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It’s no secret. Our bestselling raw cottage cheese is freaking awesome. It’s a special recipe developed by the farmer’s wife that crafts a super creamy, small curd, spreadable soft cheese. Our cottage cheese is perfect for smearing on bread, piling on top of a bowl of fresh fruit, enjoying as a dessert with some dark chocolate hazelnut butter, or simply spooning into your mouth on its own. There are endless mouthwatering possibilities.
Last week, many members (including me) faced the ultimate disappointment. The cottage cheese that we ordered would not arrive with our order. Instead, we each received an apologetic phone call or message from the farmer and an indifferent refund email. It was equally depressing for our farm staff, who desperately tried to get multiple batches of cottage cheese to set properly with no success. The only good news is that our pigs grunted and feasted on the failed batches.
This is the reality of making truly raw milk products. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes, even if you do everything right, you fail. The life inside raw milk is astounding. It contains multiple, natural, redundant systems of bioactive components. On the one hand, this enables raw milk to reduce or eliminate populations of pathogenic bacteria. On the other hand, it can make introducing new beneficial cultures, like those for yogurt or cheese making, tricky. Last week, the natural raw milk cultures triumphed over the new cottage cheese culture.
The other option is to heat our milk before adding culture. Our culture supplier recommends heating our milk to 190 F before adding culture. This kills off some of the beneficial microbiology, making it significantly easier for the new freeze-dried culture to thrive in its new environment.
Heating the milk before fermenting improves the texture of the finished product. Here’s why. During fermentation, the bacteria consume the lactose and produce lactic acid, which then denatures and coagulates the proteins, creating a semi-solid casein mesh. However, this does not happen to all of the proteins. In a raw milk culture, the residual albumin proteins are water soluble and separate from the casein mesh, resulting in a gritty or globby texture. Heating the milk first helps break down the albumin proteins before the ferment, allowing them to become part of the casein mesh, resulting in a creamer and smoother yogurt.
Is it worth the struggle and occasional disappointment to have truly 100% raw products? Would our members mind if we heated the milk before fermenting? Or, perhaps we should offer the option between regular or raw cottage cheese and regular or raw yogurt? These are the questions that the farmer wrestles with every week, usually while milking the cows.
If you ordered cottage cheese this week, you already know that it was a success! I hope you are savoring it right now while reading this newsletter.
My 5-year-old son reports that, as his average middle-class public school, he is in the minority of kids who bring a homemade lunch. Most kids buy lunch from the cafeteria. And, unsurprisingly, my 5-year-old son has cafeteria envy (and it’s only his second week of school… ever). He said to me, “Oh, good, your packing carrots. You know, I can buy dip for those in the cafeteria.”
The cafeteria at my son’s school has pretty good meals. They’re “kids meals”. You know… whole grain chicken nuggets, classic cheese pizza, whole grain French toast sticks, nachos fun lunch. Each meal comes with a veggie, a fruit, and a low-fat milk. At face value, these meals follow dated nutritional data. More importantly, it’s processed and dead food, void of any living microbiology and concealing chemical fertilizers, preservatives, leavening agents, emulsifiers, and fillers.
I get it. Time is an absolute premium in the modern lifestyle. Outsourcing and mechanizing food preparation may seem like a winning time-saving solution. But, at what cost? In many ways, we do not know yet. But, we do know that there are links between eating processed food and weakened immune systems, neurological issues, obesity, and overall quality of life.
I believe in the health benefits of eating the old-fashioned way, of preparing my family’s foodfrom real ingredients by hand, of welcoming live cultures and enzymes into my body Ultimately, I am making a lifestyle choice. I am choosing to slow my foodprocess down. I place and pick up my Miller’s order every week, shop for seasonal produce at the farmer’s market, and drive to specific stores for specific ingredients. I make time during my day to prepare food and eat it, too. I would have it no other way.
For lunch, my son has been enjoying an assortment of farm foods like sweet bologna and mayonnaise sandwiches, cubes of swiss or cheddar cheese, diced roasted chicken, fermented pickles, chopped mild beef stix, hard boiled eggs, potato chips fried in lard, applesauce, and some other goodies. He loves squeeze pouches, so I just bought some re-usable ones to fill with yogurt and other yummy squishy foods.
