***We need jars. If you pick up or get door delivery,  please read at bottom about how to return jars.***


The COVID pandemic just keeps on giving us new obstacles to overcome. It is a true test of resiliency and community. 

First, farmer Aaron dealt with a spontaneous increase in demand. The staff rose to the challenge of fulfilling double the amount of orders. They are amazingly dedicated. You can read about all they did here.

Then, the large scale meat processors closed. Small meat processors became overwhelmed with new clients wanting slots and current clients wanting more slots to meet the increased demand. 

Whew - I’m glad we have meat inventory under control. FYI, Miller’s Bio Farm is extra prepared with meat and has some exciting ideas for securing meat processing in the future. 

Next, ice packs were in short supply for odd reasons. One ingredient to make the ice blankets comes from China and was unavailable for some time. And, one ingredient to make the ice packs is used for hand sanitizer and was in short supply.

Egg cartons were mysteriously sold out. We don’t really know why this happened but assume it was a breakdown in the supply chain. I’d have to say, our pickup customers rose to the challenge and sent us hundreds of egg cartons for reuse (You know who you are, and thank you!).

There have been shortages of coolers, refrigerated vans, and many other odd things....

But now… our current shortage is JARS!!!

Why are there no jars? Have people been stockpiling them? Are more people canning at home? Is there a material that isn’t available to manufacture them? We don’t exactly know why.

If you pick up at one of our locations or receive door delivery with a private driver, we would very much appreciate it if you returned your jars this week. Instructions are below.

Thanks all your support and your help working through the challenges of the pandemic. The Miller’s team is here for you and committed to remain a reliable food source.

One big lesson I’ve learned from the pandemic is that life is about community. 

I cannot rely on the big systems set up. Big agribusiness, healthcare, government, education… they are showing many weaknesses. They are broken systems. 

It’s my friends, my family, and the small farms, businesses, and organizations I support that are truly helping me now. Together, we are re-inventing new systems that are sustainable, successful, and reliable.

What unexpected challenges have you faced in the pandemic? What’s helping you through this incredible time?

All the best to you and your family,

Marie (and the Miller’s team)

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HOW TO RETURN JARS

*Pickup location and door delivery only

1- Put the jars in a bag. This is really important. If they happen to break en route, it makes it safer to clean up. 

2- For pickup, put the bag in your cooler or give it to your driver. If you use a paper bag, the cooler must be dry. For door delivery, give the bag to the driver or leave a note with instructions.

3- The farm staff will wash and sanitize the jars for reuse.

*We do not offer credit for jar returns. First off, it’s an administrative nightmare. Second, it takes a considerable amount of time and energy to clean the jars for reuse and is not financially sustainable.

The farmer is remodeling the barn this summer to make new facilities for storage, fermentation, and general food and order preparation. This past Saturday he hosted a frolic to tear down the top of the barn. They got half done on Saturday and finished the rest yesterday. Hard work!

A frolic is when an Amish community, especially the boys, unites to accomplish a big task, one that could not be done alone. Frolics are viewed as fun social activities. Amish farmers may also host frolics to build a barn, make hay, clear a field to make a new garden space, or build a fence around a pasture.

The idea of the frolic goes along with the Amish disbelief in modern “insurance”. Instead of exchanging money for protection, they rely on positive life decisions and the good nature of their community as backup.

For example, the Amish do not have health insurance. Instead, the Amish treat their bodies with respect. They eat healthfully and exercise regularly. When injured or ill, the Amish treat themselves with homeopathic or herbal remedies first. And, if someone does need to go to a doctor or a hospital, each community member steps up to help pay the bill. This sense of camaraderie and safety is so rare in modern America.

Freedom from health insurance is a major reason why the farmer chose to specialize in hands-on biodiverse farming and produce the most healthful nutrient-dense food possible. He writes, “Our vision is to end sickness by enhancing health, nutrition, and happiness in the lives of families and individuals. Our purpose is to inspire a generation of healthy children and reduce healthcare costs for families and individuals.”

This week, we had some illness in the family, so I made some healing food – soup! First, I soaked black beans and chick peas in water and whey for 24 hours. After rinsing, I added them to a big pot filled with chicken bone broth, dried seaweed, a bay leaf, and some salt and pepper. I cooked until soft and served with quinoa.

We all know it. Miller’s Bio Farm food costs more - certainly more than conventional food and sometimes more than organic farm food. We cost more because we produce the most digestible and nutrient-dense food possible. Every aspect of our farming practices is considered to grow the health of our soil, our plants, our animals, our environment, our staff, and our members and their families.

Even though you may be spending more now eating delicious farm fresh food, in the long run, you will actually be spending less. Here are just a few reasons why eating well and supporting the right farms will pay off:

You will lower the likelihood of needing to take a sick day. By eating foods void of chemicals and additives and rich in enzymes, proteins, vitamins, minerals, you are maintaining a healthy body and boosting your immune system. Staying healthy during flu season means that you can go to work and get your paycheck (and maybe even a promotion). At the same time, you are not spending money on doctor’s visits and medication.

You will lower your medical bills. Disease is expensive. Between visits to the doctor, procedures, surgeries, prescriptions, and medical devices, the bills can add up fast. From 2013-2014, the average American spent $1,350 on prescription drugs (of course health insurance covered some or all of this expense). Three of the leading illnesses in the US are heart disease, obesity, and arthritis, which, in most cases, can be prevented through diet and/or exercise.

You can stay more productive. When you feel great, you get more done. It’s as simple as that. If you need some stats, according to a 2012 study at Brigham Young University that evaluated 19,800 employees, eating well every day may lower your risk of productivity loss by 66%.

The vision of Miller’s Bio Farm is to end sickness by enhancing health, nutrition, and happiness in the lives of families and individuals. Our purpose is to inspire a generation of healthy children and reduce healthcare costs for families and individuals. We are honored to provide food for you and your family.

We currently have 6 beef cattle on the farm. Once butchered, that will be about 2,200 pounds of boneless trimmed beef. Wow! That’s a ton of food for our members... literally.

Our beef cattle are a bit different than other beef cattle, giving them a distinct and unique flavor. Here’s why. In regard to breed, our dairy cows are 80% Jersey and 20% Jersey crosses. We let them naturally take to our Jersey bull. However, if there is a dairy cow that is not taking to the bull for one reason or another, we will use artificial insemination with sperm from an Angus bull. The calf will be an Angus-Jersey cross and will be raised for beef.

Most beef cattle are of the Angus breed. Angus cattle were specifically bred from indigenous cattle in Scotland. They are known for a pitch-black hide, fine marbling of fat, being reliably tender, and for growing quickly. Jersey cattle are typically not preferred by farmers because they take longer to raise and do not grow as large as Angus cattle. On the other hand, many have reported that the flavor of Jersey cattle is fantastic and that the fat is a lovely yellow color, indicating a high nutrient content from eating grass. By creating an Angus/Jersey cross, we add dimension to the taste and nutrient content of our beef not found elsewhere. We get the best of both breeds.

Our beef cattle live alongside our dairy cattle. They eat the same diet of fully grown grass and live the same actively pastured lifestyle. The only difference is that they do not go into the barn for milking.

Our farmer waits until the cows are 2-3 years old before butchering. He knows that it’s time when the cow’s backbone is not visible and covered with healthy fat. Ample fat is an indicator that the meat will be flavorful and delicious (FYI, yellow fat indicates that the cow was grass-fed, and white fat indicates that the cow was grain-fed).

I like to buy beef bundles from the farm. It’s simply more economical for my family. This summer, my family has been enjoying Steak Bundle 2. I’ve been prepping the steaks with salt and pepper about an hour beforehand and grilling to medium rare. My favorite sides to serve with steak are roasted chemical-free potatoes, sautéed kale and garlic, quinoa cooked in bone broth, and steamed green beans with a dollop of salted butter.

I visited the farm yesterday. As always, it was a joy. I saw the shiny new barn in progress, helped milk the cows and said hi to the many pregnant ladies, took a hair sample for A1/A2 genetic testing, held a cow by her slimy nostrils to give a homeopathic treatment, and had a sit-down meeting with the farmer.

I had lots of time to reflect on my 3-hour drive home. Out of all of yesterday’s farm adventures, what stuck out most to me was the kind and generous nature of the farmer, his family, and his staff. Especially in today’s political climate, it is refreshing to spend time with people who highly respect people no matter their culture, animals no matter their breed, and the land no matter its history.

The day did not go quite as planned. There was an unfortunate death in the community. Despite a seemingly endless amount of farm chores to complete and the fact that they had English visitors for the day, the farmer and his wife stopped everything, readied their buggy, and were off to pay their respects. When they returned, the farmer’s wife prepared us a delicious supper and somehow all the chores got accomplished.

The farmer spent a good amount of time caring for a lame cow. A couple days ago, a thorn got stuck in her hoof, and she developed an infection. The farmer inspected her hoof for signs of healing and her body to make sure that she was eating enough. He then gave her a homeopathic treatment to aid in her healing. Additionally, as a preventative measure, he gave the entire herd homeopathic remedy in their drinking water.

The farmer excitedly showed me his new manure pit. All of the cows’ excrements are funneled into a tremendous concrete pit that’s about 50 feet wide. Very little is wasted on the farm. This manure is liquid gold. When the time is right, it is pumped back onto the fields, adding nutrients, texture, and microorganisms back into the soil. The fertilized soil is then ready for a new crop of alfalfa grass. It has been over 16 years since the farm was touched by chemicals. By using these sustainable farming practices, the farmer has brought an abundance of life back to the fields.

I am continuously honored to work for Miller’s Biodiversity Farm. It is my pleasure to serve both the farmer and our members. Many thanks to you for your patronage!

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.

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.

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.

A grand majority - 75% according to Food Safety News - of the honey sold in US grocery stores is adulterated. It has been ultra-filtered and is almost certainly diluted. The astonishing part is that there’s no way of telling if your honey is 100% pure by the label. It’s being sold as “honey” and is marked as such in the grocery store.

Every beekeeper filters their honey to remove small pieces of the comb or bees. It’s a simple and inexpensive process. However, ultrafiltration is an expensive process that pushes honey through a tight mesh, removing all particles, including pollen, from the thick sugary liquid.

Now, why would a honey producer want to spend more money to ultra-filter their honey? One reason is that honey void of any small particles will last longer and take years to crystallize. However, with competitive honey prices, it’s not business savvy to spend more on filtering unless absolutely necessary. The more likely reason is that honey void of pollen cannot be traced to the country of origin and that the producer has something to hide.

It is generally assumed that honey bereft of pollen has been adulterated, meaning that it has been diluted with cheap sweeteners like corn syrup or rice syrup. Although the filtration costs are higher, the cost of the product itself is lowered through dilution. It is believed that most of this adulterated honey comes from China.

According to Forbes, honey is the third most faked foods. The FDA has denied petitions from farmers to create a “standard of identity” for honey. The USDA has loose guidelines for grading honey, under which two completely different honeys could be labeled “100% Organic Clover Honey from Arizona—USDA Grade A”.

So, what can you do? Buying certified organic honey helps, but is not guaranteed. Studies have shown that about 75% of organic honey does contain pollen, meaning it is likely not adulterated. The best way to ensure you are getting 100% pure honey is to buy direct from the farmer, who can attest to your honey being real. Miller’s Bio Farm honey comes from a local producer who keeps bees in clover fields in the warmer months and brings the bees to Florida in the colder months to produce orange blossom honey. It is raw and heated only to remove it from the comb and filter it.

I use honey as a sweetener in tea and baked goods, but my hands-down biggest use of honey is making medicinal syrups for my family. I recently made cough syrup to help my kids through an upper respiratory infection. I put 2 cups water, 6 Tbs licorice root, 3 Tbs Echinacea, 3 Tbs marshmallow root, 3 Tbs cinnamon chips, and 1 Tbs ginger in a small pot. I heated this tea to a low simmer for about 45 minutes, until reduced by half (keep at a low simmer to preserve the medicinal qualities of the herbs). Then, I strained out the herbs, waited for the liquid to cool to about 100 F, and then mixed in 1 cup of raw honey. Voila! Homemade, nourishing, throat coating cough syrup.

We know how much you value providing fresh, unprocessed dairy for your family. You know, the stuff that’s humanely raised and packed with essential nutrients, fully digestible proteins, crucial enzymes, and beneficial microorganisms.

