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Have you seen the recent viral video from OFF GRID with DOUG & STACY? If not, here it is:
It’s a common misconception since we have a good amount in common. Same last name, same Amish community, and very similar farming practices. We both offer natural nutrient-dense foods like A2/A2 dairy, 100% grass-fed beef, corn & soy free eggs, fermented veggies, einkorn baked goods, and so on.
But, we are two completely separate operations. Amos Miller is the owner of Miller’s Organic Farm. Aaron Miller is the owner of Miller’s Bio Farm. Different locations, different vendors, different delivery options, etc.
A big difference between us is that Miller’s Organic Farm is a private membership association. That means you need to pay to become a member and place an order. Miller’s Bio Farm is open to the public, no membership required.
You’ve surely heard the term “your body is your temple”. That comes from the Bible, specifically 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
This idea isn’t exclusive to Christianity and is found in other religious texts (Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc) with specific emphasis in three areas: dietary cleanliness, exercise, and ablutions. Each religion has differing guidelines, but they are all founded in the same guiding principle.
Especially in the United States, which was founded on religious freedom, shouldn’t we have the right to hold personal beliefs, whether organized or not, separate from the government? If that’s the case, we should have the right to be informed and choose what we put into our body.
Sadly, this is not our reality.
Miller’s Organic Farm is in trouble because his meat wasn’t being slaughtered and butchered at a USDA certified facility, which is illegal. Yet to my knowledge, no one has ever become sick from his meat.
If meat processed in a non-USDA facility is truly dangerous and Amos Miller serves thousands of customers, then surely someone would have gotten sick, right? It makes me wonder if the government’s rules and reaction are fair and appropriate.
--> Let’s take our milk bottling.
Our farm used to bottle milk by hand. However, when the farm got certified for raw milk production, it was required to purchase a milk bottling machine and build a milk bottling room. This cost the farm at least $20,000.
The reasoning behind this is, of course, safety. Government agencies prefer robots over human hands, and I guess that’s because robots theoretically don’t carry potentially harmful microorganisms. But robots do carry potentially harmful chemicals. So, in my mind, it’s a moot point.
--> Or how about our yogurt packaging?
We can only offer our pasteurized yogurts in plastic, because in order to put them in glass the creamery would need to purchase an expensive attachment so a robot can screw on the lids.
--> Why can’t we use the word “organic” to describe our food?
Well, that’s because we’re not certified by the government. This definitely puts the farm at a marketing disadvantage. It would be so much easier to say “it’s organic”. Instead, we provide tons of info explaining exactly how we do what we do.
--> We didn't want to use citric and lactic acid to wash meat.
Washing meat means that, before butchering, large carcasses are sprayed with an antiseptic spray and whole chickens are put in an antiseptic ice bath.
Our previous USDA processors were only approved to wash meat with citric and lactic acids. Sure, the products they were using were "certified for organic", but we really wanted to avoid anything artificial and derived from corn and soy.
Luckily, a local farmer became an owner of a small local meat processor. They were able to get a new plan approved by the USDA that includes washing meat with organic apple cider vinegar. It was expensive and time consuming, and we are so thankful for their efforts. Huge shout out to The Family Cow!
--> Did you know we can't sell chicken heads anymore?
Yup, this month the USDA all of the sudden said that we can't.
--> Or what about the RB51 situation our farm faced in 2019?
A farm customer got sick with the RB51 strain of brucellosis, which is a strain specific to the brucellosis vaccine. Four of our cows were unknowingly vaccinated, and one was still shedding the virus many years later. No cow had come up positive in our regular brucellosis tests.
Yes, the problem was caused by the brucellosis vaccine approved by the Animal Plant Health and Inspection Service (APHIS) and promoted by the USDA and the CDC. When this happened, did the government have the farm’s back?
Well, they definitely helped us resolve it and get into compliance. But, the farm took a major financial loss that it still hasn’t fully recovered from. There was no government assistance for that financial loss.
You can learn more about the RB51 situation here.
--> Another example is the raw milk laws in general.
It’s ironic. If you live in Pennsylvania, you would be allowed to buy raw milk for humans. But, because of the system we live in, we are not allowed to deliver milk for humans across state lines.
This is an interesting article by David Gumpert, who explores a raw milk crackdown in NJ seemingly targeted towards Indian immigrants.
I could go on and on, but you get the point here.
The consequence is that people are not able to practice their religion to the fullest capacity. If you’d like a truly natural diet, you are forced to either produce your own food (which is unattainable for most Americans) or follow the “religion” of capitalism and the government.
Why can’t there be another way? Gee, I wish there were!
Amos Miller has had many light warnings that went ignored, and that’s how he ended up in court. That’s how he ended up being shut down. Right now, Miller’s Organic Farm is not allowed to process any more meat for sale.
Side note: All of the farms connected to Miller’s Organic Farm have also been flagged and many inspected. And farms connected to those farms (like ours) are also being flagged, too.
Miller’s Bio Farm believes that it’s possible to work within the system to produce natural food. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.
It requires working really closely with government agencies and small processors to get more natural practices approved. It’s time consuming and expensive.
Then, in compliance, we have nothing to worry about and nothing to hide. From that standing, we can fight for what’s right. We can advocate for a better, most just, food future. Who knows, maybe we’ll end up in the Supreme Court one day.
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This nutritional ideology seems to have started in the 1950s and has been perpetuated ever since. The idea is that the more fat you eat, the more cholesterol you have, and the lower your heart health.
The history of the lipid hypothesis is huge. If you’d like to learn more, I highly recommend reading “The Skinny on Fats” by Sally Fallon.
Heart disease is fairly new in human history. It basically didn’t exist before the 1920s. And now, heart disease is the #1 cause of death in the United States. Wow!
So… let’s see. What food changes have happened since the early 1900s? Hydrogenated vegetable shortenings like Crisco, fake butter like margarine, oil extraction with heat and chemicals, homogenization of milk, etc.
