The Happy Butter Ghee story began with a problem. My wife Kate was struggling with her thyroid health due to Hashimoto’s Disease, and I was researching ways to help it through diet. After reading that using vegetable, nut and seed oils - standard cooking oils - in high temperature cooking could be harmful to health, we tried out ghee instead.

Ghee is much more stable during high temperature cooking and unprocessed beyond gentle heating, so is a pure, natural fat. As ghee has no lactose, casein or sugars, it is thought to be non-inflammatory, so gentle on the gut. It is also packed with goodness, including vitamins A, D and K (which are all fat soluble), and conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs). I was familiar with it at a more cultural level from spending part of my childhood in rural India, running barefoot, eating masala dosas and battered chillies on the beach in Goa. I think I went to school a bit too!

We tried some shop-bought ghee but felt we could make it better ourselves, so gently cooked a batch each week at home in our Devon village, using organic butter from our local dairy. Through trial and error I found the best flavour and texture came with long, gentle cooking, allowing the milk solids to caramelise slightly. Friends who popped over started asking about the amazing smell in our kitchen and the gently bubbling cast iron pan on the hob, and tried it for themselves. It seemed that like us, until that point, few consider the fat they use in their cooking even when scrupulous about all other ingredients they use.

Getting organic status was very important to us. It was the first thing we set in motion when we decided to start our commercial venture. Organic means reliable tracebility, assurance of good animal welfare, minimal chemical use in food and on land. We pledge to only ever use organic butter as this is very much part of our story and vision.

The improvement we saw in Kate’s thyroid health coupled with the fantastic flavour of our food set us on a path we were not expecting. What began as a bit of an obsession alongside my full time job is now our family business. I still batch cook our ghee using that same slow, traditional method crafted in our kitchen at home, only now its three or four times a week in our kitchen workshop in nearby Buckfastleigh. We’ve rather outgrown the home kitchen!

Ghee is just brilliant. It has transformed our lives in many ways - like many things, simple is usually best and ghee is one of the most “whole food” fats you can use.

Kate & Rupert x

The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas has supported Happy Butter in assisting with the provision of cooking and packing equipment. This has allowed Happy Butter to expand and grow.