The pigs are so big! When I visited the farm in March, they were just babies, squirming around and squealing in hay in the barn. Now, they are nearly 400 pounds and living in the woods. It has been so amazing having a deep connection to the food that I prepare for my family. By reading these newsletters, I hope that you feel a bit more connected to your food, too.
Five pigs live on the farm. In the spring, once it was warm enough, the farmer moved them into the woods across the street and up the hill from the barn. They are free to roam on about 1⁄2 acre of wooded land, and they have certainly made it their own.
Pigs love the woods. After all, it’s their natural habitat. The forest has a nice canopy that provides shade for their nearly hairless bodies. They love to use their strong snouts to root up the earth. What used to be a nice ground cover of ferns and bushes in the forest has been turned to lumpy dirt and mud by the pigs. They love foraging for food and have consumed countless acorns and bugs (in addition to lots of skim milk and their regular feed, which is mostly oats but also contains corn, fish and crab meal, pea meal, and organic minerals).
Come mid-October, the pigs will be ready for processing (we have 8 new small pigs that will be ready in March/April). When they go to the butcher, we lose about 30% in dress weight (after the blood and organs are removed). Then, we lose another 20% when cut. So, in the end, a 400 lb pig will give us 224 lb of meat. Luckily, our farm sells ground pork with organs to recoup some of what would be lost in normal pork processing. The farmer is also talking with our butcher about selling pork rinds and pork heads to minimize waste as much as possible.
When I think of pork, I first think bacon. Enough said. The second thing I think about is sausage and raw lacto-fermented sauerkraut. And what a lovely time of year for that, a perfect main dish to be eaten around Oktoberfest. According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, eating pork with fermented foods or pork prepared with vinegar has no negative effects on your blood or temperament.
I cooked a chicken this week using the farmer’s wife’s recipe – Rebeca’s Melt-on-your-tongue Chicken. Oh, boy it was amazing! It was tender and juicy and did, in fact, feel like it was melting on your tongue. My kids loved it, too. So, what’s the secret? Well, it’s slow cooking. Why slow cooking? It all has to do with the collagen. Is collagen good for you? Yes, indeed.
Collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies. It’s in our muscles, bones, skin, blood vessels, digestive system, and tendons. It gives our skin strength and elasticity; it is the “glue” that holds us together. We lose collagen naturally as we age and also from lifestyle factors like overexposure to sun, smoking, or eating too much sugar. Thankfully, eating foods that are rich in collagen can provide plenty of this essential protein.
There are 5 types of collagen, and chicken is high in type II collagen. The benefits of eating chicken collagen are many: arthritis relief, improve skin and hair, boosts immune system, improved digestive health, and enhanced athletic performance. This is not a new discovery. Generations have been prescribing chicken soup for illness. Miller’s Bio Farm’s chicken is packed with collagen. This is because our birds are truly pasture raised. They run, hop, and scratch through the fields, foraging for wild bugs and seeds. They are allowed to develop to be healthy and strong, building lots of collagen.
The best source of chicken collagen would be from chicken bone broth, slow cooked for 24 hours (chicken feet in particular are packed with collagen). However, a whole chicken has lots of collagen, too. The best way to extract collagen from a whole chicken is slow cooking. Collagen
begins to melt at about 160F and turns to a rich liquid, gelatin. This gives meat a lot of flavor and a wonderful silky texture. Denaturation of the collagen molecule is a kinetic process, and hence a function of both temperature and duration of heating. Cooking at low temperatures require long periods of time to liquefy collagen.
Rebeca’s recipe (see picture below) is super easy. Just rub the seasoning on and put in the oven in the morning. Then, at dinnertime, take it out of the oven. Voila! You have a tender, moist, collagen-rich chicken for dinner. This way of cooking chicken is great for a busy lifestyle. I like to serve my chicken with a collagen-rich gravy made from the pan drippings, a steamed vegetable with butter and bit of salt, and a simple grain like brown rice or quinoa.
We have many members who freeze items they get from us. I heard from a couple members that they even freeze cheese, so I had to try. I froze a block of Swiss for about 2 months and then defrosted it in the fridge. The texture changed from a chubby bouncy cheese to one that was crumbly. The taste was still great. Why? What does freezing do to food?