That’s why our farmer makes wholesome dairy products to order every week, with minimal heating. You simply can’t find these nutrient-dense dairy products in the store.

However, these high quality, small batch products come with a downside – inconsistency. One week your Greek yogurt will be thick and creamy. The next it may be slightly watery or clumpy. This is the nature of truly whole, unaltered, fresh dairy products.

Culture suppliers recommend heating the milk to 180 F or higher. This kills the milk’s living structure, creating a blank slate for a new culture to grow.

Pasteurized dairy products are great for big producers, because they are consistent from week to week. You follow a recipe and get the same results, time after time. Mainstream customers expect this. However, all that great microbiology is lost, making it harder (and perhaps even impossible) for a body to digest.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, we heat the milk to 108 F, maintaining the plethora of valuable enzymes and microorganisms that are necessary for complete digestion. When a freeze-dried culture is added into the mix, the new culture needs to normalize with the current culture, and this happens slightly differently every time.

Another significant factor is that 100% grass-fed milk that goes from the udder to the bottle changes from week to week. Depending on the time of year and the herd’s diet and lifestyle, the milk may have a slightly different taste, nutritional value, fat content, and microbiology. It’s said that spring milk is the most nutritious and delicious – spring please come soon!

Between minimal heating and the ever-changing nature of untreated milk, our products are rarely the same week to week. I personally think this is exciting. When you get that quart of absolutely phenomenal kefir, it’s bliss.

What you can rely on is the quality of Miller’s products. Although inconsistent, our dairy products are 100% A2/A2, 100% grass-fed, humanely-raised, packed with nutrients and living cultures, fresh, and unprocessed.

This week, I encourage you to try one of our fresh dairy products – Greek yogurt, drinkable yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese, cream cheese. There are many flavors and options.

They are charming on their own but can also be dressed up. Try adding some herbs to kefir and using it as a salad dressing. Serve a quick easy breakfast of Greek yogurt, granola, and maple syrup. Or, blend some drinkable yogurt with a banana, juice, and some ice cubes for a refreshing lassi.

Real quick this week. I want to make sure that you know about a really awesome feature of our store – the Reorder button. It makes ordering farm fresh food for your family so much easier.

Imagine it’s 11:50pm on Sunday night. You suddenly realize you didn’t place an order for next week. Is there enough time? Of course!

It's 3 easy steps. Here’s what you need to do:

• 1 - Go to My Account --> Order History, and click on the order you'd like to order again.
  
• 2 - Press the orange Reorder button at the upper right. Everything that was on that order will be added to your cart.
  
• 3 - Checkout. Done!
  

Once you do it once, it only takes about 10 seconds to do. That’s what I call easy.

However, my strategy is to not wait until the last minute. I reorder last week’s order in the beginning of the week, on Monday or Tuesday. I include all my regular items I get every week - milk, eggs, yogurt, kefir, cream, half & half, chicken bone broth, and ground beef.

Then, throughout the week, I use the second most awesome feature of our website – editing my order.

You can edit your order as much as you want before the order deadline. You won’t get a confirmation email for these changes. Whatever is in your cart on Sunday at midnight is what’s sent to the farmer.

Let’s say I run out of our 3 lb jar of honey. I quickly add it to my order on my phone. Or let’s say I’m meal planning. I’ll add whatever ingredients I need.

By following this flow, I never miss an order. And, it’s so easy and hassle free to get the food I want for my family.

I hope you enjoy the tip and start reordering, too!

An affordable and nutrient packed addition to any meal that’s easy to prepare and serve.

I had the honor of camping on the farm for four days this week – in a heat wave. Given that it’s an Amish farm, we had to find more old fashioned ways of beating the 101 F heat in between chores. We ate ice cream at nearly every meal, splashed in icy cold spring water, and drank fresh green icy smoothies.

For every meal, the farmer’s wife always had an awesome spread with plenty of fixings. Even in the heat, she knew what to do.

She loaded the table with easy foods that could be served cold – thick slices of homemade bread, radishes, fermented beets, onions, honey, sweet beef bologna, lettuce, salad with yogurt dressing, chunks of cheese, drinkable yogurt, milk with ice cubes, raisin cookies, ice cream... and beef heart.

The last one made me a bit nervous.

Knowing the nutritional benefits, I always look for ways to incorporate organ meats into my family’s meals. However, given the tendency to have odd flavors and textures, I always get a bit panicky when trying new organs for the first time.

I piled some slices of beef heart onto my plate and was quite surprised to find it delicious.

It was dense yet mild, tasting like a deep-flavored earthy roast beef. I immediately knew it was something I wanted to incorporate into my weekly meal plans.

Like other cuts of steak, beef heart is a muscle. Unlike other cuts of meat, it is extremely dense and has a greater amount of protein and nutrients.

Beef heart contains all essential amino acids, zinc, selenium and phosphorus. Compared to other cuts of meat, it has more than double the elastin and collagen. It is a highly concentrated source of coenzyme Q10. And, when 100% grass-fed, it has higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids.

It gets better. Beef heart lunch meat is extremely easy to make.

Boil a whole beef heart in water for 3 hours. Let cool. Slice thinly. It can be stored in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.

I made my sandwich with homemade buttered bread made with local Einkorn flour, beef heart, sweet beef bologna, sliced onions and radishes, and lettuce. Yum! I accompanied it with a cold shredded salad of lettuce, carrots, onions, cheese, and hard-boiled eggs with yogurt ranch dressing. And, of course, ice cream with fresh blueberries for dessert. An easy, cold, quick dinner.

Cow milk is undoubtedly the most common type of milk in America. However, if you consider milk consumption globally, goat milk comes out on top. Why? 

The reasons are multifaceted. Here are four reasons why goat milk is better than cow milk. Some apply to us, and some don’t. 

1. Goat milk is less allergenic. 

In the US, the most common allergy for kids under three is cow milk. Why? It has to do with the protein content. Human milk contains 100% A2 beta-casein protein. Due to genetic mutation, most cow milk has a high concentration of A1 beta-casein protein, which is not fully digestible by the human body. 

Goat milk naturally has 89% less A1 beta-casein protein content than cow milk. In fact, in a study of infants allergic to cow milk, 93% of them could tolerate goat milk. 

Now, in the case of Miller’s Biodiversity Farm, this point it moot. Our cows produce milk with 100% A2 protein. 

2. Goat milk is naturally homogenized. 

What happens when you leave your gallon of fresh unprocessed cow milk sit? The cream rises to the top, and the skim milk sinks to the bottom. It is not homogenized. 

Mainstream Americans tend to like things tidy and standardized. The modern industrialized dairy industry homogenizes milk to make one nice consistency and a predictable fat content. 

The process of homogenization forces the milk through a tiny hole. It breaks down the fat globules and allows it to stay homogenous, with the fat suspended evenly in the skim milk. 

The problem with homogenization is that it releases free radicals into the milk. Free radicals cause a host of problems from DNA mutations to cancer! 

The fat in goat milk is naturally smaller. It allows the fat to stay evenly distributed in the skim milk without any scientific intervention. It’s naturally homogenized. 

3. Goat milk is easier to digest. 

Goat milk has smaller fat globules and higher levels of medium chain fatty acids. This means that there’s a larger surface to volume ratio, resulting in easier and quicker digestion.

Milk denatures and creates curds in the stomach. Goat curds are softer than cow curds. Your body can digest goat curds more smoothly and completely. 

4. Goat milk rarely causes lactose intolerance. 

All milk contains lactose (AKA “milk sugar”). Our bodies produce a special enzyme called lactase, which breaks down lactose. Without enough lactose, you can’t digest milk. 

As babies, we produce ample amounts of lactase. Babies are meant to live on their mother’s milk. But, as we get older, our bodies naturally produce less. For an unnerving number of Americans, they don’t produce nearly enough lactase – this is called lactose intolerance. 

Goat milk contains about 10% less lactose than cow milk. Although this difference is meager, it makes a difference. There are many people who can tolerate goat milk but cannot tolerate cow milk. 

It’s also important to note that raw milk – no matter what mammal it comes from – contains live lactase. It’s full of exactly what you need to digest it! 

Goat milk is creamy and sweet. It can be consumed just as you would any milk – by the glass and in countless recipes. Our goat milk comes fresh, directly from the farmer’s cousin.

Gobble gobble. I know it’s only early October, but for a farm-to-table Thanksgiving, it’s time to start thinking about THE TURKEY.

Our turkeys are a traditional "white" breed. They are free roaming turkeys that run around the pasture and forage for bugs A LOT. They are fed an organic soy-free turkey feed, which contains a specially formulated blend of corn, wheat, peas, barley, fishmeal, flax seed, kelp, and a nutri-balancer which has kelp, vitamins, and minerals.

Our turkeys come fresh, vacuum sealed and never frozen, processed within one week of delivery. They are all-natural - no antibiotics, no hormones, no artificial flavors, no colors, no synthetic ingredients, no preservatives.... nothing added (and, woah, can you believe that much stuff goes into other turkeys?).

It’s been a tough year for raising turkeys. The weather in the farmer’s area has been either super hot and sunny or really, really wet. This are not good conditions for producing large turkeys. They will still be tasty and nutrient-dense but likely on the small side.

The farmer wants to give you a heads up that we won’t know how big the turkeys will be until the beginning on November. Although we are taking orders for turkeys up to 18 lb, they may not reach that size.

If you do order a large turkey and the farmer cannot provide it, the farmer will personally give you a call to discuss the options. Perhaps you’d prefer the largest bird possible or two smaller birds.

We have officially opened turkey sales! Turkey orders are due before November 4 at midnight.

Our turkeys are $6.20 per pound and come in 3 size groups: 8-10 lbs, 11-13 lbs, and 14-18 lbs. 

How do you figure out how big of a turkey you need? A good rule of thumb is 1 lb per person, or 1.5 lbs per person if you want leftovers. You can even buy two smaller turkeys. Serve one at Thanksgiving dinner, and roast the second one for leftovers!

To order a turkey, all you need to do is add your Whole Fresh Turkey to your next order.  We will partially charge the order and charge you for the rest once we know the exact weight of your turkey.

Feeding a family is challenging, no matter what. But managing finances can seem nearly impossible.

You obviously want to provide your family with the most nourishing healthful foods possible. But, you also need to do it without breaking the bank.

Here are 5 ways to maximize your food budget:

1. Eliminate food waste. 

Pay attention to expiration dates. For farm fresh foods that do not have expiration dates, I write the date I receive it on top with a permanent marker. Then, I keep the food quickest to sour in the front of the fridge.

For products that do come with expiration dates, you can take some time to re-think your take on expiration dates. Expiration dates are more for food quality than food safety. Foods are generally good after the expiration date passes. Use your senses and trust your gut.

Freeze everything you can, and only thaw foods you know you are going to use soon.

Keep inventory of what you have. There are many benefits to keeping a well organized pantry, where inventory can be easily assessed. I keep a white board on my fridge, where I can list my frozen foods and fresh veggies and jot down my meal plan for the week.

And, meal plan. This will ensure you are buying what you need, not just what you want (more on that later).

2. Avoid impulse buys.

Making a grocery list is a great way to do this. Whenever I’m running low on an essential or making a meal plan, I immediately add items to the list. Since my phone is usually handy, I use a simple list app. The list is shared with my spouse, so we can coordinate.

Once you have your list, stick to it. One or two exceptions are allowed, but try your best to stick to the list.

Also, never ever shop when you’re hungry. Really, don’t do this.

3. Eat less.

I’m being a tad facetious here, but it’s true. Americans are unfortunately accustomed to oversized portion sizes, and it shows with our rising obesity rates.

Serve your family normal portion sizes. And serve your kids micro-sizes. The goal is to finish your plate and then go for seconds if you truly are hungry. It’s better than eating everything just because it’s there or tossing food in the garbage.

Also, eat real food with value, and steer clear of processed food. Eating nourishing nutrient-dense foods will keep your body feeling full for longer. Empty calories mean that you’ll feel hungry faster, ultimately wasting many calories and your budget.

4. Make everything yourself.

Buying pre-prepared foods or eating out is very expensive. You’re paying extra for the labor to produce it. If you cook more at home, you will see a significant drop in your food spending.

And kudos. Homemade food is often better for you - void of processed ingredients, fillers, preservatives, and so on.