Humans learned to modify fats in an effort to make food cheaper, more shelf stable, and more consistent. Mission accomplished. But, it seems that these technological food inventions may have had a negative impact on our overall health.
The study looked at the link between fat intake, cardiovascular health, and all-cause mortality in 4,150 older Swedish adults over a span of 16 years. It specifically measured “serum pentadecanoic acid”, a biomarker of dairy fat intake.
In addition to their own findings, the researchers also did a meta-analysis with 18 other studies from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Denmark. All were aligned.
The study found a linear relationship between dairy intake and cardiovascular health. Basically, the more dairy fat someone ate, the better their heart health.
This just makes logical sense. I mean, milk is the first food a human eats. And, humans have been consuming dairy from other animals for at least 6,000 years.
You cannot deny that dairy is delicious. There’s just something special about a cold glass of milk, a heaping amount of cream in your coffee or tea, a bowl of yogurt topped with maple syrup, butter slathered on bread or veggies… and cheese. I mean, isn’t cheese just amazing!?
Our dairy is always:
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For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s a competition where contestants need to survive alone in the most rugged wilderness for as long as possible. Whoever lasts the longest wins $1,000,000.
One of the more interesting things I observed was the contestants' deep primal urges for meat. Even the most knowledgeable foragers who harvested, stored, and ate loads of leaves, berries, and roots craved meat. Plants alone were simply not enough. They needed meat.
Here are the basic principles:
In the first few weeks, the contestants’ digestive systems are deprived of carbohydrates (with some sporadic fiber). They switch from a carb-burning metabolism to a fat-burning metabolism. And then, if they don’t eat enough (and ultimately begin to starve), they burn stored body fat.
This is why the contestants craved meat. They instinctively knew that they needed protein and fat to sustain their life.
The Carnivore Diet is nothing new. It’s been around since our prehistoric ancestors.
Meat-based diets have been promoted and researched since the mid 1800s. Well-known experts include James Salisbury (who the Salisbury steak is named after), Dr. Weston A. Price, Dr. Blake Donaldson, Dr. Robert Atkins. Dr. Paul Saladino, Dr. Ken Berry, and Dr. Shawn Baker.
After lots of tests and studies and publications and collaborations, all of the above doctors and researchers came to the same conclusions. Whether short term or long term, the Carnivore Diet has some major benefits. Here are the top three:
But, I mean, do we really need to research it to prove it? The sad answer is yes.
If you’d like to be a better listener, here’s what’s happening and what to look for after you eat carbs or fat.
When you eat carbohydrates, your body breaks them down into sugar. We can call a carb-burning metabolism a sugar-burning metabolism.
As a response to increased blood sugar, your body produces insulin. Insulin decreases your blood sugar by storing that sugar as fat. Then, your blood sugar goes down, which triggers hunger and a craving for more carbs (aka “hangry”).
Think about a cow (a herbivore) that constantly eats pasture all day. It is constantly hungry. And then I think about my kids, who can keep eating sugar and carbs to no end! They crave it soon after they eat it.
When you primarily burn fat, your blood sugar stays more balanced. This means you’ll feel satisfied longer and can easily go 3-6 hours in between meals.
Think about a lion (a carnivore), which only feeds every 3-4 days. It is not hungry as often.
If we only had access to foraged or real farm-direct foods, it would be easier to follow instincts and know exactly what we need. But, us modern Americans are surrounded by seemingly infinite and complicated food options.
Frozen waffles, squeeze tubes of blue yogurt, white bread, American cheese (which really isn’t cheese at all), cereals, burgers made of plants, etc. These are the current pantry staples that almost every grocery store in the US has.
Plus, most foods nowadays have dozens of ingredients and are fortified. Now how’s your body supposed to know what foods are innately “good” to eat?
But please don’t forget: You are in control of your body, because you control what you eat.
You have a choice every time you buy food. You have a choice at every meal.
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Despite having a kitchen stocked mostly with farm-direct food, providing lots of opportunities for exercise, making home cooked meals, providing positive encouragement, limiting screens, etc, my children don’t make the best life choices all of the time. I mean, they are kids after all.
What’s a mom to do? Well, I chose to turn to education. I started reading Fat Head Kids by Tom Naughton with my kids. It’s fascinating.
Now, one disclaimer. He does talk a LOT about being overweight or “fat”. This irks me a bit. Not only do I want to foster positive relationships with food, but I also want my kids to have a positive body image, no matter their size.
But, I kept reading. And, I now understand where the author is coming from and where he’s going. Basically, it was Tom’s weight struggles that propelled him into thinking about health and nutrition in a new way.
In case you don’t know, the Piggy Bank Theory is an idea of dieting that’s based on counting calories. The idea is that, if you eat more calories than you consume, you gain weight. If you eat less calories than you burn, you gain weight.
You can think about it like a piggy bank. You feed the piggy bank money (calories). It uses some for the building and repair fund, some for the daily energy bill, and the rest it saves for later as fat cells.
This is the basis for so many dieting programs that involve counting calories. Eat less (deposit less in your piggy bank by consuming less calories) and exercise more (increase your daily energy bill and use more calories). Then, you’ll have less to save as fat cells. Dollars in vs dollars out. If only it were that simple!
When you stop and think about it, the Piggy Bank Theory really doesn’t make sense. I mean, my husband stays a steady 142lb whether he eats a lot or a little, whether he’s training for a triathlon or being an Olympic couch potato. He’s just steady. But my body, on the other hand, does fluctuate in size. And, for both of us, our size doesn’t really indicate how “good” we feel.
How can this be!? There’s something else to it. That’s because weight gain isn’t about simple math, it’s about complicated chemistry!
We have our hardware (bones, muscles, organs, etc) and some really complicated software (metabolism, hormones, hunger, etc). It’s all run by a super computer (our brain and the connecting nervous system). And, then there’s the fuel (inputs of food, water, chemicals, etc).
I mean, there are so many cool apps that our body runs - Get Taller! Get Hungry! Starvation Emergency! Get Fatter! This Tastes Good! Build Bigger Muscles!