Theoretically, food can be frozen indefinitely and still be safe to consume. However, the quality does degrade over time. When cheese is frozen, the water within freezes and expands into ice crystals. If the ice crystals are large enough, they pierce the cell walls and the structure breaks down when the cheese thaws. This expand-contract action is what causes the texture to diminish.
Soft cheeses are most affected by freezing, and often exude an oozing paste when thawed. Harder cheeses fair better with freezing, becoming crumbly and dryer, and are best used for grating or melting. Well-aged and low-moisture grating cheeses like Parmesan freeze very well, however, sometimes develop a metallic taste upon thawing.
I’m a big fan of using my freezer as a convenient way to preserve food long-term. Here are some best practices for freezing food. First, freezing food quickly is the best and does not allow time for the ice crystals to grow. Flash freezing, like we do to our meat, is ideal. However, with a home freezer, set it to the lowest temperature possible, put fresh food in the back, and open the door as little as possible. Also, be aware that most modern freezers are “frost-free”. This means that they do not maintain a freezing temperature all the time. They periodically go above 32 F to allow frost to melt. If you plan to seriously use your freezer for food storage and want to ensure the best quality long-term, you may want to consider a low temperature chest freezer that maintains -10 to -20 F.
I love utilizing make-ahead freezer meals. When life is hectic, you can just defrost a meal overnight and pop it in the crockpot in the morning. Also, when food is cooked, it softens so any texture changes are unnoticeable. One of my favorite freezer meals is Beef and Sweet Potato Chili, which happens to be affordable and easy to prep. Fill a gallon-size zip lock bag with 1 lb ground beef, 1 diced onion, 1 minced clove of garlic, 14 oz tomato sauce, 7 oz diced tomatos, 1.5 cups bone broth or stock, 1 large peeled and chopped sweet potato, 1.5 Tbsp cili powder, 1 tsp salt, 1⁄4 tsp black pepper, and 1/8 tsp oregano. Freeze. Defrost the night before. Put in a slow cooker in the morning, and let cook on low for 8 hours. Hey, you may even want to serve it with some crumbled previously frozen cheese.
Days are getting shorter, the weather is (supposed to be) getting cooler. Believe it or not daylight savings is next Sunday, November 5. And, the cows are loving this weather.
Cows produce the most in the spring and the fall, when the weather is cool and the grass is growing. Right now, the cows are eating fresh alfalfa grass, which is an awesomely nutritious food source for our (mostly) heritage breed cows. However, starting in late November, the farmer extends the fresh grass season by growing quick crops of oat grass. This means that our cows can continue eating fresh grass through December and sometimes into January.
Just like our cows, I tend to eat locally and seasonally. This means that my diet changes in the fall, too. I feed my family apples, pears, or dried fruit. Vegetables change to cool season plants like broccoli, spinach, and potatoes and winter squash and root vegetables of all sorts. Meat goes into the oven or slow cooker, with plenty of tender melt-in-your-mouth stews all winter.
I am a simple home cook. I like to let the ingredients speak for themselves. One of my family’s favorite fall dishes is a good pot roast. I like to use a nice grass fed & finished chuck roast, a more affordable cut of meat (our farm sells it for $9.95 per pound). A chuck roast is from the heavily exercised shoulder of a cow, making it typically a tougher cut of meat. Thus, a chuck roast is a great candidate for slow cooking at low temperatures. Cooking low and slow breaks down the connective tissues in the meat, liquefying the collagen and making it so tender it will melt on your tongue.
To make a pot roast, I use a Dutch oven or a slow cooker, depending on my mood. I can start it in the morning and dinner is magically ready at the busiest time of our day – after school. Here’s how I do it. First, I generously salt and pepper a chuck roast (if I have time, I will sear all sides to add some complex flavors to the dish). Then, I chop big pieces of onions, carrots, turnips, celeriac, and any other root veggies I have around. I place half of the veggies at the bottom of the pot with a bay leaf and a few sprigs of rosemary or thyme. I place the roast on top and cover with the rest of the veggies. Then, I pour about 2-3 cups of bone broth on top. I cook it at 225 F for 8 hours. Remove from the oven and serve with dumplings or a hearty piece of sourdough bread.