5. Change your meal-planning approach.

When it comes to eating well, meal planning is one of the easiest things you can do to set yourself up for success. There are so many ways to plan meals but, after trying it once or twice, you will quickly figure out what works for your family.

There are some basic things to consider when you’re meal planning:

• How many meals to plan for
  What you have time for
  What you need to use up in your fridge or pantry
  Your food mood
  Your grocery budget

Once you have those things determined, record it! Your meal plan should live in an obvious and easy-to-access location. I’ve tried notebooks, phone apps, and sticky notes. But, my personal favorite is a white board on the fridge.

Once you have a plan, enact it. Make your shopping list and start making meals!

6. And, I’ll add one more to the list. Keep reading :) 

I’ll elaborate on some of these food budget maximization strategies in the coming weeks.

Once you’ve been eating 100% grass fed and finished beef for a while, the conventional grain-fed counterpart loses its luster. Truly pastured grass-fed beef will be tougher and full flavored (and sometimes even a bit “gamey”), making the conventional option often taste mushy and lackluster. How has this become the normal American standard?

A complex nutty flavor is simply delicious and yellow fat that accompanies it are both signs that you are eating beef from a healthy well-raised cow. The color of beef fat is indicative of nutritional content, and the flavor is directly correlated to its diet.

Fat color is a function of what kind of vitamins are present in the cow's diet. The key ingredient that makes grass fed beef fat look yellow instead of white is beta-carotene, which is stored in the fat. 

Beta-carotene is a natural form of Vitamin A, an essential nutrient, which the body can convert to Vitamin A as needed.Beta-carotene is also an antioxidant, important for protecting the body against free-radicals. Grass contains beta-carotene. Grain does not. When you see yellow fat, you can infer that the meat is also packed with Omega-3s, CLA and TVA (super healthy fats), saturated fat, carotenoids, and trace minerals.

The flavor of the meat is affected by what the cow is finished on in the last 60 days. Cows finished on grain will have a “mild” flavor, whereas cows finished on grass will have a stronger “nutty” taste. The time of the year that a grass-fed pastured cow is processed affects its flavor. Cows finished on healthy fresh grass will taste better and have more distinct and complex earthy undertones.

This is why, even though our cows are fed grass all year, most of our beef cows are processed in June or October, at the end of peak grass growing seasons. 

One of my favorite and super easy beef dishes to prepare is a chuck roast. I suggest marinating the roast in buttermilk overnight. Roast slowly or cook in a slow cooker with a few cups of water, a bay leaf, some thyme, salt, and pepper. This simple preparation really lets the flavor of the beef shine. Enjoy your beef!

It’s been a while, and we are so happy to be sending out our weekly news again :)

Spring is here. It’s a time for re-birth, for coming out of hibernation, and for joy, despite any hardship you may be facing.

As Ann Bradstreet said, “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant."

We may honor this time of year by deep cleaning, getting outside more, or planting starts for this year’s growing season. The farmer is busy setting up fences and preparing to make hay.

This spring, the farmer is growing something that you didn’t know about - a baby!

The farmer and his wife welcomed their fifth baby into their family on December 31, 2018. Lena S Miller was born at a birth care center and weighed 6 lbs 9 oz.

She’s grown so much already and is already rolling. Her favorite thing to do is smile. Her brothers and sisters are infatuated and love little Lena so much.

After having a baby, it’s always good to have some quick, easy meals to prepare for your family. One of the farmer’s wife’s new favorites is Philly Cheesesteak.

Put the thawed steak in a skillet and sprinkle with your favorite seasoning. The farmer’s wife uses paprika, celery salt, nutritional yeast, and salt. Add water or broth until almost covered. Cook and cook on low heat for 2-3 hours.

Serve Philly Cheesesteak as a main dish or on a sourdough bun with melted cheese, sauteed peppers, and fermented ketchup.

The farmer has been pretty busy the past few months, from growing his family to making some pretty exciting changes to his business (all good in my opinion). Please hang tight for these updates, which will be coming in the next couple weeks.

I am so thrilled to be out of hibernation. Feel free to reply and say hi!

The farmer launched a GoFundMe campaign last week to raise money for a bottling machine so he can lawfully bottle and sell raw milk in Pennsylvania. And, it was a big success! The farmer surpassed his $15,000 goal!

The farmer will use these funds to purchase a bottling machine, build a wall (which is also necessary for the bottling permit), and pay off some of his outstanding bills (of which there are many). Once his permits and licenses are in place, the farmer will be able to reopen his store to new customers (more on that in the coming weeks).

Once the fundraising goal was met, the farmer and I had a good conversation about suffering.

Choosing to be a farmer is, in many ways, choosing suffering. It is back breaking work making hay or moving chicken tractors. It is relentless. The cows need to be milked twice a day, every day, no matter what. And, it is unpredictable. One terrible storm can ruin an entire season, create bounties of extra work, and sink you into debt.

And why do farmers choose this suffering? Well, there’s probably lots of reasons. For our farmer, it was his calling. He wants to give back, because we need real food. He wants to regenerate the soil, provide nutrient-dense food for families, and treat animals respectfully. It’s not easy, but it’s necessary.

Suffering is unavoidable and needed. It is a part of life.

Everyone goes through periods of suffering - in their families, their jobs, their marriage, and their communities. It is human nature to persevere. Periods of suffering allow you to feel greater intensities of happiness.

After the long cold winter of hibernation, the spring blooms look magnificent.

When the farmer met the fundraising goal, he gave notice to his suffering. And he gave notice to the generous people that are supporting him. It is the collective goodness pushing him out of a period of suffering.

Sincere thanks to everyone who donated and shared the campaign. Many thanks go out to the Real Food Consumer Coalition, who helped the farmer immensely in the past few months. Also many thanks to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and the USDA, who have also been very kind and helpful.

As Anne Frank wrote, “No one has ever become poor by giving.”

Human nature to help others is hope for the future. Thank you for hope.

This weekend we celebrate Mother’s Day. This is undoubtedly a human holiday, but I’d like to reflect on all things that bring life into the world. This includes something slimy and delicious and somewhat mysterious… kombucha!

Kombucha originated around 2,000 years ago in the Far East. It is a bubbly tangy fermented beverage with tremendous health benefits for your brain, your heart, and especially your gut.

The active culture in kombucha is called a SCOBY (which stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast). My kids like to call it the “kombucha mommy”.

As long as it’s fed and treated properly, the kombucha mommy will keep growing and producing kombucha babies indefinitely. Incredible!

You feed the kombucha mommy black tea sweetened with sugar (cane sugar, honey, or other sugars). Then, the mommy jumpstarts the fermentation process, eating the sugar and producing enzymes and lots of probiotic bacteria.

When consumed, these probiotic bacteria line your digestive tract and support your immune system, as they absorb nutrients and fight infection and illness.

The kombucha mommy takes the shape of the container it’s in and typically floats at the top. When healthy, it will continue to get thicker and thicker.

The kombucha mommy is odd to handle. It’s slimy and feels a bit like smooth raw chicken breast. You can chop up the mommy and make more mommies and even more kombucha.

Just like most human mothers, the kombucha mommy works tirelessly. It grows as its babies grow. It needs to stay in balance. And, it relies on input from the outside world to stay healthy.

Thank you to all the mommies this week who work tirelessly for their families. Thank you to the humans, cows, pigs, birds, bees, and all the other mommies. Without you, we would not have this beautiful diversity we call earth.

As Barbara Kingsolver wrote, “Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws."

I toast to you (with kombucha, of course)!

I had the privilege of visiting the Netherlands last weekend. Of course, I wanted to visit a farm. 

I was in luck! I found a Dutch farm that sold raw milk AND welcomed visitors.

In the Netherlands, only pasteurized milk can be bottled and sold in stores. Raw milk is legal if you buy it on the farm. Either the farmer manually puts it in your container from the bulk tank, or some farms have special milk vending machines where you can fill your own bottle.

The farm that I visited was “biologique” (the equivalent of “organic” in the US) but followed more conventional farming practices. The farmer cared deeply about his work and did it to the best of his ability. His father, grandfather, etc were all dairy farmers, and it’s his choice to continue the tradition, but with his own twist.

This farm was mechanized. Robots were everywhere.

There was a robot that cleaned the manure from the barn floor. 

There was a feeding robot that delivered individualized meals to groups of cows.

There was a robot milking machine that cleaned the udders, used a laser to find the teats, and fed the cow while it was being milked.

Each cow wore a collar with a tracking device, which logged their location, their diet, health stats, and how often they chose to get milked. The farmer said that the cows choose to get milked 2.8x in 24 hours.

Having a mechanized farm definitely has its advantages. 

You don’t need to clean up poop. 

You can keep meticulous records of everything without picking up a pencil.

You can minimize your labor. However, I’m conflicted on this one, as you do need to design and build and maintain and repair and update the robots.

However, there are downsides. 

The hands down biggest downside is the cost. The farmer at the farm I visited said that he was millions of dollars in debt from buying the machines and maintaining his farm. 

Because of this, his business model is not based on farming alone. He relies on running a store, a cafe, a daycare, a corn maze, a rehab center for disabled people, and more.

Other potential downsides I saw were being disconnected from the animals and nature, increased reliance on outside energy sources, and robot malfunctions resulting in mistreatment of animals.

So, are the farmers of the future robots? 

I suppose it depends on the farm, its needs, its goals. 

For me personally, I would prefer a human-run small family farm and would be comfortable with some robot helpers. 

What do you think?

We love getting feedback from customers. One thing that we hear fairly often is, “Your prices are so high.”

The farmer gave it some real thought and came up with five reasons why his prices are more expensive than most other farms in the area:

1. Goes above and beyond the requirements for raw milk safety. 

The farm is certified by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and does the required bi-annual tests on the milk and the cows. But the farmer also does on farm testing for every batch of milk. 

The cows’ udders and teats are cleaned meticulously. It’s not a simple swipe with an iodine covered towel. Every crevice is inspected for trapped dirt or manure. This takes time. The milk is 100% manure-free.

Miller’s is also a single source dairy. The milk comes from one farm. 

All of this means that, if there’s ever a problem, the farmer can diagnose and fix it quickly.

You can learn more about the farmer’s milk safety standards here.

2. Brand new facilities and an extreme focus on cleanliness. 

It costs more to pay for these pristine facilities. The barn, bulk tank, bottling machine, prep area, and storage are all in separate rooms. They are brand new and up to modern standards.

The farm staff spend hundreds of hours every year cleaning the milking equipment and prep areas. This is much more than the average farm. The facilities are spotless.

3. Pay his staff fairly.

Many Amish businesses hire teenagers and pay them well below minimum wage. It is considered a part of their education, which is great. The farmer does hire teens for extra help but not for his main staff required to run the business. 

The farmer pays his staff fairly at a living wage. Now, this certainly doesn’t mean they’re rich and hoarding away money. It’s far far far from that. But, it does mean that his staff are stable and do not need supplemental income to pay their personal bills. 

4. Doesn’t cut corners. Ever.

From feed quality to medical care for animals to cleaning standards to processing, the farmer does not make compromises. This is true even when he’s struggling financially.

The farmer’s mission is to produce real farm fresh, nutrient-dense, great tasting food. It’s the highest quality junk-free food possible. 

If this means spending more money on higher quality feed, he’ll do it. If it means adding time for cleaning, he’ll do it. If it means running more tests, he’ll do it. Quality and safety are of utmost importance.

5. Exceptional customer service. 

We strive to resolve all customers’ issues quickly, clearly, and with care. 

We answer customer’s emails within 12 hours. 

The farmer will personally call customers if there is an issue with their order. He sometimes calls just to say hi and that he appreciates them.

And, there is a guarantee on products. If you’re not satisfied, let us know. The farmer always does right by his customers.

We have proof that all of this does indeed produce the highest quality food with the best customer service.

Last week, we asked folks to give the farmer a high five by giving him a Google review. There was no reward besides doing something nice. We quickly surpassed the 100 review goal. You can check out the awesome 5-star reviews here.

The farmer’s purpose is to inspire a healthy generation of children and reduce healthcare costs long term. 

This means that he needs to create a sustainable business that he can pass on to his children. He needs a business that will stay in business. And his prices and practices are set to do just that.