Let’s take the “Get Hungry!” app as a quick and simplified example. When your spaceship body doesn’t have enough fuel, it runs this program. If you listen to your body’s code, you should eat more soon.
But, if you don’t eat, other programs will trigger to help your spaceship not break down, to help you survive:
Keep in mind that each body may run different versions of these programs. This is because each body is a slightly different spaceship model.
So, if you don’t eat when you’re hungry, your body’s metabolism may have been slowed down. Sure, you might lose weight. But then, when you eat, your metabolism may still be programmed to be slow and store fat more easily. You’ll likely gain all the weight back that you lost… and maybe even more.
Primal urges and the carnivore diet turns off the carb-burning program and turns on the fat-burning program. The fat-burning program turns off the Get Hungry! program for longer periods of time and turns on the ammonia-clearing program resulting in clearer thinking.
When you eat bioengineered corn and soy or conventional milk with A1 protein, the foreign protein invaders might trigger the Allergic Reaction! program. Your body might even reprogram itself to run the Allergic Reaction! program every time you give it corn, soy, or dairy inputs.
As you get older, your body slows down the Make Lactose! program. But, the microorganisms in raw milk can speed up the Make Lactose! program. This is why some people who are lactose-intolerant can handle raw milk but not pasteurized.
The book Pottinger’s Cats: A Study in Nutrition describes this well through raw vs. cooked food experiments with generations of cats. The idea is that, if your body degrades in health over your lifetime, then your children will start their life with a lower baseline health. And, it can go the other way around, too. So, the better health you can attain before having kids, the better chance your kids have of even better health. Health is generational.
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A customer recently shared the Milk with Dignity program with us. Although the farm won’t get this certification (we only get certified for what’s required), it did make me think.
Migrant and underpaid workers, unsafe or unsanitary working conditions, lack of breaks or housing, etc. are all sadly commonplace with conventional supermarket food (including certified organic). It’s a big reason that food can be as cheap as it is.
I spend a lot of time educating customers about what a wonderful life our animals live and how healthy the soil is and how what we do is sustainable and good for the environment and why eating farm direct food can nourish your health. But, what about the humans that work on the farm?
All employees get lunch and work breaks, are paid fairly, and get bonuses for meeting their goals. It’s a safe and super clean place to work. If they don’t have transportation, the farm will provide it. And, of course, there’s plenty of time for socializing and having fun.
In addition to the most exciting day of the year - Farm Day - we also have annual staff events.
This year, we all went to Crystal Cave for a day in July for general employee fun and bonding. The cave was cool, but the wiffle ball games were epic. We also have a Christmas party in December with a white elephant gift exchange. And, of course, all of our events have amazing homemade farm food :)
There are a gaggle of Amish girls (teenagers) who work part-time on the farm. They help with things like making raw pet dairy, stamping the boxes with our logo, packing orders, and cleaning.
There are also a few Amish boys (teenagers) who work part-time on the farm. They help with farm tasks like moving the cows or making hay. And they help with fulfillment tasks like moving inventory, bottling milk, and receiving or sending shipments.
The first year of high school, the Amish go to school one half day per week. The rest of their high school time, they’re not sitting at a desk, they are working and learning hands on.
The idea is that they’re getting real world experience. They are able to hold different types of jobs and figure out what work they’d like to do as an adult. It’s experiential education.
Side note: The Amish have fought with the US government over this, and the current education model is the result of a compromise between both parties.
Although we still call him “Farmer Aaron”, Aaron doesn’t really do much farming anymore. He manages the business. He makes sure everything is running smoothly and that we’re upholding our standards. He lends a hand wherever and whenever it’s needed.
Daniel and his wife Rebecca and their 4 children live on the main farm, in one half of Aaron’s house. He tends to our 50 cows and does the milkings. He also tends to the pastured and the turkeys and the chickens and whatever else the farm’s growing.
Aaron is the oldest of 11 children, and his brother David runs our second dairy farm. He has a herd of 45 cows in Bird-in-Hand, on the farm where Aaron grew up.
If either of our farm managers need help, they get it! Aaron will take over farm tasks for Daniel. And, David lives down the road from his parents and can call on his brothers for help when he needs it. They’ll just run down the road.
Cameron (who’s English) manages the freezer and meat inventory. Kevin (also English) manages the packing team and orders the dairy. Lena (who’s Amish) manages the paperwork, non-meat inventory, and so much more. Rich and Justin (a husband and son team who are both English) are drivers and deliver our Farm Driver Home Delivery orders.
Sara and I (both English) work remotely. We do the email customer service, manage the website and social media, write the newsletters, and basically take care of the farm’s online presence.
Miller’s Bio Farm has a pretty good thing going. And as we grow, so does our team. It’s such an exciting place to work!
It was wonderful, although not surprising, to get overwhelmingly positive results :)
I’d love to hear from you. Comment at the very bottom of this post (no account required - start typing for the guest option to appear) or contact us. I'll make sure everyone's messages are relayed to the farm team.
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Here are some of the responses:
I am grateful to have so many opportunities to learn new things and be paid for that experience! -Lena
I appreciate the experience of getting to know all the amazing girls @ Miller's Bio. -Linda
Miller's has been such an amazing company to work for. No drama and a smooth-flowing team-oriented workplace makes every day enjoyable and one to remember. Over the past year I have learned so much about this industry and can't wait to continue learning! -Cameron
My experience has been amazing and I have learned to try to communicate clearly with other people. -Barbie Lapp
I am very thankful for my experience working for Miller's Bio Farm. I have not only learned ways to improve my own health but I have also learned skills I can take with me for the rest of my life. It is a special place! -Sara
It’s estimated that about 30% of the food you see when you walk into a grocery store is thrown away. That’s right. They just toss it in the dumpster when it’s about to expire or doesn’t look perfect. If you combine all of the retail stores in the US, it’s about 16 billion pounds of food waste per year.