So much damage has been done to our food system by the expectation for the perfect trifecta – the fastest, cheapest, best food. However, we all know that you can’t have all three. Maybe two, but not three. Low-cost, quick-to-prepare, tender, flavorful food has been achieved (think McDonald’s, which feeds 1% of the world population daily). But, at what cost? What do you really lose when you disregard quality?
First, we lose our health. GMOs and chemicals and additives of all sorts have created a plethora of health issues. In the long run, this “cheap” food, void of usable nutrients, will end up being quite expensive in terms of healthcare costs and quality of life. Second, we lose food preparation knowledge passed down for generations. Many have tossed aside his or her grandmother’s tried and true pot roast for takeout or easy microwave dinners. Third, we lose our environment. Much of our farmland’s soil is in a desperate state, dead and void of nutrition. Fourth, we lose community. Many aspects of preparing quality food for your family require the help of a village. I wish that we still had the local butcher, baker, and candlestick maker. I could go on and on and on.
The mission of Miller’s Biodiversity Farm is to produce high-quality, nutrient-dense food that enhances the health and well-being of our customers. We are not the cheapest, but we strive to produce the best quality food possible and to be easily accessible to our customers. We are also an open book. Nothing is hidden. We love to share knowledge and are happy to answer any questions you may have about our farm fresh food.
I like to take my Miller’s Bio food and make fast, excellent breakfasts for my family. This morning, we had smoothies. I blended together drinkable yogurt, grape juice, frozen fruit, a couple bananas, red clover honey, beef gelatin powder, and trace minerals. I also added some elderberry syrup for an extra boost.
I am honored to be attending the annual Weston A. Price Foundation Conference (WAPF) this weekend in Minneapolis. We are sponsoring the event and are excited to connect with some like-minded farmers and real food eaters. If you are going to be at the event, please come to our table and say hello!
The WAPF is a non-profit organization founded in 1999 with the mission of continuing and publicizing the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston A. Price. Dr. Price studied isolated indigenous and non-industrialized communities to determine the optimal human diet that promotes whole body health and healing. He discovered that it is possible to achieve perfect physical form and health over generations when your diet comprises nutrient-dense whole foods, and, most importantly, vital animal fats.
The WAPF promotes eating whole, unprocessed foods from quality sources that produce real nutrient-dense food. Here’s a basic overview of its dietary guidelines:
Eat pasture-raised meat fed natural diets
Eat wild caught fish from healthy waters
Eat full-fat and raw milk products
Eat generous amounts of animal fats like butter and lard and egg yolks
Take cod liver oil as a supplement
Eat soaked or sprouted whole grains
Include lacto-fermented foods in your diet on a regular basis
Use sweeteners in moderation
Prepare homemade bone broth and consume often
On the flip side, the WAPF also lists dietary dangers, which include commercially processed food, pasteurized milk, and anything artificial, among many other things.
To this end, the foundation promotes small farms with morals, like Miller’s Biodiversity Farm. Over 99% of our products are supported by the WAPF.
As I travel and become immersed in the Weston A. Price Foundation, I plan to bring some nourishing travel food. Beef stix, potato chips fried in lard, hard-boiled eggs, and wholesome granola bars are packed in my backpack. Yum! If you are traveling anywhere for the Thanksgiving holiday, enjoy your travels!
I had an amazing time at the Wise Traditions Conference in Minneapolis this past weekend. Here’s a quick overview. I ate delicious and nourishing food, all sourced from small organic regenerative farms like ours and packed with nutrient-rich animal fats and organ meats. I learned a ton from the varied vendors and speakers specializing in healthy diet and lifestyle. And, I gave out thousands of samples to potential Miller’s Bio Farm customers from around the country. Next year, the conference will be in Baltimore, and I hope you can attend!
While in Minneapolis, I had a revelation. I have always been conscious of what I put in my body, what to avoid and what to embrace. But, what about the products I put on my body? I had been focusing on what to avoid, including anything that would harm me by contact with my skin, the largest organ on my body. However, I learned at the conference that the skin can be nourished too! I should be embracing ways to enhance my skin and body by what goes on it. The secret ingredient – tallow!