Thank you so much for your support of Miller’s Biodiversity Farm! If you have any questions about our farming practices or otherwise, please don’t hesitate to ask :)

Enjoy the food!

Cooking the perfect steak is like winning a trophy. When you get it right, you are certainly celebrated.

The general consensus is that you should dry cook a steak, that internal temperature matters for how you like it “done”, and that it should be well seared. But, there’s one big issue that folks simply can’t agree on. 

When should you salt your steak? That is the question.

If you read a lot of cook books or listen to a bunch of foodie podcasts or even chat with various friends and family members, you’ll get a bunch of different perspectives on salting a steak. How do you know when to salt a steak? Let’s explore this a bit.

If you start with a room temperature steak, here are the results of salting.

Immediately after salting a steak, the salt sits on the surface, undissolved. The steaks juices remain inside. If you cook it now, you will get a nice, hard sear with a nice salty crust.

After about 3-4 minutes, the salt begins to draw out juice from the steak through the process of osmosis. You end up with a layer of liquid on top of the steak. If you cook the steak now, the initial heat energy is put into evaporating the liquid, and you won’t get a nice sear.

After about 10-15 minutes, the salt dissolves into a brine and starts to break down the muscle fibers of the meat. You will still have a good amount of liquid on the surface of the meat, resulting in a weak sear.

After about 40 minutes after salting, all of the brine has been absorbed into the meat. A slight amount of evaporation has occurred, causing the meat to be slightly more full of flavor. Since there’s no liquid on the outside, you’ll get a nice sear at this point.

Let’s say you let the salt brine sit even longer - overnight uncovered in the fridge. The salt brine goes deeper. It not only tenderizes the meat, breaking down the muscle structure, but will also impart deeper flavor. Sure, you lose some moisture overnight. But, in the end, this moisture loss is likely unnoticeable. 

So, what’s the verdict?

It seems that you can either salt a steak less than 4 minutes before cooking OR let the salt sit for 40 minutes or more before cooking. 

As long as you avoid minute 4-40 after salting, when the moisture sits on the outside of the meat, you should end up with a deliciously seared steak.

Of course, another option is to not salt the steak before cooking. Cook and then salt after. You’d certainly get a nice sear and have no moisture loss. However, in my opinion, you’d be missing out on some added flavor. I mean, there’s a reason that salt was one of the earliest commodities to be traded. It’s that good!

Salting will work with any steak from any animal. 

You may want to try a boneless steak like a Delmonico Steak, Flat Iron Steak, Ranch Steak, or Round Steak. Or, you can try a bone-in steak like a T-bone Steak or Pork Shoulder Steak.

Enjoy the food!

First, let’s get this straight. Bone broth is not a regular stock or broth. It’s the superhero of stocks. Some call is liquid gold.

Where stock and broth are boiled for a few hours, bone broth is simmered for up to 24 hours. Bone broth should also contain vinegar, which draws additional nutrients from the bones.

There are a lot of amazing benefits of bone broth, but today we’re going to focus on one - collagen!

Collagen is a protein that contains specific amino acids that are essential for rebuilding bone, connective tissue, and skin. These little amino acids do so much for your overall wellness.

According to ConsumerLab’s reviews, 1 cup of store bought bone broth contains anywhere from 2.5 to 11.5 grams of collagen. I assume that a homemade bone broth made from quality pasture raised bones (you know, the kind that’s like jello at room temperature) would have 11.5 grams of collagen or more per serving. 

There are many nutritionists, health coaches, and practitioners that recommend collagen supplements anywhere from 10-15 grams per day. So 1 cup of bone broth per day would cover it. And, since the only side effect of too much collagen (if that’s even possible) is a tummy ache, feel free to have as much as your body says it needs.

Collagen helps repair a leaky gut.

Your intestinal walls are made up of microscopic folds or “villi”. The villi are built from amino acids in collagen. The collagen literally seals the leaks.

Collagen improves the appearance of your hair, skin, and nails.

Starting at about age 35, you naturally start to produce less collagen. This is one reason why your hair may get brittle, your skin becomes less elastic and starts to form wrinkles, and your nails may be weaker. Adding more collagen to your diet is a great way to make your hair, skin, and nails smoother, firmer, and silkier.

Collagen impacts your joint health.

Like oil in a car, collagen allows your joints to move smoothly. As you age and collagen depletes, adding more collagen to your diet will help ease any pain or stiffness when your body moves.

Collagen supports bone formation, growth, and repair.

Your bones are made of ⅓ collagen. This is what allows them to be flexible. Adding collagen to your diet may support bone health by increasing the mineral density. There are studies that show collagen can also help with osteoporosis.

Collagen also supports your heart and liver function.

Specific amino acids in collagen can help your liver and heart repair itself from the damage caused by normal function.

And a great thing about bone broth is that it’s easy to make. You can find our bone broth recipe here.

It’s important to note that the quality and source of your bones will significantly impact the quality and amount of collagen in your broth. Please make sure you are sourcing from farms like ours that raise truly pastured animals.

Miller’s has a bunch of bone options for making an excellent bone broth: beef marrow bones, beef bones, pork bones, chicken neck and back, stewing hens, and more! 

To make things a bit easier for you, we created a bone broth collection where you can buy bone broth as well as ingredients to make it yourself.

And please remember to not throw away the leftover bones from your steaks, roasts, and other cuts. Those can be made into bone broth within a few days, or stick them in the freezer (along with your veggie scraps) for making bone broth later.

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*Photo by Jules

In honor of the farmer sending some beef cattle to the processor and re-upping our beef inventory this week, I’d like to dispel some myths about beef farming. 

These days, so many people have beef with beef. The general consensus is that by eating beef you are killing the planet. However, that blanket statement is simply not true. 

It’s not about what a farmer’s raising but rather about how the farmer’s raising it.

Listen, conventional beef farming in feedlots is awful - for the animals, for the workers, and for the planet. There’s no arguing that. 

But not all beef farmers are alike. When raising beef cattle sustainably, farmers are actually improving the earth. Dare I say saving the planet.

Let’s take a look at some common myths about beef farming. I’m not going to go into a terrible amount of detail, but I will give you some handy links where you can learn more.

Beef farming produces too much CO2. 

Not true. Well managed cattle are a net carbon sink. That means that sustainable cattle farming practices absorb more carbon than they release. 

Keep in mind that this is only true if the cattle are grazing on perennial pasture and moved to fresh pasture often.

Beef cattle produce too much methane. 

OK I can’t take this one on too strongly. I mean, cows fart. And burp. A lot. We can’t stop it. Their belches are exceptionally powerful. And, cows burp and fart more if they are eating grass. 

But, let’s put things into perspective here. Beef produces 3.3% of total greenhouse gas emissions, and methane is just one of those gasses. Transportation and electricity account for 56%. Is it fair to say that the methane argument is overstated by plant-based diet advocates?

Beef farming consumes too much water.

Not true. Listen, cows drink a lot of water. That’s a fact. Their feed also requires water to grow. And water is needed for processing, too. 

Grass fed and finished beef use 97% green water, 2% blue water, and 1% grey water. That means that 97% of the water used is naturally occurring rainfall. And, if your cattle are raised sustainably and chemical-free, all water used can return to our water cycle pretty quickly.

Water is needed to produce all food. Beef requires 280 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. A pound of rice requires 410 gallons. Avocados, walnuts, sugar, and many other foods all require more per pound than beef, too. 

Beef needs too much input. We should grow veggies on the land instead.

Let’s get this straight. Not all land can be cropped. 

More than 60% of the land globally and 40% of the land in the US is too rocky, steep, or arid to grow crops. However, it can raise pastured beef!

Moreover, on land that can be used for plants (like our farmer’s), raising 100% grass-fed pastured beef with care increases the fertility and vitality of the soil and ecosystem. 

By contrast, conventional (and conventional organic) methods of growing crops like soy or corn or wheat or basically anything can deplete the land. It can create dead soil, erosion, chemical contamination, minimizes wildlife, and so on.

So, will beef save the world? Well, maybe some beef farmers can. Can beef kill the world? Well, maybe some beef farmers can.

The ideal way to raise beef cattle needs to be on a farm by farm basis. What works in some areas may not work in others. But we know that farming needs to change to create a better food system and a better environment. 

And I’m not even going to mention the health benefits from eating beef. That’s a whole series of news articles!

When I talk to folks that care about the quality of their food, they more often than not report that they shop at Whole Foods. Gasp!

Commonly known as “Whole Paycheck”, these people think they’ve reached the highest echelon of food consumption by choosing this specific supermarket.

But, even though it does focus on providing more natural food choices, Whole Foods is still a supermarket. It is still part of our conventional food system. 

Don’t get me wrong. I shop at Whole Foods for specific things. I’m happy it exists… for now. However, our food system needs to be better than this. 

So, this is for our community of conscious shoppers. Let’s explore Whole Foods a bit.

You deserve transparency and honesty with your food.

We know how important food is to your health and the health of our planet. We want you to make educated food choices, and that means knowing everything about how your food was produced. 

Supermarkets like Whole Foods use confusing product labels. I’ll name a few - certified organic, grass-fed, % fat content in meat, GMO-free, gluten-free, pasture raised. None of these labels mean much anymore. Just because a food has this label, doesn’t mean it’s automatically healthy, chemical-free, or anywhere close to what you think it means.

And, if you try to reach out to Whole Foods or the companies that supply Whole Foods, good luck! Much of the information is “proprietary”.

We don’t use confusing product labels to make you think the food is healthier than it appears. You deserve honesty, not shady marketing and advertising efforts. And, if you ever need more info, we will go above and beyond to find you an accurate answer.

We need to minimize food waste.

If you’ve ever peeked inside a supermarket’s dumpster, you know that an exorbitant amount of food is simply thrown away. I mean, would you buy a bruised banana or expired bread? 

The USDA estimates that total food waste in the US is around 30-40%, and 31% of food at supermarkets is wasted. That’s about 131 billion pounds of perfectly good food! Such a shame.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, Whole Foods got a B for their path to zero food waste. They do track their volume of food waste but do not share that information publicly. They report being committed to reducing food waste, but the commitment is not company-wide or time-bound.

At Miller’s we have zero food waste. That’s right. If any food is produced but can’t be sold, it gets composted or fed to the pigs. Food never gets thrown away.

Small farmers need your support, not conventional agri-business.

Let’s get this straight. Whole Foods is a supermarket. A big one. Especially now that it’s owned by Amazon - the company that made $11.2 billion in profit in 2018 but did not pay any income tax. 

I mean, who do you want to support?

It’s the farmers that are out every day - tending the fields, milking the cows, and keeping the barn clean. It’s that sweat equity that deserves some financial thanks. 

With modern technology, it’s getting easier and easier to buy from small farmers, and I do hope that you make an effort to do so.

Thanks so much for your support and love of real farm food! Best wishes for you and your family in 2020 :)

As you may have noticed, our soy-free eggs are out of stock. And this is so very sad for us. Our soy-free eggs are one of our best selling products, and many of our customers rely on us for eggs. We never like taking nutritious and delicious foods off the menu, and we certainly do not like letting our customers down.

You may be wondering why the eggs are out of stock. I mean, they’re basically always available. Let me try to explain.

Egg inventory can be a big challenge to manage. This is why our farmer has a primary source of eggs (Wholesome Living Acres) and a couple backup farms just in case. 

Here are some reasons why egg production varies:

It’s too hot.
It’s too cold.
It’s too wet.
The chickens are too young (hens start laying when they’re 4-5 months old).
The chickens are too old (egg production starts dropping when a hen turns 1 year old, and a hen stops laying when she’s about 3 years old).
There’s not enough daylight hours (hens need about 14-16 hours of daylight to lay).
The farmer changed the feed.
The farmer changed the housing.
The chickens are sick (although this rarely happens with our happy, truly pastured chickens).
The farmer had too many eggs so he sold a flock, then one of the above happened.
The farmer added some new chickens to the flock.
The farmer got a completely new flock.
Foxes, coyotes, hawks, or eagles ravage the flock.

So, you see what I mean? It takes a lot of care and attention to keep a healthy flock producing eggs. And they are living in nature, where every element cannot be controlled. So… egg inventory varies.

In this particular instance, it’s a combination of causes. The main egg farmer had too many eggs in the fall. So he sold a flock. Then, his inventory dropped, so he got a new flock, which isn’t producing well in the winter. And, our backup sources happen to be having similar problems, too!