Farmers do it, too. About 30-40% of food that farmers produce is never consumed. There might be a crop that turned out to be low quality. And there’s market price and consumer demand fluctuation, too.
And then there’s food waste at the manufacturer level. Human error alone accounts for more than 10% of food waste. And then there’s the waste of developing new products and running a manufacturing line several times to make it allergen-free. [1]
I mean, wow, that’s a lot of wasted food, especially considering that 10.2% of US households were food insecure at some time during 2021. That’s 13.5 million American households that didn’t always have enough to eat. [2]
If we recovered just half of the 16 billion pounds of food that’s wasted in grocery stores (not even counting farmers and manufacturers) by the 13.5 million households that are food insecure, we’d have 593 pounds of extra food per household per year. I wonder how many households would be food secure if that were the case…?
When raw cream for cats & dogs is made, we have leftover skim milk. And, on occasion, we may have a batch of raw fermented pet dairy that doesn’t turn out right. All of that goes into the manure pit and is eventually put back onto the fields.
Using raw dairy as fertilizer is part of what makes our farm regenerative. The enzymes and bacteria in the milk are a trigger for enhanced microbial activity in the soil. The many nutrients in milk also promote plant growth. It makes our pasture more productive and nutritious. In turn, it makes our dairy products even more nutrient dense. [3]
When pasteurized milk goes bad, it goes bad in very bad, very dangerous ways. Farmer Aaron doesn’t want this on his fields. But, he also didn’t want to throw away milk that’s still good, but not for long enough to sell to our customers.
We partnered with Blessings of Hope, a not-for-profit organization in Leola, PA. Their goal is simple: “Hope, food, and the love of Jesus are shared with those in need.”
We donate any pasteurized milk (and other products that are about to expire) to Blessings of Hope, and they distribute it to those in need. Farmer Aaron says that it’s a very low percentage of our food inventory, well under 1%. But, we’re happy to give any extra that we have.
Blessings of Hope partners with churches, ministries, and shelters to sell large boxes of food for $9.95 (it would cost $100+ to purchase the same food in a store). This small fee pays for the cost to pack and deliver the food. The amount of food they give out is equivalent to 65,000 meals per day!
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I imagine putting some pork chops in the sink and scrubbing them with a sponge and soapy water. Or maybe tossing some T-bone steaks in the washing machine. Or vacuuming the roasts. Or mopping the hams. Just kidding. Nope, it’s none of those.
The reason the USDA requires this is to prevent the spread of potentially dangerous pathogens like e.Coli or salmonella.
Every meat processor needs to have a USDA-approved HAACP plan that includes every detail of their process, including which antimicrobial agents they’ll use to wash the meat. Changing this plan is time consuming and therefore costly.
*Side Note: Personally, I think this policy is a little extra when dealing with pasture raised animals in a state of natural health. However, the rules aren’t made for small farms like ours. They’re made for big ag, where animals are often raised indoors and require lots of chemical inputs to control microorganisms and create a safe environment.
A grand majority of the approved products include highly processed, chemical ingredients like acetic acid, peroxyacetic acid, hydrogen peroxide, sulfuric acid, Sodium hypochlorite (AKA chlorine), salmonella bacteriophage, sodium benzoate, and dextrose.
If you research more, you’ll find that there are potentially negative health consequences from exposure to these substances. Just take chlorine for example. Even the CDC says that, if chlorine is ingested, you should seek medical attention or call 911 immediately. There is no known antidote for chlorine exposure.
OK OK OK, that was fairly extreme. Let’s take a step back and put it into perspective.
It’s not like when you eat meat washed in chlorine, you’re downing a cup of chlorine bleach. It’s in trace amounts.
But, what if everything you ate and put on your body and breathed in had trace amounts of poisonous chemicals? Well, it would not be trace amounts anymore. It would build up and likely cause chronic disease in the future.
Perhaps this is one reason why Americans are overall unhealthy…?
And then, beyond our own health, there’s the health of the environment. If we’re using these chemicals when processing meat, they’ll eventually make their way into the water supply and affect the microbiology, plants, and animals in the surrounding areas.
We are happy to announce that all of our grass-fed beef and corn & soy-free pork are now washed in organic apple cider vinegar. All of our pastured soy-free and corn-free chicken is air chilled, meaning it's washed in nothing at all! And, the turkey is washed in water and only water.
Miller’s Bio Farm aims to produce ethically produced, all natural products to the best of our ability. We understand that we live within a system bigger than just our farm. It can be challenging to find the right partners. We are thankful and lucky that we have such amazing natural farmers and processors in our area that are pushing the movement forward to support your health.
Many people rinse chicken or other meats in their sink. Washing meat in water can remove slime or particles on the surface, but it does not kill bacteria. In fact, it’s likely that you’ll increase bacteria in your kitchen due to cross-contamination and splashing onto your counter or floors or other surfaces.
Salt brining meat is another way of washing meat at home. It’s awesome for adding flavor and allowing the meat to retain more flavor. But, again, it doesn’t kill bacteria.
This is a complex issue with many things to consider - food safety, human health, animal well being, the environment, profitability, a growing population and more mouths to feed, and so on. What’s written here is simply my perspective, one in a huge ocean of perspectives.
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We learn from every customer question. And, when the same question pops up again and again, we can draw some interesting conclusions and try to provide that information proactively. There is so much truth in the saying, “No question is a bad question.” So, please, keep the questions coming!
OK, now that we’re clear that ALL questions are awesome, let’s move onward…
It’s been this way for years. I mean, that’s why we made our amazing Shelf Life Guide for Farm Fresh Food and share it often. And, that’s why we choose to include “best by” or “sell by” dates on our perishable products.
I mean, let’s say you were a homesteader and had your own cow. You’d learn pretty quickly how long the milk lasts and how to make it last longer. You’d learn how much milk your cow produces every day (FYI this varies, but it’s usually between 6-8 gallons per day). You wouldn’t want to waste a drop and would start making dairy products.