Tallow as an ingredient in skin care products has been used for thousands of years, but it’s use lost popularity in the past century when fat in general went out of style. Modern day research confirms the wisdom of our ancestors. Tallow’s ratio of saturated to unsaturated fats matches our skin cell’s ratio, making it quite compatible with our skin’s biology. Tallow from healthy, grass-fed, and pastured animals contains an abundance of easily absorbable nutrients, including vitamins A, D, K, and E and conjugated-linoleic acid (CLA). These are all necessary for general skin health.
Tallow is rendered animal fat, most commonly from cows, sheep, and other ruminant animals such as deer. Is it solid and waxy and can be kept at room temperature for long periods of time. Tallow is made by melting interior fat (suet) at 220 F, filtering it, and then letting it cool. When using tallow, quality matters. Any chemicals in the animal’s feed will transfer into the fat. Make sure you get tallow from animals that are 100% grass-fed, like Miller’s Bio Farm’s are.
Tallow can be used by itself but can also be combined with other natural ingredients to make a spreadable balm or lotion... that’s by the way is also edible. It can be used for general skin health, sunburn, diaper rash, eczema, acne, and a range of other conditions.
Here’s a simple recipe for an all-purpose balm. Put 3.5 ounces of tallow into a double boiler to melt. Add 2 Tablespoons of olive oil. Simply pour into a container and let it cool. Voila! If you prefer a scented oil, you can add up to 8 drops of child-safe essential oil for use on babies and children or folks with sensitive skin. For an adult-only balm, you could add up to 27 drops of your choice of essential oils. I love adding orange, lemon, lavender, myrrh, frankincense, or geranium depending on my mood and intended use. You could also go crazy infusing herbs into the oils themselves, but that’s a topic for another week ;)
I have been liberally spreading tallow balm on my skin this week, 3x per day, and it got me thinking about fat. Fat, especially saturated fat, has been vilified in the US since the 1960s, when the low-fat craze started. It has really done a number on our cooking and our health as a society, because not all fat is bad. In fact, we NEED fat for so many basic bodily functions.
Fat is a great source of energy that our body stores for use at later times. Fat contains essential fatty acids, necessary for the growth development and cell functions. Fat enables proper functioning of nerves and the brain, wrapping around nerve cells allowing them to send electrical messages. Fat maintains healthy skin and other tissues. Fat transports fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K thought the bloodstream and is super important for kids’ health. Fat forms steroid hormones needed to regulate many bodily processes. And so on...
You may be thinking, but what about the cholesterol hypothesis? Won’t saturated fats and cholesterol clog my arteries? This myth has been debunked. It was based on science that was not considering the bigger picture of your body’s health.
Real natural fats from healthy plants and animals are great for your health. These include butter, tallow, coconut oil, lard, olive oil, and flax seed oil. On the other hand, “fake” fats should be avoided. These include trans-fats, margarine, vegetable oil, canola oil, peanut oil, and partially hydrogenated oils. I’ll be honest. This can be a very scientific topic. If you’d like to learn more about types of fat and their effects on your body, I recommend reading the article “The Skinny on Fats” by Sally Fallon.
Basically, what I’m saying is... slather butter on your bread, eat potato chips fried in lard, don’t skim the fat from your bone broth, and embrace the fat! I hope you ate lots of gravy yesterday, and I hope you have leftover gravy to gobble up today. If you don’t, I hope you roast a chicken sometime soon to make some gravy to gobble up.
This year, I tried two new things with my Thanksgiving gravy and had great success. First, I used soaked flour. Second, I used the chicken neck and giblets to add a boost of flavor and nutrients. The night before, I mixed 1 cup of whole-grain flour with 1 cup of yogurt and let it sit on the counter overnight. The next morning, I started simmering the chicken neck and giblets in grass- fed butter. When I was ready to make the gravy, I poured about 2 cups of turkey meat juices and the giblet butter into a large saucepan and turned the heat to medium. Then, in a mason jar, I mixed together the flour/yogurt mixture and 2 cups of raw milk. Next, I brought my meat juices to a simmer and added my mason jar flour/yogurt/milk concoction slowly, stirring constantly. I continued to stir for about 5 minutes, until the gravy was nice and thick (if it’s too thick, you can add some more milk or broth). Last, I seasoned with salt and pepper. It was a hit!