Is it the chicken or the egg? It’s the same old problem.

It’s also important to note that, just like humans, chickens are born with a certain amount of eggs. And, just like humans, they release new eggs on a regular basis. However, unlike humans, chickens always have about 6-8 weeks of eggs that have been released but are in some stage of development inside their bodies. Pretty neat!

Oh what a life an egg farmer has!

We stand for transparency. Because of that, we wanted to give you a heads up and explain why and how the prices will be changing a bit.

Farmer Aaron has been working with a financial consultant to figure out how much it costs him to produce and deliver each product. This is a detailed study, and not a general overview like he’s done in the past. 

Now that he has the numbers, he’s surprised that he’s been overcharging for some items and undercharged for others. So… Aaron is making some changes. Here’s what to expect.

Some prices will increase and some will go down.

For example, the half gallon of milk in glass will drop from $10.14 to $8.00. As another example, the soy-free eggs will be increasing by $0.25.

The prices will be more customer friendly.

For example, a product with the price $10.02 will likely be rounded to an even $10.00. We hope that it makes it easier for you to shop and budget for your farm food.

The prices will be more competitive.

Aaron knows that his customers value quality the most. But, second to quality is price and convenience. He wants the new price changes to more align with similar farms in his area.

These changes will take effect in the next month or so. So stay tuned!

Aaron relies on customer feedback to constantly improve what he does. If there’s anything that would improve your Miller’s shopping experience, please let us know!

Last week farmer Aaron attended the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) Sustainable Agriculture Conference in Lancaster County. It’s a place where farmers, food system professionals, educators, advocates, homesteaders, and more gather yearly to learn about food and farming topics.

A highlight of the conference was hearing Mark McAfee, founder of the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) and Organic Pastures in California, speak about the safety and quality of raw milk. It was a boost of confidence for Aaron, confirming that he’s holding his farm to the highest possible standards. 

Another thing gained from the conference was a refresher on the benefits of raw grass-fed milk. You see, RAWMI has been collecting testimonials and science-based research that backs what has been generally known for thousands of years - raw milk is good for you!

Listen, this is a huge topic. I’m going to focus on three of the many important topics discussed at the conference.

Raw milk reduces the risk of asthma and allergies in kids. 

This is pretty big news to some of the most pressing problems in today’s American kids. And yes, there’s science-based research to back it up. 

A study of over 8,000 European children showed that raw milk consumption is associated with significantly lower rates of asthma and allergies. And, in fact, consumption of pasteurized milk increases the likelihood of milk allergies, which is a huge problem in America today.

A study of over 900 European children concluded that, "Continuous farm [raw] milk consumption in childhood protects against asthma at school age.”

A study of over 4,000 European children found that consumption of raw milk was associated with a strong protective effect against eczema.

Raw milk is not dangerous.

It is true that milk produced as “intended for pasteurization” and produced by confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) is generally unsanitary and not safe for raw consumption. 

CAFOs’ animals are not raised in nice conditions. They rely on antibiotics for health and hormones for adequate milk production. And, there’s lots of manure everywhere and all the time. This is a recipe for a dangerous disaster if the milk is consumed raw.

However, raw milk that is intentionally produced for human consumption is a completely different story. It’s a low-risk food with incredible health benefits.

This type of milk is usually farmed with great care and attention to the animals’ health and well-being. 

Doctors and healthcare professionals routinely warn patients that raw milk is unsafe to consume, but there is ample evidence that this conclusion is not applicable to carefully-produced raw milk. 

And I mean, come on, it’s probably more dangerous to eat lettuce from a supermarket than to consume properly produced raw milk.

Easy access to modern testing of raw milk makes it inarguably safe.

Although Miller’s is pretty darn old fashioned, it does use modern technology in a few really smart ways to produce the highest quality dairy possible. In addition to the off-site pathogen testing required by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Miller’s also has a small on-site testing lab. 

The farmer tests every batch of milk for Coliform and SPC/APC. These tests are for general bacteria count and help the farmer quickly diagnose and fix any cleanliness issues in the milk production lines. You can check out his test results here.

This is how the farmer realized that, despite cleaning udders and teats with iodine, his method wasn’t enough. There was still manure in the milk. He needed to clean more thoroughly. Now, the farmer can confidently say he produces manure-free milk that doesn’t taste like a barn and lasts two weeks without souring!

The farmer hopes to join RAWMI one day. 

He’s already following its standards. It’s simply time and money that’s holding him back right now. But, he’d love to have that certification as extra proof of what he’s producing.

Any questions about our milk? Shout it out!

First, it’s important to note that I’m not a doctor, and I don’t have any degrees in nutrition or psychology. These are simply some things that I learned and was compelled to share.

I went to a seminar about childhood anxiety this week. The second half was presented by a wonderful osteopathic doctor who spoke about how your gut talks to your brain. 

It’s quite amazing. The foods we eat and how we treat our digestive system have a direct link to the health of our brain. 

The gut is complex and important. It’s our second brain. The gut contains more neurons than the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system. It has 100 million neurons! And, it’s interesting to note that 95% of the body’s serotonin is found in the gut. 

80% of our immune system is also in our gut. Our gut’s microbiome can weigh up to 4.5 lbs and contains about 100 trillion bacteria. There are 1,000 different species with more than 3 million genes just in our gut.

The gut sends many signals to the brain. But the brain sends only a small fraction back to the gut. 

Signals from the gut can reach certain parts of the brain that control self awareness, morality, emotion, fear, memory, and motivation. There is definitely truth to the saying “trust your gut”.

Your gut is your second brain. So, if you want good mental health, you may want to move digestive health to the top of your list.

You may have read some exciting new research linking gut health to autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, depression, and other diseases. We still need a lot of research to understand the complexity of our second brain and how it can influence us, but we can be certain that there’s a link.

So, what can we do to improve our gut health?

One thing to do is talk to your doctor. They may have some advice for testing and nutrition. 

Stool testing is great for finding out the balance of your gut microbiome. Your doctor may be able to prescribe a stool test, or you can order an at home kit that you mail to a lab.

There is no one diet that works for all bodies. Although finding foods that work for you is personal, there are some overarching food guidelines for good gut health.

One thing’s for certain - prebiotics and probiotics are imperative. You can get this most naturally through fermented foods (but there are also supplements available).

Raw or cultured dairy, fermented veggies, kombucha, and other fermented foods will help cleanse and add good bacteria to your gut. 

Eating fibrous foods is very important as well. Oats, popcorn, beans, dark colored vegetables, and fruits are all great sources of fiber.

And, of course, quality matters. The food produced with the most care and the least processing will have the biggest impact on your gut health.

So here’s to your gut. Trust it, listen to it, and love it. In return, you will feel better physically and emotionally.

I see a great change happening in food right now. People are ordering online waaaay more than they used to. They are avoiding stores. This is the future for some really important reasons.

You avoid toxic chemicals used to sanitize supermarkets.

By law or their own volition, stores everywhere are now following much stricter sanitation guidelines to keep people “safe”. Now, I do appreciate the efforts to protect the most vulnerable. However, we may be overlooking an evil here - toxic chemicals that can have a negative impact on your health.

The CDC provided guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting facilities, with a handy link to EPA-approved cleaners that will destroy SARS-CoV-2. My first thought is, why are they listed in the EPA’s pesticide section? And my second thought is, many of those are toxic to humans - why are we harming people while trying to protect them?

Let’s take one of the most popular cleaners - Clorox Clean-Up with Bleach (the commercial version). It scored a D in the Environmental Working Group’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning. EWG found moderate concern for asthma or respiratory issues and some concerns for skin allergies and irritation, developmental and reproductive toxicity, and cancer.

So…. let’s just say farm fresh delivery sounds much better to me than the supermarket.

It’s quicker and more convenient.

Everyone wants more time, right? Ordering online, especially when you repeat orders from the same farm, is so much faster!

It takes me about 2 hours to go food shopping with my 3 kids. When I order online from a new store, it probably takes 30-60 minutes. And, when I repeat online grocery orders, it takes less than 10 minutes every time. So much time saved!!!

It’s a more efficient way to get your food.

By ordering directly from a small farmer, you are cutting out a big part of the supermarket supply chain. Think about all the refrigerated warehouses and tractor trailer trucks that you can avoid using by ordering farm fresh food online.

You are also cutting your gas bill, the wear and tear on your vehicle, and toll personal driving takes on the environment and our infrastructure. It’s more efficient for a UPS truck to deliver 100 people’s food orders in one day than those 100 people driving solo to the store and back.

You save money by not using your vehicle.

You are cutting your gas bill, the wear and tear on your vehicle, and the toll personal driving takes on the environment and our infrastructure. It’s more efficient for a driver to deliver 100 people’s food orders in one day than those 100 people driving solo to the store and back.

You save money by buying exactly what you need.

Although prices when ordering food online can be higher than the supermarket (you’re paying for shipping one way or another), you do not suffer from the inane in-store advertising that often results in impulse buying of moderately delicious and questionably healthy food.

It’s a more efficient way to get your food and better for the environment.

By ordering directly from a small farmer, you are cutting out a big part of the supermarket supply chain. Think about all the refrigerated warehouses and tractor trailer trucks that you can avoid using by ordering farm fresh food online.

You can more directly support small farmers. 

Small farmers that are regenerating soil, raising animals humanely, and producing nutrient-dense food are worth supporting. We thank you so much for your support of Miller’s Biodiversity Farm!

Farmer Aaron told me a fascinating story. It all started about a month ago when he had way too much manure and offered it to a neighboring conventional farm. 

At first, the neighboring farmer said no. Then the farmer said he’d deliver it to him. The neighboring farmer agreed.

The neighboring farmer spread his manure on one half of his pasture and Miller’s manure on the other half. There was a clear divide in the pasture where the manure was spread. Over the next few weeks as the pasture grew in, there was a clear difference between the two sides. 

The pasture with Miller’s manure was 1-2 feet higher than the pasture with conventional manure. The neighboring farmer could see it from quite a distance. 

Now the neighboring farmer knows that Miller’s has the best sh*t. He wants more manure!

So, what’s going on here? Why did conventional manure result in a lower yield? Why did Miller’s manure result in healthier pasture?

The main reasons why conventional manure is substandard is the routine use of antibiotics, hormones, and synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Most farms using these practices have mono-cropped fields and confined feeding operations. 

The use of antibiotics contributes to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This transfers in the manure. It not only increases the risk of infectious disease transmission but also disrupts the wonderfully abundant soil microbiology needed for healthy pastures.

The use of hormones in animals creates a false sense of health. Conventional manure simply doesn’t have the same nutrient content as naturally healthy cow manure. The better the food, the healthier the cow, and the more nutrient-rich the manure. And, a side note is that hormones do transfer to manure, get in the water system, and negatively affect the fertility of fish, frogs, and other marine life.

Similarly, the use of synthetic pesticides and herbicides creates a false sense of health in the soil. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides transfer to the corn and soy that is fed to conventional cattle. It then goes in the manure and is spread on pasture. Now you have glyphosate and other chemicals in your field… and not naturally occurring nutrients.

As you can see, there are many reasons that organically grown and regenerative farming practices produce a much higher quality manure. 

Farmer Aaron is a regenerative farmer. This means that he is committed to constantly improving the health of his soil, the health of his animals, and the quality of his food. 

Farmer Aaron’s manure increases the amount of available minerals in the manure. It improves the natural microbiology of the soil. And, it improves his yields. It just works. 

As you can see, there are many reasons that our sh*t is the best. 

You can help the cause in your home garden. Stay away from anything synthetic and source quality natural fertilizers. Rotate plants or use permaculture techniques to improve soil quality. Let nature do all it can naturally.

And you can help the cause by supporting farmers who use regenerative farming practices like our farm. Thanks for your support making our world a happier and healthier place to live!

Miller’s Bio Farm started offering produce this spring, knowing that our customers needed access to fresh fruits and veggies during the lockdown. We can tell that our customers like it, because.... well... you keep ordering more fruits and veggies! 

Produce offerings this week include broccoli, curly parsley, English hull peas, fresh garlic, garlic scapes, gold grape tomatoes, green cabbage, lettuce, green zucchini, red beets, mini purplette onions, NJ blueberries, ginger, pineapple, slicing cucumbers, snow peas, sweet basil, yellow onions, and white mushrooms.