You’d learn how much milk it takes to make 1 pound of butter (FYI it’s 2.5 gallons). You’d learn how much milk it takes to make 1 quart of yogurt (FYI it’s 6 cups). You’d learn how much milk it takes to make 1 pound of cheese (FYI it’s 1.2 gallons).
And, you’d learn the difference in smell of fresh milk, week-old milk, and soured or clabbered milk that you’d probably make into clabber cheese (here’s a short story about my clabber disaster from years ago).
In addition to your cow, you might produce meat, eggs, produce, and grain. You’d learn how to dry it, can it, ferment it, freeze it, and store it.
After a while, you’d just know how long each food lasts and if it’s gone bad. And, if you raised your kids this way, it would be embedded in them. They’d know it in their gut.
Farmers and ranchers are less than 2% of the American population (compared to 90% at our nation’s founding) [1]. Only 25% of Americans have a garden that produces food [2].
One in five Americans don’t know that hamburgers are made from beef. Half of kids don’t know that pickles are cucumbers or that lettuce is a plant. Three in ten kids don’t know cheese is made from milk [3]. 54% of Americans have never experienced the joy of seeing a cow in real life [4].
If people in general don’t know where their food comes from, then how can they innately know how long something lasts or when it’s gone bad? And, even if you understand the process of how foods are made, how do you know exactly how that farm or business does it?
I think this is a big reason why people are obsessed with food labels, expiration dates, trendy diets, certifications, and government regulations. It makes them feel safe in a constantly changing world.
Leave the labels behind and choose transparency instead. Leave behind blind trust and get informed.
And, we do our best to relay that information to you on our website, in our emails, and on social media. And, of course, if you ever have a question, just ask! Remember, ALL questions are awesome, and we love answering them!
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Milk foam can bring a milk-based drink to a new gourmet level… and it’s not just for cafes. Whether you’re making a cappuccino, hot chocolate, golden milk, your favorite tea latte, a fancy protein shake, or a “puppuccino” for your pets, you can froth milk at home!
Both are foamed milk, and both add air and change the milk’s texture. But, they are distinctly different on the tongue. If you want to master the perfect milk-based drink at home, you’ll need to know the difference.
Steamed milk is created using a wand that forces powerful water vapor into the milk. The steam breaks down the fat in the milk and creates tiny air bubbles. Steamed milk is sometimes referred to as “microfoam”. People often describe it as smooth and velvety and sweet.
Steamed milk is used for lattes and macchiatos.
Frothed milk is created by incorporating air into milk to create large voluminous bubbles. No steam or heat is needed. Compared to steamed milk, frothed milk has a much lighter feel and can be described as “drier”. It also holds its shape better.
The most classic use for frothed milk is the cappuccino, which is one-third espresso, one-third steamed milk, and one-third frothed milk.
Now that we understand the difference, let’s get to the science behind it!
Lactose (milk sugar) is less soluble at room temperature. That’s why cold milk is relatively unsweet. Lactose breaks down when heated. So, steamed milk will be sweeter than frothed milk. This is something to keep in mind when creating your delicious homemade milk mocktails.
When frothing or steaming, the proteins unravel (or denature) and create spheres around the air. This is what makes the bubbles.
The higher the fat content of the milk, the creamier the milk foam. Each type of milk has a different fat content. For most store bought dairy, here’s a breakdown:
All of Miller’s cow milk is full fat and non-homogenized. And, our herd of 80% Jersey cows and 20% Jersey crosses produce the fattiest milk around, just shy of 5%.
This is because fats present themselves as globules, spheres surrounded by a membrane. When intact at colder temperatures, these globules can puncture bubbles. Ever have the moment of “Where’d the foam go?” But, when heated, the globules break down. The liquified fat can surround air pockets just like denatured proteins, which stabilizes the foam.
Milks with less fat (like skim milk) will create more stable and voluminous frothed foams at temperatures below 113F. But milks with more fat (like whole milk) will create more stable and voluminous steamed foams at temperatures above 113F.
Raw milk has living enzymes and bacteria that break down lactose, proteins, and fats. The longer it sits (even in the fridge), the more it ferments. That means that fresh raw milk will likely make better milk foam than soured raw milk.
Pasteurized milk, on the other hand, is dead. It will produce more consistent milk foam every time. But, even with pasteurized milk, the fresher the milk, the better the foam.
Enrichment is the act of improving or enhancing the value of an experience. For pets, this could mean exploring the outdoors or grooming practices, but enrichment can also be done with food.
Giving your pet a variety of foods that tantalize their taste buds and tickle their tongues with texture add value to their life. Milk foam for pets? Yes, please! You can find a recipe for a “puppaccino” and a “hot dogolate” here.
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More than half of households worldwide have pets. Why is that? Well, it enriches our human lives. Pets provide companionship, can reduce stress and relieve depression, can give us more opportunities for exercise and socialization… and of course pets can provide us lots of fun!
That’s what pets do for us, but what about what we do for our pets? How can we make their lives better?
Some pets need an extra mental challenge to liven their day and curb inappropriate behavior. For some pets, enrichment helps ease anxiety. Some pets have extra energy and added enrichment helps take the edge off. For all pets, enrichment provides something enjoyable to do.
Much like humans, cats and dogs enjoy varied activities and being mentally engaged and physically satiated.
Pet enrichment can happen indoors by playing games, petting favorite spots, or gifting new toys. Outdoors, pet enrichment might involve taking a walk in a new area, playing catch, or going on a hike. But, most important to Miller’s Bio Farm, pet enrichment can also happen through food.
If you’re currently feeding the same old kibble or wet food every day, here are a few ideas to add some exciting real food to your pets’ diet and lives with raw pet dairy:
Raw pet dairy can provide many health benefits for your animals. It provides added moisture, vitamins and minerals, probiotics, and more. You can read more about how fermented raw dairy can boost your pet’s health here.