You may have noticed that the price of milk went up this week. The reality is that it’s expensive to produce wholesome nutrient-dense milk, especially when you need to buy in feed. The farmer pays close attention to his cows’ diet and health. In the warmer months, this is fairly straightforward and easier to control. Plant the right crops and make sure the cows eat them at precisely the right moment of freshness. In the colder months, when the herd’s diet is supplemented or fully on hay, it becomes more difficult to make sure the cows are getting what they need.
The farmer works with a cow nutritionist, who makes recommendations on how to change the herd’s diet to change the quality, production, taste, ph, vitamin and mineral content, and many other elements of the milk. This year, the farmer was advised to buy in top notch hay from a local farm. The hope is that this hay will increase production to meet our customers’ demand and also ensure that our milk is the best quality possible.
The hay that the farmer is buying has a NDF value of 32-36. NDF stands for neutral detergent fiber. It has to do with the structure of the plant, specifically the cell wall, and indicates the energy and digestibility of the hay. This hay is a bit green and looks like it was baled yesterday. It’s from the mountainous Somerset County. It is dried in cooler temperatures so it keeps its green color (the farmers’ own hay is baled in the warm summer months and is golden or brownish in color). Similar to our hay, this hay is completely chemical-free, grown with care, and has a high nutrient content.
Because the farmer pays such close attention to his feed and how well his cows are digesting it, our milk is very high in nutrition. Because it’s raw, it’s packed with usable proteins, probiotics, and enzymes. It naturally has omega 3 fatty acids, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and calcium. It also has an assortment of fat-soluble vitamins and minerals. Raw milk contains vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K along with minerals such a magnesium, phosphorus, and iron. We don’t fortify our milk, because we don’t need to. All the good stuff is naturally in there by paying close attention to our cows’ diet. You can’t buy this stuff in a grocery store.
The new hay is having an effect on milk production, although not as much as the farmer had hoped. He does notice more yellow color in the milk. I advise you to pour a tall cup of milk. Note the color. A more yellow color indicates that the cows eat grass, which means a higher nutrient content in the milk. Sip the milk. Savor the taste and its unique flavor profile of the winter months and of this hay in particular.
Bone broth is one of the oldest healing foods. It is an excellent way to utilize the whole animal, extracting goodness from parts of the animal that would otherwise be inedible - bones, skin, tendons, marrow, etc.
Today’s store bought “stock” and “broth”, in many cases, may not be real. Companies use lab-produced meat flavors in bouillon cubes and various soup and sauce mixes. The best way to get a true bone broth with real healing benefits is by sourcing it from a local farm or by making it yourself using bones from quality sources.
Bone broth is a tried and true way of overcoming illnesses of all sorts – from healing leaky gut to overcoming food intolerances to improving joint health to fighting the common cold. It inhibits infection and fights inflammation and joint pain. It promotes strong, healthy bones, hair, and nails. It also helps to heal and seal your gut and has more recently been used to treat neurological disorders like autism, ADHD, and learning disabilities.
I could get into the science behind all of this, but that could turn into a novel. So, you can do your own research to learn more, if you'd like.
The quality of the bones used to make bone broth directly correlates to the health benefits gained from consuming it.
You want to get the best quality bones you can get. Bones from healthy, pastured animals that eat a natural diet will give you the most nutrient-dense bone broth. You could use bones from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), but the broth will not be as nutritious and may not gel.
Beyond the quality of the bones, you can use a bone from any part of the animal. I love to save my chicken carcasses for bone broth (the roasting of the bird helps add flavor to the broth). Marrow bones are fantastic for making a healing bone broth.
Although the time for simmering is quite long, bone broth is quite easy to make with minimal labor required. Here's how you do it:
You know you have a nice broth if it is very gelatinous, almost not pourable when cool.
The broth will keep for about a week in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer.
One of my family’s favorite meals is “Nu-Nu Soup” – an Asian-inspired bone broth based soup with ramen noodles.