We are so happy to be able to provide you this service and are happy to solve any produce problems that come our way.

Depleted soils and distance traveled result in less nutritious produce. Our produce comes from local regenerative farmers.

A simple broccoli crown is not what it was 100 years ago, when most soil was naturally rich in vitamins and minerals. Now, after decades of conventional farming practices, soils are depleted. 

“A Kushi Institute analysis of nutrient data from 1975 to 1997 found that average calcium levels in 12 fresh vegetables dropped 27 percent; iron levels 37 percent; vitamin A levels 21 percent, and vitamin C levels 30 percent.” (Dirt Poor, Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious?)

Add this to the fact that some fruits and veggies like strawberries or oranges are harvested before they are ripe so they can travel thousands of miles to the consumer… you get the point.

Our produce comes from Lancaster Farm Fresh. The collective of farmers are stewards of land and think forward generationally. They aim to improve the health of communities through fresh nutrient-rich produce as well as the health of the land. It goes hand in hand!

It can be hard to predict exactly what will be available and how much folks will be interested in. We do our best to keep it interesting and get what you want.

Lancaster Farm Fresh’s offerings change every week based on what’s in season and what’s available. Our inventory changes accordingly and is typically updated mid-week.

The on farm manager Lena has been having fun picking different fruits and veggies for you and trying her best to get things that sell out again and again. She hopes you are enjoying it.

Keeping it fresh and avoiding spoiled produce is a constant work in progress.

It can be a challenge to get fruits and veggies to you in perfect condition. Too much condensation or not enough air flow for too long can completely ruin a great cucumber.

The farm staff are constantly improving their packing. And all that they do is in response to your valued feedback!

Different sizes led us to charge by the pound.

We are now selling most produce by the pound! This is because a large tomato and a small tomato should not be the same cost. It not only makes packing easier but also makes charges fairer for you.

We love hearing feedback from our customers. Is there a way we can improve the produce? Is there something you’d like to see that we aren’t carrying?

Farmer Aaron got his first grill ever. Wow! He’s ready to explore grilling this summer, and would love to take you on this adventure with him.

A tried and true meat for the grill is a nice steak. Miller’s has a variety of 100% grass fed and finished steak options for you.

Now, if you’re new to grilling steaks, I highly suggest using a meat thermometer when you get started. This will help you get the perfect cook. I also recommend reading this article about when to salt your steak. Super important!

Steak is pretty basic, but there’s a sophisticated yet simple way to dress it up - compound butter! 

It takes your backyard BBQ to 5 Michelin star level (OK I might be exaggerating a bit… but it is pretty darn delicious).

Compound butter is softened butter, whipped with herbs and spices and can be sweet or savory. The flavor combinations are endless. Think garlic and chives, rosemary and thyme, orange or lemon zest, and honey and cinnamon. Mmmmm.

With steak, I prefer to go savory. Check out this recipe.

Garlic Herb Compound Butter Recipe

When your steak is done, serve it with a slice of compound butter on top. It will drip off the sides and add a punch of flavor and a boost of juiciness to your meal. 

If steak isn’t your thing, you can use compound butter on so many things - bread, veggies, grilled mushrooms, and corn on the cob.

If steak is your thing, you may want to take advantage of some great bundle deals the farmer has now. 

You can save a few dollars per pound on a 10 pack of flat iron steaks, a 20 pack of NY strip steaks, a 10 pack of ranch steaks, or a 10 pack of sirloin steaks. Each bundle comes in individually sealed packages so you can keep it frozen and defrost as needed.

Have any tips about cooking steak? Reply to this email to pass your knowledge on to the farmer!

Farmer Aaron and his wife Rebecca have a new baby! And she came at the perfect time.

Barbie Miller was born on July 18 weighing 7 lb 10 oz. Barbie is the 6th child in the Miller family. She is named after the three farm staff named Barbie who help prepare and pack your order each week. Baby Barbie brings so much happiness to the farm.

These days, it seems that happiness is lacking. Our world has become consumed with worry and fear and divisiveness. The future is ever changing and uncertain. 

This can lead to increased stress and anxiety.

But, there is a remedy and a peaceful protest to this state of life. It’s happiness!

I chatted with farmer Aaron about what makes him happy, and there are many things - smiling babies, satisfied customers, everyone working together, seeing passionate people, and butterflies and birds.

All of Aaron’s kids get really happy when the turkeys gobble. They make weird sounds until the bigger toms get their feathers rustled and finally gobble.

Aaron’s boys are happy doing “big person things” like making hay and driving horses.

Aaron’s oldest daughter Martha finds joy in making bouquets for customers. And, she really loves getting thank yous for the bouquets.

Happiness is contagious. But, it’s still up to you to grab it. It’s not only a state of being, it’s a practice.

Butterflies fly by all the time. If you’re consumed with other thoughts and bogged down with the state of the world, you may not notice them. But, if you can let your guard down, you can notice the butterflies. If you notice the butterflies, you can allow them to bring you happiness. Let it flow through you.

Especially in a world lacking positivity, it’s extra important to make room in your mind for happiness. 

It’s about enjoying the simple things in life. It’s a free gift. It's an inspiration. It’s a way to fight back in today’s crazy world.

It has been said that 60 seconds of anger is 1 minute of happiness lost.

What brings you happiness?

There is only one reason soy is in animal feed - it’s cheap!!!

Soy is government subsidized. About 70% of the cost of soy is paid by the government, which warps the actual cost of soy.

On top of that, the soy in animal feed is a byproduct. Most soy is grown to be made into soybean oil. What’s left is the soy fiber, which is toasted (to make it “digestible”) and added to feed.

Feeding animals soy leads to a plethora of negative health consequences. 

Fed with soy is bad for the animals, the soil, the environment, and the humans that consume food produced with soy. It’s a lot to write about. If you’re curious, you can read more about the benefits of feeding chickens a soy-free feed here.

For a small farmer, this is a tough place to be. Produce more expensive healthy food or more affordable less healthy food? You can’t do both.

Farmer Aaron wants the healthiest animals that will produce a bounty of naturally healthy food for his customers and naturally healthy soil for the earth. That’s his purpose. 

But… that means that his quality food and land is more expensive and not accessible to all. That is a sad thing.

Let’s think about this in a different way. Soy-free food is more expensive right now but will likely save you lots of money in the long run.

Eating a naturally healthy diet makes you healthier. We have personally heard anecdotal stores from so many of our customers! 

And, this means less healthcare costs in the future! And wouldn’t that be great? It seems that the cost of healthcare keeps going up and up. People are getting sicker and sicker, becoming more and more dependent on the medical monolith. Let’s turn it around with real food.

All of Miller’s Bio Farm’s products come from animals fed a soy-free diet (with the exception of the “regular eggs” offered from time to time).

Right now, we have a LOT of soy-free eggs, which means that farmer Aaron can offer a super deal for a limited time.

Buy a 15 dozen soy-free egg bundle and save about 20% on soy-free eggs!

I know what you’re thinking - that’s a lot of eggs!!! Here’s a few tips for handling an enormous amount of eggs.

1 - The “sell buy” date for eggs is set at 6 weeks past the pack date. That is what the USDA requires. However, when  refrigerated, eggs should easily last about 4 weeks past their “sell buy” date.

2 - Deals like this are worth shouting out to your like minded community. Buy 15 dozen and split it with a couple friends.

3 - You can freeze eggs! Crack them, stir them up, and freeze in portions. They will last up to a year with no degradation in the freezer.

Enjoy the food, and enjoy the eggs!

The other day, I read a great opinion piece about how the stress of the pandemic is different from any other stress we may encounter. 

It explained how we have a certain “surge capacity” for dealing with disaster. Humans adapt mentally and physically after difficult situations like natural disasters, life changing medical diagnoses, or other traumatic experiences. We are able to cope pretty well with these short term stresses, even if the recovery period may be long or unknown.

But… the pandemic is different. We don’t know when it will end, how it will end, what measures will be put in place next. It’s like having an earthquake and the tremors just keep going... FOREVER. Our body is NOT designed to deal with this. It is stressful.

I chatted with farmer Aaron about this. The next day, I got an uplifting fax from him with some fantastic remedies for overcoming bad days. 

(View image to print and hang on your fridge)

This really made my day. It put me back in the driver seat of life. And, it got me thinking about how stress is dealt with on the farm.

When I asked Aaron how he tackles a bad day, he said “Well, I don’t know, because I don’t really have bad days. Within a bad day, you can have a good day.” 

Here’s an example. A new family moved on the farm last week (they are going to help with farm chores). Before their arrival, Aaron and his family sacrificed many hours of sleep, scrambling to prepare the house for their arrival. They had many repairs and lots of cleaning to do. 

Running out of time, they hired a painter to help, and he did an awful job. He not only painted the walls but also the windows and the floors! Oh no! 

Aaron and his wife Rebecca called the girls that work on the farm, their parents, and their brothers and sisters. They asked for help on Friday afternoon. It turned into a community effort and pulled everyone together in a fun work party. 

Somehow, someway, they scrubbed that paint… and that negativity... away. They chose to see the positive in a difficult situation. Without even thinking about it, Aaron used many tips from the sheet he shared with me. 

He looked for the positive in the situation. He told people they are appreciated. He dealt with conflict by attacking the problem, not the person. He solved the problem, and moved on. And, he made work fun!

OK OK OK I know this is an example of normal “surge capacity”. But, I think what’s remarkable is that farmer Aaron didn’t need to think about it. Positivity is a life practice for him.

The same goes for the farm staff. The farm staff sing while they pack your orders. Lena, the on farm manager, aims to make work fun. She rotates jobs so no one gets bored. They spend a good amount of time laughing every day.

I’m not there yet. I have work to do. I have the “Ways to Tackle a Bad Day” sheet hanging on my fridge as a daily reminder. And, I will use these strategies to deal with the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic.

How are you dealing with stress? How are you incorporating positivity into your life? Anything new you’d like to try?

You’ve likely heard the sayings “turn lemons into lemonade” and “don’t cry over spilled milk”. But what do you do with too much milk or sour milk? There certainly should be a saying about that. 

If you accidentally over-purchase milk or your raw milk sours faster than you can drink it, please don’t dump that wonderful liquid down the drain. The ladies on the farm worked so hard to produce it.

I have a solution for you - “Ricotta get going!” Turn your extra milk into ricotta cheese!

Ricotta cheese is a soft semi-sweet cheese. There are many delicious possibilities. You can eat it with a spoon like yogurt, make a sweet or savory dip, use it as a filling for lasagna or to make a cheesecake or cannolis. 

Ricotta is really easy to make. In fact, traditional cultures have been making it for 4,000 years! It’s traditionally made using whey, but you can also make it with whole milk or soured raw milk.

Ricotta literally means “recooked”. That’s because you heat fermented milk to make it. The heating process (with a little acid to help) turns the protein into curd. Then, you strain it for a few minutes. 

Want to give it a try? It’s a great activity to do as a cheap date or as a fun and meaningful educational activity with your kids. Check out this recipe:

Ricotta Cheese Recipe

Miller’s Bio Farm is a zero waste facility. 

We make most things to order. Extra milk is made into cheese, butter, and ghee. And, any food that is too old to sell is fed to the animals or composted. Nothing gets thrown in the trash!

Please join us in reducing food waste at home! Ricotta get going!

Farmer Aaron and his family needed help. Completing all the farm chores, running a business, holding down a household, and being active with their church and community was getting to be too much to handle with sporadic help here and there. 

The Miller’s needed some relief. They needed some freedom. They needed some more sleep.

So, farmer Aaron put an ad in the Busy Beaver (a local Amish newspaper) a few months ago looking for full-time farm help. He got a big response with about 10 people from his local Amish community interested! After a hefty interview process, Aaron hired Daniel to help on the farm. 

Daniel, his wife Rebecca, and their four young children moved into one half of the farmer’s house a few weeks ago. Welcome to the farm Daniel and family!

Daniel previously worked in construction. Then, his family got into farming. They worked a conventional farm for about 2 years, but he soon got tired of it and quit. 

Conventional farming didn’t work financially, and he realized that the chemicals weren’t good. Daniel started reading lots of farming and grazing magazines, and his eyes were opened to the world of natural and regenerative farming. When he saw Aaron’s ad, he knew he had to go for it.