*All this being said, please know that raw dairy is NOT a complete food for cats and dogs. In other words, you can’t feed your pets only dairy. They need bones, meat, organs, etc for complete nutrition.
For example, generic meatmeal can be legally made from the scraps scraped from a butcher’s floor or roadkill, dead, diseased or dying farm animals — even euthanized cats and dogs. The same goes for raw pet dairy could come from cows with mastitis, have added coloring or ingredients, and so on. Yuck!
We are proud to have a variety of clean and safe raw foods for your cats and dogs. We go above and beyond and follow the highest standards. This is true for our beef, chicken, and turkey pet products as well as our raw pet dairy. You can read more about how we provide your pets the highest quality pet dairy here.
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I mean, I don’t think you can buy A2/A2 einkorn or A2/A2 spelt or A2/A2 gluten-free pie crusts in any store. If you want it, you have to make it. And, in my opinion, it’s worth the extra time and effort.
Last year around this time, I wrote about why butter is the most important cookie ingredient, with some great tips to make the cookie of your dreams. Just like with cookies, butter is the most important pie crust ingredient, too!
Butter is what gives pie crusts their flavor, its tender texture, those butterfly flaky layers, and that golden color.
Since fat holds most of the flavor, butter from 100% grass fed cows will create the most delectable pie crusts. Compared to conventional butter, grass fed butter will lend a deeper earthy or nutty flavor to your pie.
Then there’s the butterfat, and when it comes to pies, the more butterfat the better. Our butter is more of a European style butter with 82-86% butterfat, which is more than the standard 80% butterfat in conventional American butter. More butterfat means less water, which means better structure in your crust.
And then, of course, there’s digestibility. There definitely needs to be more research on this topic, but from my understanding, A2/A2 dairy is better tolerated and digested by most people.
Different companies use different amounts of salt in salted butter. So, for absolute control over flavor, it’s best to begin with unsalted butter.
Keep the butter in the fridge until the moment you’re ready to make your crust. Use ice water, not room temperature water, to keep the butter cold in the mixing process. You want the chunks of butter to stay together, not melt into the flour. That means it needs to stay cold.
If your kitchen is hot and the butter is warming up, move the whole pie crust operation to the fridge for 30 minutes to harden it back up. Then, continue on.
Butter chunks in your crust keep the bits of flour separate. They melt away in the oven and create the flakiness of the crust.
Cross and pull the forks through the butter, flour, and water to mix and create the dough. It’s a little bit of a workout and takes about 5 minutes.
Compared to ceramic or metal pie dishes, glass pie dishes more evenly disperse the heat. This helps the crust bake more evenly all around, giving you that perfect golden crust on the sides and bottom.
Pre baking a pie crust is necessary with wet pies like custard pies or fresh fruit pies, because soggy pie crusts are sad.
When you pre bake a pie crust, always use pie weights. This makes sure the shape of the crust remains and you don’t get puffy bubbles coming up from the bottom and sides that shrink when the crust cools. Then, you end up with a misshapen pie.
You can purchase fancy ceramic weights designed specifically for pie making. Or, simply use uncooked beans or rice. Line the unbaked crust with parchment paper and fill to the top with weights before baking.
Keep the crust edge covered with a silicone or metal pie crust shield. Or, you can use aluminum foil. The goal here is to prevent the crust edges from over-browning or burning. You want that even golden crust all the way around.
Once you perfect making homemade pie crust, you can make a lot ahead of time. This definitely reduces stress around the holidays or big celebrations.
Roll your crust and put wax paper on top. Gently fold it into a neat little square or roll it. Put in an airtight bag and then into the freezer.
When you’re ready to make a pie, put the crust in the fridge to defrost a day beforehand.
Too little ice water makes an unworkable dough. If you’re already at the rolling stage and you’ve used too little ice water, sadly it’s too late. You’ll need to start from scratch.
Make sure to use a high quality butter with a high butterfat content (80%+), and make sure that those big butter chunks are visible; don’t over mix!
If you are intolerant to gluten, then conventional flour is likely your nemesis. But, that doesn’t mean pie needs to be your nemesis, too.
Many who are gluten intolerant can handle einkorn flour well. Einkorn contains a different type of gluten than conventional wheat. You can learn more about einkorn here. And there are others that do well with spelt flour. If you are truly allergic to gluten, then an all-purpose gluten-free flour is the way to go.
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Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food that meets all dietary needs.
As a crude example, if I were to stockpile enough cheese to feed my family for a year, then I would have food security for a year.
Food resiliency builds on that. It is having food security plus the ability to prepare for, withstand, and recover from a crisis or disruption.
So, my pile of cheese would last a year. But, what happens after my family eats all of that cheese or if there was a disaster that destroyed all of the cheese? With food resiliency, I would need to have a plan to constantly replenish that cheese stockpile no matter what the world throws at me.
It’s important to note that nothing we’re doing is that “new”. In fact, it’s (mostly) radically traditional. We are taking the best farming practices and food preparation techniques from the past and bringing it into the modern day.
Here are 6 big things we are doing:
This might be the most important one on the list. Modern research shows that, if conventional farming continues and topsoil continues to degrade, we may have just 60 harvests left.
In order to keep regrowing crops, farmers need to fertilize their fields. Whether they use petroleum-based or more natural fertilizers, making and getting fertilizer to a farm uses a LOT of energy. It’s simply not a sustainable farming practice. And, even if a farm needs fertilizer to grow the next round of crops every year, how much topsoil are they losing in the process? You need topsoil to put fertilizer on.
Enter regenerative farming. With animal-based regenerative farming, we naturally replenish and build the topsoil every year with minimal external inputs, with the goal of making the land better and more productive than the year before.
99% of our products are grown or produced by our farm and other local Amish farms and processors that hold the same standards. I mean, that’s pretty incredible. Lancaster County is becoming a natural food mecca.
So, if one of our farmer’s properties is destroyed by a flood or one of our processors needs to close or who knows what else, we have a network that we can rely on to fill in the gaps.