I sauté some onions and garlic in sesame oil and then add bone broth, usually chicken (and water if the broth is particularly thick). When the broth comes to a boil, I add my veggies – carrots, mushrooms, and spinach (and anything else you have on hand... it’s a great way to clean out the fridge). I also add some tamari, ginger, salt, and pepper to taste. Then, I let it simmer until they the veggies are just tender.
I serve this soup in huge bowls with ramen noodles (or any noodles really). If I’m feeling creative and have the time, I’ll garnish the bowls with a soft-boiled egg, some sautéed or roasted meat (leftovers), kimchee, or bean sprouts.
Being born and raised in America, I have been trained to believe that I have “freedom”. I was taught the Pledge of Allegiance on the first day of Kindergarten, with the closing words “with liberty and justice for all”. I have said those words every school day since (and then some). That’s more than 2,160 times.
The definition of liberty, a synonym for freedom, is (1) the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views; or (2) the power or scope to act as one pleases. However, the current issues our farm is going through is a blatant reminder that my freedom and liberty is limited (if you’re not current with the issues surrounding our farm, I recommend reading David Gumpert’s blog; three of his five most recent blog posts were about our farm).
For many personal, moral, and health reasons, I choose to feed my family food as close to the source as possible. We eat real ingredients, ideally produced by farmers that we know and trust and practice in sustainable and humane ways. However, my access to real food is being threatened. How could this be? I mean, it’s a complicated issue, but a lot of it boils down to politics. And, this political bone broth has some powerful ingredients, complex flavors, and is ultimately not very good for your health.
How could an organic apple cost more than a hamburger from McDonald’s? It simply can’t, unless we subsidize the water, fuel, land, grain, and other costs associated with largescale beef production. The food system that I am choosing to support threatens big agri-business. And, I guess the people involved in big food politics are scared that, if enough people catch on or if real food becomes too accessible, the immense structure that they have built will collapse.
My hope is that people, real people who have the gumption to source real food, would stand up together for their rights to access the foods of their choice – to stand up now in hopes that the next generation will not have to fight this fight. And, I hope that government agencies will divert their efforts to real public health crises like autism (and an assortment of other neurological conditions), obesity, heart disease, HIV, and prescription drug overdose. This is where our taxpayer dollars should be going. Attacking small farms and their customers is downright unjust.
So, what can you do? Please, keep eating real food and standing up for your food rights. Vote with your dollar and support farmers and producers that are doing things the way you believe is right. If you believe in our farmer, please continue ordering. If you’d like to go the extra mile, donate to the Real Food Consumer Coalition, which is helping to protect our farm and food rights.
Raw milk is a highly contested issue in modern history. Is it a healthy nutrient-dense “cure-all” for nourishing your body, or is it a dangerous vector for spreading life-threatening disease? The two camps are split. It is a complicated issue with mixed battles of bad science vs. personal testimony, morals vs. politics, education vs. advertising, and big agri-business vs. small farms.
For thousands of years, nutrient-dense fresh raw milk has been a staple food for many cultures worldwide. This has never been a problem until recent history. During the Industrial Revolution in the early 1800s, whisky and milk were the two most popular beverages. A cutthroat entrepreneur came up with the unbelievable and revolutionary idea to confine cows in a factory-like setting and force feed them the hot swill byproduct from making whiskey. Produced in these unclean and unnatural conditions, this blue-tinted “swill milk” made many people sick and led to many deaths. This was a true public health issue, resulting in many infant deaths and a rise in life threatening illness. This historical pinpoint is the origin of raw milk getting its bad reputation.
Policy makers and businesses had two options: (1) Higher quality farming practices in city dairies; or (2) Pushing infected product from unhealthy animals.
Can you guess which choice big business made? The swill milk industry chose to mask the symptoms of swill milk by using additives like plaster, chalk, sugar, eggs, starch, flour, and pigments. These “bad” distillery dairies gave “good” small clean dairies a bad name. Eventually this truly horrid milk was busted for harboring deadly diseases. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) was a scientist who promoted pasteurization as a way to make milk safe for consumption. Philanthropist Nathan Strauss (1848-1931), co-owner of Macy’s, jumped on the pasteurization bandwagon and created milk factories that sterilized diseased milk. He, along with other big dairy owners, used his wealth to influence government agencies and advertise pasteurized milk to the public, including scary fake news articles in popular magazines.