Daniel has been training with Aaron for a couple months now.

His main responsibilities are moving and feeding the cows, milking the cows, seeding and making hay, taking care of the pigs, and record keeping. He also helps a bit with the chickens and turkeys.

At Miller’s Bio Farm, it’s all about the details. This is why training and double checking is really important.

Are the cows moved to the right place? Is the right amount of feed being given to the pigs? Is the hay harvested at the right time? Is the equipment spotlessly clean?

The first three are pretty easy to monitor. But that last one needs some precise measuring. 

Luckily, Miller’s has a pretty easy way to tell if Daniel and his family are cleaning the equipment properly - on farm testing! Every batch of milk is tested on the farm. If there’s ever a high reading… well, Aaron knows he needs to quickly diagnose the issue and provide guidance in solving the problem. 

The Miller’s team is so happy to have Daniel, Rebecca, and family on board. As the team grows, so does our ability to inspire healthy generations.

Don't waste - eat the whole beast. Plus, the organs are packed with major nutritional value!

Here's the status of bones and organs as of today.

BEEF 

(shop for beef bones and organs here)

• Beef Bones - in stock ****PUT ON SALE 15% with this newsletter***
• Beef Blood - not allowed by the USDA
• Beef Brains - we are working with the processor to sell this and hopefully will have some in stock in November
• Beef Eyes - the processor is looking into this
• Beef Heart - in stock
• Beef Intestines - if we can convince the processor to do it, we will sell it
• Beef Kidney - in stock
• Beef Liver - in stock
• Beef Lungs - the processor is looking into this
• Beef Soup Bones with Meat and Marrow - in stock
• Beef Spleen - we are working with the processor to sell this and hopefully will have some in stock in November
• Beef Testicles - the processor is looking into this
• Beef Thyroid - not allowed by the USDA because of Mad Cow Disease
• Beef Thymus/Sweetbreads - if we can convince the processor to do it, we will sell it
• Beef Tongue - in stock
• Beef Tripe/Stomach - we are working with the processor to sell this and hopefully will have some in stock in November
• Canoed Beef Marrow Bones - in stock
• Cow Head - too big to deliver
• Knuckle Bone - we expect these to be back in stock in November
• Ground Beef Heart - the farmer cannot sell this on a regular basis because there’s usually not enough of the whole beef heart to make ground
• Ground Beef Kidney - the farmer cannot sell this on a regular basis because there’s usually not enough of the whole beef kidney to make ground
• Ox Tail - in stock
• Sliced Beef Marrow Bones - we expect these to be back in stock in two weeks
  
  
  

POULTRY 

(shop for poultry bones and organs here)

• Chicken Blood - not allowed by the USDA
• Chicken Feet - in stock
• Chicken Gizzards - in stock NEED TO GET INVENTORY FROM AARON
• Chicken Heads (brains and eyes included) - we expect these to be back in stock in two weeks
• Chicken Hearts - in stock
• Chicken Liver - in stock
• Chicken Lungs - the processor is looking into this
• Chicken Neck and Back - in stock
• Chicken Spleen - the processor is looking into this
• Turkey Blood - not allowed by the USDA
• Turkey Feet - not for sale, the farmer uses these for turkey broth
• Turkey Gizzards - in stock
• Turkey Heads (brains and eyes included) - not for sale, the farmer uses these for turkey broth
• Turkey Hearts - we expect these to be back in stock sometime in November, but they sell out quickly
• Turkey Livers - in stock
• Turkey Neck and Back - not for sale, the farmer uses these for turkey broth
• Turkey Spleen - the processor is looking into this

LAMB & GOAT 

(shop for lamb & goat bones and organs here)

• Goat Blood - not allowed by the USDA
• Goat Bones - in stock NEED TO GET INVENTORY FROM AARON
• Goat Head (brains and eyes included) - in stock 
• Goat Heart - there will more the next time the farmer processes goats, and we don’t know when that will be
• Goat Intestines - if we can convince the processor to do it, we will sell it
• Goat Kidneys - there will more the next time the farmer processes goats, and we don’t know when that will be
• Goat Liver - there will more the next time the farmer processes goats, and we don’t know when that will be
• Goat Lungs - the processor is looking into this
• Goat Soup Bones - there will more the next time the farmer processes goats, and we don’t know when that will be
• Goat Stomach - we would like to sell this if the processor will do it, the farmer will ask about that
• Goat Tongue - in stock
• Goat Spleen - the processor is looking into this
  
• Goat Stomach - we would like to sell this if the processor will do it, the farmer will ask about that
• Lamb Blood - not allowed by the USDA
• Lamb Bones - in stock
• Lamb Head (brains and eyes included) - there will more the next time the farmer processes lamb, and that will probably be in the spring
• Lamb Heart - in stock
• Lamb Intestines - if we can convince the processor to do it, we will sell it
• Lamb Kidneys - in stock
• Lamb Liver - in stock
• Lamb Lungs - the processor is looking into this
• Lamb Meaty Shank Bone - there will more the next time the farmer processes lamb, and that will probably be in the spring
• Lamb Tail - in stock
• Lamb Testicles - there will more the next time the farmer processes lamb, and that will probably be in the spring
• Lamb Spleen - the processor is looking into this
• Lamb Stomach - we would like to sell this if the processor will do it, the farmer will ask about that
  
  
  

PORK 

(shop for pork bones and organs here)

• Pork Blood - not allowed by the USDA
• Pork Bones - in stock
• Pork Ears - back in stock probably in December
• Pork Feet - in stock
• Pork Head (brains and eyes included) - in stock
• Pork Heart - back in stock probably in December
• Pork Intestines - if we can convince the processor to do it, we will sell it
• Pork Kidney - in stock
• Pork Liver - in stock
• Pork Lungs - the processor is looking into this
• Pork Skin - in stock
• Pork Stomach - the farmer is not interested in selling it
• Pork Tail - back in stock probably in December
• Pork Tongue - back in stock probably in December
• Pork Spleen  - the processor is looking into this
• Smoked Pork Jowl - in stock

Growing up, I would go to my Grandma’s house for Christmas. It was basically the same menu every year. I remember the sound and feeling of cracking walnuts at the table, the spice of her mashed turnips on my tongue, and the smell of the brown sugar glazed spiraled ham baking in the oven.

Oh that spiraled Christmas ham! 

You probably know what I’m talking about. It’s cut like a slinky on a bone. It’s pricked with cloves and doused in a sweet orange brown sugar sauce. I have to admit I’m a bit of a sweet tooth and would look forward to that ham every year.

But... as I got older and became more aware of the healing powers of food, I began to think twice about that ham. 

It was a conventional ham, and you know what that means. The pig was vaccinated and given hormones and routine antibiotics. It lived in confined pens with no access to the outdoors. It was fed GMO corn and soy. It was injected with tenderizing and stabilizing and flavoring who-knows-what when processed. And that’s not even getting into the glaze!

I am so lucky to have access to Miller’s Bio Farm, where pigs are raised naturally, with the health of the pigs and customers in mind.

Miller’s pigs live in the woods, where they naturally would so their delicate skin is protected from the harsh sun. They root for grubs and eat thousands of acorns each year. They are fed lots of skim milk and their regular soy-free and organic feed, which is mostly oats but also contains non-GMO corn, fish and crab meal, pea meal, and organic minerals.

Miller’s pigs aren’t given anything synthetic - no vaccines, no hormones, no antibiotics, no GMOs, etc. And, they aren’t exposed to anything unnatural when processed - no fillers, no dyes, no artificial preservatives, no tenderizers, etc. Whew!

Now here’s the next problem - the pandemic! This means smaller gatherings and maybe even cooking Christmas dinner yourself.

This is what’s happening with me. Instead of my Grandma hosting, now I’m in charge of cooking Christmas dinner for my family. Gotta figure out that ham!

Miller’s doesn’t offer a huge spiraled ham, and that’s ok. There are still lots of options for hams and other pork products. Maybe I’ll make a big smoked ham slice and have leftovers. Or maybe I’ll think smaller and go with a ham steak or pork chops. 

Luckily, farmer Aaron is having a Christmas sale - 10% OFF ALL PORK PRODUCTS UNTIL CHRISTMAS! And, you can save even more buy buying in bulk!

So, maybe I’ll get a few options and decide later. There’s just so many yummy farm recipes:

• Brown Sugar Glazed Baked Ham
• Apple Raisin Pork Chops
• Red Wine Braised Country Ribs
• Crispy Pork Belly

Are you cooking for the holidays? What are you making? I’d love to know!

Shop All Pastured Pork SALE

The pandemic has exposed major weaknesses of many of the American systems we rely on. And, one of those systems is the agricultural system, specifically meat. 

You see, four huge companies control 85% of the American meat industry - Tyson, Cargill, JBS, and Smithfield. It’s monopolistic. When a part of the supply chain goes down, the entire system breaks. And, it’s the farmers, animals, and consumers who take the hit.

For example, in the late spring, farmers who have contracts with these big companies received letters preparing them for “depopulation”. 

These four big processing and distribution companies had no way to process animals that the farmers raised. Monopolization has led to us having a mere 800 federally inspected slaughter facilities in the US. Most of these processors closed because employees were staying home due to COVID. They were backed up too much to recover. 

And then, the worst case scenario happened. Depopulation. The big companies had hundreds of thousands of animals euthanized, which are still rotting in huge piles on these farmers fields. Just awful on so many levels.

Were the farmers compensated? Nope. Were the animals respected and treated humanely? Nope. Were supermarkets kept stocked with meat? Nope. Did the big companies make profit? Oh, you bet. Maybe not as much as before, but they wouldn’t dare disappoint shareholders.

Farmers simply cannot make a living in a system like this. They are at the whim of these huge processing, distribution, and marketing companies. 

For example, one farmer I know (who’s going through a hard time) just sold cows to one of these large companies. He was promised $1.64/lb but, when the check came, he only got $1.04/lb. What can he do? Nothing! No matter the amount of thought and hard labor he puts in, if he deals with these companies, he will disturbingly just go deeper into debt.

American farmers are often generational farmers hoping to pass their business down to their children. Well, with this system, that probably won’t happen. No matter how environmentally sustainable a business is… if it’s not financially sustainable, it cannot survive.

These mega meat companies have the cash to lobby. And, they certainly do. This is why food labels in the supermarket are so darn confusing. Here are just a few examples:

“Product of the USA”: In 2015, the World Trade Organization ruled that Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) was illegal, because it discriminated against animals from other countries. Now, “Product of the USA” simply means it was processed here. It doesn’t mean the animals were raised here and are up to American standards. Ugh. Globalization.

“Grass-fed”: Well, this simply means nothing now. In 2015, the USDA dropped the definition of “grass-fed”, claiming that it doesn’t have the authority to verify what farmers feed their animals. So cows fed grass for some portion of their lives can be labeled as “grass-fed”.

“Cage free”, “pasture raised”, “free range”: These are blatantly deceiving. Just because a bird isn’t in a cage doesn’t mean it’s not in an unsanitary and crowded living situation. Free and pasture raised mean the animals have “access” to the outdoors, even if there’s one door leading to a small outdoor space with a dirt floor.

So what can you do? The solution is buying meat directly from small farmers, bypassing these four mega companies. 

Miller’s Bio Farm is one of these small farmers. It has full control and great respect for its farmers, animals, and customers.

We use two small local processors for our meat. We know them personally and visit them regularly. They have dedicated staff and did not close due to the pandemic.

We are a zero food waste facility. Depopulation is not an option.

Miller’s farmers, animals, customers, and soil are all greatly respected. We aim to create a food system that is both environmentally and financially sustainable.

How Miller’s describes its products and farming practices is simple, honest, and accurate.

And the best part is that, if you have a question, you can ask the farmer directly and get an accurate and truthful answer. If we don’t know the answer, we’re happy to look into it for you! I really love learning about food and how it’s produced.

Have any questions? Please ask! I love helping customers :)

If you’re a cheese eater, there’s an easy way to save 2.6 hours per year!

That’s enough time for dinner and a movie. A yoga class. Reading an entire book. A 7-mile hike. Or extra sleep. 

All you need to do is buy shredded cheese instead of shredding it yourself.