We don’t want to vertically integrate and produce everything ourselves. We believe that resiliency requires a community, different businesses working together and supporting each other.
I’ve heard people say that, when they eat nutrient-dense farm-direct foods, they feel full more quickly and eat less. Why is this?
Let’s say you eat a bag of conventional potato chips with basically no nutritional value. You will still feel hungry, because your body is telling you that it doesn’t have what it needs. It’s not getting the right combination of the basic building blocks of life from those potato chips. You can eat all the extra potato chips you want, but you’ll still feel hungry. This is called “hidden hunger”.
You can say the same thing when you compare our nutrient-dense milk, eggs, meats, produce, etc to their conventional counterparts. The calories from properly produced foods have more value.
Miller’s Bio Farm aims to produce the most nutrient-dense foods possible. No empty calories here. When you eat our foods, your body is satisfied more quickly, and you end up consuming less. That means that there’s more food to go around.
When there’s a crisis, the food supply is almost always affected. Let’s take the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many grocery store shelves were empty and shopping was difficult. People transitioned to online shopping, and our farm was… well… overwhelmed.
How did we produce and pack double what we were used to overnight? Farmer Aaron pulled in his community. He had former staff and others in his Amish community come to lend a hand. It was beautiful (and stressful), but the farm endured and made it through.
Right now, it's the Amish wedding season. We have staff taking off basically every Tuesday and Thursday. Do we cancel deliveries and pickups? No way. We rearrange our schedules and work hard.
Did you know that our farm is off the grid? That’s right. There’s no power lines connected to our facility. Our internet runs on hot spots. We would have no idea if there’s a power outage.
But, everything is not hunky dory. Our facility (the milking machines, cooler, freezer, etc) run off of diesel generators. We are reliant on oil. This is something that I would love the farm to work on. Wouldn’t it be neat if one day we could announce that our facility was 100% solar or wind powered!?
You make all of the above possible. Without you purchasing our food, whether it’s regularly or every once in a while, we wouldn’t be able to continue on. You vote with your fork every time you purchase food. Thank you for your support and for being part of this food revolution with us!
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PS: Our way is not the only way. Just like with any problem, there are many different ways of working towards better food resiliency. Thank you to everyone who is thinking about this and taking steps towards a better food future, wherever you are on your food journey.
You may have heard this term in online debates recently, as people argue over which foods are “better” or “worse” for our bodies. Or maybe you feel like you’re eating all the right things - but not getting the nutrients you need. Is “bioavailability” the answer to how we select our food? And does it work the same way for everyone?
Bioavailability refers to the proportion of nutrients our bodies can absorb when we eat food. In other words, bioavailability determines how efficiently we digest and utilize food. But bioavailability isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. It depends on many factors: what we eat, our health status, and food preparation.
The structure of food is one of the biggest factors in bioavailability. For example, because plants have rigid cell walls, it’s harder for our bodies to absorb their nutrients - making them less bioavailable.
Plants also contain phytates (an element in the outer layer) and polyphenols (a compound within plants). These can bind with micronutrients like zinc, mineral, and iron in our digestive tract, preventing our bodies from actually absorbing the nutrients.
Preparation is key. For food like grains and legumes, soaking reduces phytates and polyphenols to prevent binding. And for other vegetables, like green leafy plants and alliums, chopping, mincing, and cooking helps break down cell tissues, while still maintaining nutrients.
Here at Miller’s, we advocate eating a balance of animal products and vegetables. Animal proteins contain elements, like heme iron, that are easier for our body to break down, making digestion more efficient overall.
There are two main groups of vitamins that are important for bioavailability: water-soluble vitamins, like B vitamins and vitamin C, and fat-soluble vitamins, like A, D, E, and K. Both have different benefits and reactions in our bodies.
Water-soluble vitamins are absorbed in our tissues for immediate use - and then passed out of our body when we don’t need them. (Hence the name: they’re dissolved in water!) So, they provide a quick benefit, but they can also be easily depleted, leading to chronic health issues if we don’t regularly replenish them. A diet that sources quality meat and dairy provides essential B vitamins, and fresh fruit, tomatoes, and peppers are excellent sources for Vitamin C.
On the other hand, fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed by fat globules in our body and distributed through our bloodstream. Therefore, we absorb them more slowly - and we also store excess vitamins in our liver and fatty tissues for future use. However, fat-soluble vitamins must be eaten with fat in order to be absorbed! The best sources of fat-soluble vitamins include dairy and meat (especially liver and butter!), as well as sweet potatoes, carrots, and green leafy vegetables.
As we age, the gastric acid in our stomach declines, limiting our ability to absorb nutrients. And because digestion primarily happens in the small intestine, chronic health issues, especially gut problems, can prevent the proper absorption of nutrients.
Here’s what we recommend.
There’s a lot to know about bioavailability - but we hope that this makes you feel more confident about what you’re eating and how your body is using it. Dig into the research and let us know what else you find. We always love to learn more!
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Miller’s Bio Farm has teamed up with Nello’s Specialty Meats to bring you some amazing all natural salami!
Nello’s family emigrated from Sicily in the 1960’s in search of a better life. Thirty years ago, Nello found his mentor, Guenther “Hank” Schineller, a German born sausage maker. It took persistence to get Hank to mentor him, but ultimately, Hank would show him the art of the wurst. Nello has also worked with world class charcuterie crafters Luigi Pintore and Pietro Castoldi from Pagani Fertelli to help him perfect his charcuterie recipes and making process.
The groundwork of Nello’s recipes and work is built on centuries of knowledge from the old-world. Moreover, from the help of those at Pagani Fertelli, Nello is able to source high quality ingredients straight from Italy.
Like the Tuscan Finocchiona salame, which contains wild fennel seeds straight from the Tuscan hills of Italy. The wild fennel pulls menthol from the soil giving it a unique and special taste you cant find in store.
Coming from Italy, the ingredients are held to EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) standards, which are much higher than its American counterparts.