Of course, there’s always the flip side. The Certified Milk Movement was led by Dr. Henry Coit (1854-1917). Dr. Coit, who believed in milk as a necessary healthy food, influenced the created the Medical Milk Commission and its standards to ensure production of clean, healthy milk from small farms. However, this milk cost 4x more than the unclean kind. Given the advertising efforts of the pasteurized milk businesses, can you guess which milk the public latched onto? Yup, pasteurized milk.
And the story goes on in a similar manner throughout the 1900s, with the two sides being divided and working against each other. Big agri-business advertises and lobbies for pasteurized milk (Got Milk?), which can be produced more cheaply. Small farms and families fight for their right to choose what foods are healthy to consume. The real kicker happened in 1987, when Ronald Reagan promoted the FDA ban interstate commerce of raw milk. This devastated (and continues to devastate) small farmers and the families that choose to consume raw milk.
Dairy farms, whether conventional or organic, are struggling in the US. Milk consumption has dropped over 30% since 1970. However, while the pasteurized milk industry is still on the decline, the raw milk industry is on the rise. It makes sense that big business would want to glean some of this business and lobby for government agencies to help. As it's said, history repeats itself.
Yes, the two camps are split. But, perhaps both are in the right, depending on the situation. It is undoubtedly true that unpasteurized milk produced in unclean conditions can be very dangerous. However, it is also true that clean raw milk can be a completely safe and nutritious food choice, especially with modern refrigeration, transportation, and testing technology. I would hope there is a way for both points of view to co-exist, to agree to disagree, and create policies that allow for basic human choice to consume what they view as healthy.
Thanks for bearing with me on this somewhat crude overview of the history of raw milk. If you are interested in learning more, I recommend the very informative videos created by Nourishing Liberty or perusing the realmilk.com website.
Step into someone else’s muddy boots for a bit. Imagine you are a small dairy farmer (if that’s the case, your father was probably a farmer, too). You made the choice to produce a product that you believe in – nutrient-dense raw milk. It’s what your customers want for optimal health, and you can hopefully break even every year (most farmers don’t make much or are in debt). You raise naturally healthy cows on a natural diet of grass. Your milk is clean (and you know it, because you have it tested regularly). One day, seemingly out of nowhere, someone writes you a letter or comes to your farm. They say what you are doing is wrong and threaten lengthy legal action. With little money (if any at all), what do you do?
It’s unfortunate that small farmers across the US are put in this position quite often. Some farmers stand up and fight, and some choose to stop completely (or have no choice but to do so). All of them (and their families, too) are put through a tremendous amount of stress, both emotional and financial. Luckily, there are organizations that exist to protect our small farmers in these precarious situations.
Pro real food organizations believe that our current raw milk regulations are unconstitutional and that consumers should have access to clean unprocessed nutrient-dense foods. In some situations, these organizations help provide free or reduced rate counsel, legal or otherwise, to farmers in need. In other situations, they raise funds and support to challenge a state’s policies or the FDA’s ban on interstate commerce of raw milk. Although each organization may have different strategies, their collective end goal is the same – allow consumers the right to choose healthy food, and that includes raw milk.
The Real Food Consumer Coalition (RFCC) is currently helping our farmer. In April 2017, RFCC filed a Citizen’s Petition with the FDA requesting exemption from their ban of raw milk interstate commerce as long as milk is labeled as such. The FDA has a 180-day time frame to respond. However, after 9 months, RFCC has not gotten a response.
There are many others working on the cause, too. The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which provides free or reduced legal counsel to its members, filed a lawsuit challenging the FDA’s ban in 2010. After numerous appeals, the case was officially dismissed in 2012. The Weston A. Price Foundation has a Campaign for Real Milk, which aims to provide accurate information to the public and help change raw milk policies state by state. Realmilk.com provides a wealth of information for raw milk consumers and producers. And, there are many more, but I will stop here.
I tip my hat to these organizations who work passionately and meticulously to challenge modern society’s understanding of the dairy industry and the policies created because of this often misconceived beliefs. Thank you for the important work you do.
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