red Dragon’s rural location on a paved road in the heart of Oxford County close to Woodstock, Ingersoll, Tillsonburg and the 401.
The retail outlet has also been approved for LCBO-related sales.
“It’s gone well,” said Ellis of consistent year-over-year growth, based on adjusting to market demand and being open to giving those with new products a chance. “They can come here and try and get their name out.
“We’ve had to start from nothing and got rejected by big conglomerates too.”
In conjunction with expanding retail operations, the Red Dragon Dairy has concurrently grown its back-end production capacity. Licensing for cheese production from cow and goat milk is imminent says Morris, for a facility capable of multiplying current production by a factor of 20.
“The scale is there and everything is food grade and in place.”
In a sense, it is difficult to consider leaving a business that like their sourdough bread, has been made from scratch. However, to use a saying also from Great Britain, Hallie tugs at their collective heart strings, a strong pull in that direction. While exploring their options, Ellis and Hazel are comfortable in needing the right offer to consider a move, continuing to enjoy their shared journey.
“I couldn’t have dreamt it any better,” Ellis concluded. “It’s been amazing.”