As well, Nello does not use synthetic lab-produced nitrates and nitrites in his cured meats. Instead, he uses naturally occurring nitrates that come from celery juice powder.
A common practice by charcuterie makers is hiding what spices they use to protect their recipes. The same goes for Nello. His recipes are proprietary, handcrafted, and time tested.
This comes with one down side. Transparency. Miller’s Bio Farm wholeheartedly believes in transparency and telling you everything about where your food comes from. We are making an exception, because the salame is delicious and we know the quality Nello is putting out there.
We know that some of the best herbs and spices are being used to make our salamis, but we don’t know the exact spice ingredients. But, Nello did give us a sneak peek into his spice room - look at just a small sample of the large variety he carries!
You might be wondering, “What is considered a ‘spice?’” Let's look at what the USDA’s definition is. Per USDA: “General Definition - Aromatic vegetable substances, in the whole, broken, or ground form, whose significant function in food is seasoning rather than nutrition. They are true to name and from them no portion of any volatile oil or other flavoring principle has been removed.” Think of things like cinnamon, nutmeg, basil, fennel seed, ginger, peppers, etc. These are all ingredients that the USDA allows to be hidden under “spices”.
When I first spoke to Nello, he asked a question, “When you go to a restaurant and get seasoned or spiced food, do you first taste the seasoning or the meat?” More often than not, people say the seasoning. Well, in Europe, it's the opposite. They want to taste the meat before they taste the spice or seasoning.
Nello’s salami is based on this European style. When trying the salami, the first thing you’ll notice is that the taste of the meat is at the forefront and that the spice hits the back of your palate. Truly a difference you can taste!!
Another Amazing thing about Nello’s is that he can also make all natural, salt cured cold cuts! Have you seen our new sliced smoked turkey breast? It’s our pastured corn & soy free turkey breast put in a simple Redmond salt brine and then it’s smoked.
And, we now carry air dried cured meats like our new bresaola, which features hints of juniper and cinnamon.
Check out some of the other stuff curing at Nello’s right now! There’s more to come!
At Miller’s Bio Farm, we believe in raising animals the way nature intended… and that includes pets. However, the modern conventional pet food industry doesn’t seem to agree. Let’s take a step back to understand why.
Dogs are descendants of wolves and would hunt for larger mammals like elk, deer, and rabbit. Cats are descendants of wildcats and would hunt smaller mammals like mice, rats, and voles as well as fish and birds like ducks, turkey, and small perching birds.
Dogs and cats wouldn’t make a fire and cook their prey. They would eat it raw. This is what their bodies are naturally designed to digest and what is biologically appropriate.
Some dogs are fantastic protectors. They will bark to alert an intruder or guard livestock. On our farm, we have dogs to guard the chickens and turkeys. Some dogs are great trackers and retrievers, which can be a great help if you are a hunter or sailor.
Cats are wonderful hunters. They are natural pest control. By keeping the mice population down, they can help save your animal feed and human food and maintain a more sanitary environment. We have cats on the farm for exactly this reason.
Once dogs and cats became domesticated, they continued to hunt as their primary food source but would also be fed scraps from their caretakers’ meals - whole meats, fruits, vegetables, and grains.
This trend has damaged the health of our pets. Just like with humans, with a conventional processed diet, nutrition is simply not as bioavailable. And, I mean, dogs and cats aren’t designed to digest soy protein, pea protein, potatoes, synthetic vitamins, etc. Dry food is a big concern and can lead to dehydration, urinary tract issues, and kidney disease (if your pet is not drinking enough water). This is a high concern for cats who are not naturally drawn to drink water.
Raw diets are naturally low in carbohydrates and high in moisture. The idea is for meals to mimic what a wolf or wildcat would eat in the wild. A species-appropriate meal for most healthy adult dogs and cats can be 80% muscle meat and fat (with 10-15% fat), 5% liver, 5% other offal, and 10% soft bone.
Please keep in mind that, just like with humans, no pet diet is "one size fits all". The "foundation numbers" (80% meat, 10% organ, 10% bone) can vary for each pet's individual needs. Here are some examples:
The amount you should feed will depend on your particular pet. How old are they? How much do they exercise? How fast is their metabolism? The latter two may change with the season. A good amount is usually 1.5-3% of an adult animal’s ideal body weight, fed in 2-3 meals per day.
Keep in mind that feeding rotationally (in other words, not the same thing every day or week) and supplementing may be necessary to reach optimum nutrient levels. Adding in some kelp, whole veggies, egg yolks, or raw dairy is great for adding extra nutrition, healthy fats, and probiotics.
Premade is obviously easier, but making it at home has some benefits:
Here are some things to try:
You can continue to feed raw and cooked foods together. That’s perfectly fine. The more raw food you feed, the better your pet’s nutritional needs will be met.
Or, you can continue to add more and more raw foods to their meals until you are feeding 100% raw. A slow transition to raw is best. This will avoid shocking your pet's digestive system.
And, by the way, mixing up your pets’ food with some variety is excellent pet enrichment.
By “human grade”, I don’t mean feeding your pets human food. I mean that you should feed them foods produced to the same standards as your food.
For example, the pet industry allows sick animals or animals that mysteriously died to be made into pet food. The human food industry does not allow that.
Another example is that the pet industry allows tainted raw milk with dyes and additives to be sold as pet food. The human food industry does not allow that. And, that’s why we go above and beyond to produce our A2/A2 pet dairy to the highest standards.
Keep in mind that your pet’s digestive system is different from a human’s. It’s shorter, food moves through it more quickly, and the stomach juices are much more acidic. All of these factors help neutralize potentially harmful bacteria. A healthy dog or cat with a normal immune system should have no problems.
Because nearly 100% of the nutrients are bioavailable, pets on a raw food diet typically have smaller, firmer stools. And there may be some inconsistencies when you’re transitioning to a 100% raw diet.
What do you feed your pets? Have you tried a raw food diet or will you consider it in the future? Have you figured out any tricks for making pet food at home?
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