I estimate that getting an 8oz cheese out of the fridge, finding the grater, grating the cheese, and cleaning up takes about 3 minutes total. Since I use grated cheese weekly, I multiplied by 52 weeks to figure I spend about 2.6 hours per year GRATING CHEESE.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind a little elbow grease, especially when cooking. But, my hold up with shredded cheese has always been the options available. 

Conventional store bought shredded cheese is NOT simply cheese. There are other odd ingredients, too.

Anti-caking agents like potato starch, tapioca starch, or cellulose powder (AKA wood pulp) are added to prevent the cheese from clumping. 

Mold inhibitors like Natamycin are added, too. 

All of these are highly processed ingredients, far from what nature intended.

But now, my reality has changed with Miller’s shredded A2 cheese. There’s only one ingredient - cheese!

And, it’s cheese made naturally from 100% grass-fed A2 milk. No added flavor or color. Just milk, culture, rennet, and Celtic sea salt.

I keep it in my freezer, which means I don’t worry about mold. 

Since it comes in a resealable bag, I can easily use little bits at a time. 

And, I certainly don’t mind breaking clumps apart from time to time.

There are so many wonderful uses for shredded cheese!

I highly recommend joining the time saving movement with clean unadulterated shredded A2 cheese!

There’s just something about bacon. I mean, I don’t know many people who eat pork and don’t love bacon.

It’s meaty and savory. It’s salty and sweet. It packs a ton of umami (a Japanese word that loosely translates to “deliciousness”). 

When it’s cooking, it has a distinct smell. And that smell almost involuntarily results in your mouth watering and stomach grumbling. You simply can’t wait to take a crunchy bite.

But, here’s the problem with bacon - the often awful ingredients!

Bacon is made by taking pork belly and preserving it by curing and sometimes adding flavor by smoking. Curing is the process of adding salt to meat, which removes water and makes the meat inhospitable to potentially dangerous pathogens.

Since curing meats improperly can lead to safety issues, the USDA is pretty strict about the requirements and ingredients for making bacon. This is why, even from the most natural of farms, you’ll often find preservatives like nitrates (or celery juice powder), flavorings like spice extractives or artificial smoke flavor, and sweeteners like cane sugar in most bacon.

With the rise of food intolerances, allergies, and special diets, bacon is sadly off the menu for many consumers.

Thankfully, Miller’s has a solution for you, and it’s called Naked Bacon!

Naked Bacon is simply sliced pork belly. No curing, no smoking, no salt, no sugar, no ingredients at all. Just plain sliced pork belly.

You can cook it like you do normal bacon. But, before you cook it on the stove or in the oven, sprinkle a generous amount of salt and pepper (and herbs if you’d like) all over to accentuate the amazing earthy flavors of our all-natural woodland pork.

Or, you can flavor Naked Bacon at home to taste just like regular bacon with some simple ingredients - sugar and salt. Here’s a recipe.

Have you tried Naked Bacon before? What was your experience? If not, are you going to give it a try?

Comment below (no account required) or contact us.

So much care and attention goes into every little detail of our farming practices. Our goal is to provide you with the most natural, most nutritious, and most delicious food. Although we have full control on the farm, once an animal goes to the processor, it’s out of our hands.

We don’t want an “ok” or “good” processor. We want an “awesome” processor, one that holds the highest standards, just like we do on the farm.

I wish it was easy to find what we’re looking for. But, sadly it's not. Awesome processors are hard to come by. We were starting to think they didn’t exist, just a mythological creature that exists in fairy tales.

We had given up hope and were working with the best options available. Then… something miraculous happened. Our dreams came true. Let me enthusiastically introduce... Olde Tyme Meats!

Olde Tyme Meats is actually not a new processor. They used to be “ok” or “good”. But, about a year ago, they came under new ownership - owners that truly care about natural farming and quality. And then, everything changed. 

After conversations with the new leadership, a tour of the facility, and a couple processing dates, farmer Aaron can now proclaim that Olde Tyme Meats is an “awesome” processor. Hooray!!

Here are 8 reasons we’re in love with our new processor, Olde Tyme Meats.

• They treat animals humanely. No long waits at a feedlot that’s overcrowded or poorly ventilated. Our animals are kept in a low stress environment and are slaughtered the same day they arrive, one at a time, with respect to each animal. 
• They use a natural sanitizer for “washing” meat. Raw organic apple cider vinegar is added to water for cleaning meat. Yes, this is USDA approved and an excellent, more natural alternative to lab produced citric and lactic acids.
• They have better quality cuts that are consistent and clean. This makes for better cooking results. We can even offer sliced beef liver, which is quite a challenge to make.
• Offering the weird cuts. Olde Tyme Meats will process a wider variety of offal. Now, we will have beef adrenals and beef spleen!
• Using quality ingredients. Nothing proprietary here. We will have control over the sourcing of the ingredients, local or organic.
• Consistent pack sizes. If we say a pack is an average 1lb, it will be closer to that estimate now. 
• Packs are sealed tight. This will reduce the amount of leaky packs, which I’m sure you’ve experienced when thawing meat at home.
• Good customer service. When we have feedback, they care and listen and make changes whenever possible to solve the problem.

We love it. We love it. We love it all.

We plan to process all of our grass fed and finished beef and pastured woodland pork with Olde Tyme Meats from this point forward. We still have some older inventory in the freezer, so it will be at most a year before we are fully transitioned to the new processor.

What does this mean for you? Even better quality beef and pork!

What do you value when buying meat? Are the farming practices or the butchering quality more important? Do you wish any of our meats were cut or packaged differently? 

Join the conversation below (no account needed) or contact us here.

It’s that time of year. I’m happy to share the farm’s 2022 intentions. After all, it all wouldn’t be possible without your amazing support!

Sustainable Packaging

This was also an intention of 2021. Although we made good progress, we’re certainly not 100% there yet. And, pandemic-related supply chain issues are adding an extra challenge. 

You can look forward to butter wrapped in paper, labels that can be easily removed to make reusing jars more enjoyable, more products offered in glass, and other sustainable packaging options.

Expanding the Cured Meat Selection

This may include products like salami, soppressata, pepperoni, and kielbasa. And, they’ll all be made with transparent and natural ingredients. You know, the kind of ingredients that you can pronounce and know exactly what they are. 

This is such a tough thing to find in a store (in some places it’s nonexistent), and we’re so happy to have finally found a processor to work with on this.

Introducing Pasteurized Dairy

I know, you may be thinking, “Wait, don’t you support raw dairy!?” Well, yes, we absolutely do! But, even more important is that we support our customers’ choices. 

The fact is that not everyone is comfortable with or is able to consume raw dairy. Since we support optimal nutrition for all, we will also be offering the highest quality, minimally processed, pasteurized A2 milk and more pasteurized dairy products, too. 

Miller’s pasteurized A2 dairy will be made with the same amazing 100% grass-fed and 100% A2 milk from happy, naturally healthy animals… just heated 145-180F to kill any potentially harmful pathogens. We’ll make sure to make the difference between raw and pasteurized very obvious on the store.

Keeping up with Inflation

Inflation is real and is definitely affecting the farm. Prices of boxes, jars, bags, fuel… just about everything… has gone up significantly, and we expect it to continue to do so. Unfortunately, this means price increases. We never like to do this, but it’s our unfortunate reality.

Farmer Aaron has made a plan for 2022 for gradual price increases, in different categories, spaced throughout the year. He will keep a close watch on his numbers and only continue to increase prices if necessary. 

We thank you so much for your support. The Miller’s team knows how very important its mission is and is honored to inspire healthy generations with farm direct food.

Do you have any 2022 intentions? I’d love to hear about them!

I get so inspired by the amazing customers at Miller’s Bio Farm. 

One of the top customer questions that our team answers is, “How long does it last?” 

More often than not, the customer is asking about a specific dairy item like milk, yogurt, or cheese. But, we get questions about the shelf life of eggs, meat, produce, and at least half of our 600+ products.

It’s such a hard question to definitively answer. After all, best by dates are a little ridiculous anyway.

It’s important to note that the dates given are not for when a food is no longer safe to eat. They are a guide for how long a food will remain at optimal quality, before it starts to degrade.

There’s no way to magically predict when a food will no longer be “good”. It’s always an estimate. Food slowly changes and doesn’t have an on/off switch. 

Plus, there are so many variables that can affect shelf life. 

Perhaps the biggest variable that can affect shelf life is the temperature or humidity of your fridge. 

If it’s too warm or too humid or too bright, your food will spoil more quickly. These three variables speed up the process of decay. This is why fruit ripens more quickly on a windowsill and raw milk clabbers more quickly on the counter.

Another big variable is with opened vs. unopened containers. Opening a container reduces the shelf life.

For example, when you open a container of yogurt, you need to take it out of the fridge. Now it’s at a warmer temperature. The longer it stays out, the more the shelf life is reduced. When you scoop some yogurt out, the spoon and the air let contaminants in. Contaminants also reduce the shelf life.

The tricky part is that it’s hard to say exactly how much the shelf life is reduced. There’s simply no way to calculate this precisely.

This is why the biggest tip I can give you when it comes to shelf life is to trust your gut.

Far too much food is thrown away simply because the expiration date passes. Food waste is a big problem. In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30-40 percent of the food supply. Wow!

Instead, your nose and mouth are the best way to know if a food is no longer good. This is, of course, a precariously subjective measure of quality. Everyone has a different palate. 

I’ll give a personal anecdote. I’ve been drinking raw milk for years. My taste buds have become accustomed to the taste of souring milk. I simply don’t notice the difference as much as others. When I first started drinking raw milk, this was not the case. I would notice the sour undertones sooner.

Shelf life is important to understand, especially if you’re buying things in bulk to meet the free delivery threshold.

I love being helpful, so… I gave our Shelf Life Guide a makeover! It has lots more information and tips. Plus, it now has charts that are visually easier to tell how long foods last in the pantry, fridge, or freezer. Here it is!!

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I have it saved on my phone, so I have it handy no matter where I am. But, you could also print it and hang it on your fridge or put it on the shelf with your cookbooks.

Do you struggle with shelf life? Is a guide like this helpful for you? Are there any other real food resources you wish you had or big food questions you want answered?

I’d love to hear from you. Comment below (no account required) or contact us.

I’d like to start by saying that I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist or a scientist. I’m just a person who’s passionate about health, nutrition, and healing. I’m a lifelong learner. Please speak to your doctor if you’re interested in changing your eczema or psoriasis treatment.

When I see the same questions pop up with my family and friends and Miller’s customers, I just need to learn more. This week, I’m exploring eczema and psoriasis and their connection to diet.

In the US, about 10% of people have eczema and 3% have psoriasis. I mean, gee, that’s a good amount of the population.

For those who may not know, eczema and psoriasis are both skin conditions caused by an underlying autoimmune disorder. Severity varies, but both conditions result in a red, itchy, uncomfortable rash.

When someone is diagnosed with eczema or psoriasis, they of course want a solution ASAP. Mainstream medicine often treats the symptom and not the root cause.

On the one hand, this is a good thing. If someone is in discomfort or pain from a rash and is at their personal breaking point, I’m happy that there are options to treat the symptoms. 

The most common mainstream option is topical steroid creams, but this should not be used long term. In the natural world, sun, apple cider vinegar, epsom salt baths, turmeric, tea tree oil, oats, aloe, calendula, Manuka honey, the list goes on and on... are all options for symptomatic relief.

But let’s not forget how important it is to get to the root cause. That’s the only real way to heal.

More often than not, a doctor will tell their new eczema or psoriasis patient to immediately remove dairy from their diet. Is this medical advice founded in science?

The idea here is that dairy is the root cause. It’s assumed that the patient has an intolerance or allergy to dairy. When dairy is consumed, their body has a flare-up, an immune reaction that causes inflammation.

Let’s break it down. On a large scale, about 10% of people in the US have a food allergy, and 1.9% of people in the US have an allergy to milk specifically. 

About 30% of people with eczema have a food allergy. If eczema patients follow the same trend as above, then about 6% of eczema patients would be allergic to dairy. I couldn’t find stats for psoriasis and food allergies.

Given the stats, it seems overzealous to recommend removing dairy, an entire food group, as a first course of action. 

A better course of action would be to test for dairy or other food allergies before altering your diet. We have the technology to test for intolerances or allergies to lactose, casein proteins, or whey proteins, so let’s use it!

If you find out that your body does have trouble with dairy, it makes sense to remove it for immediate relief. Then, you can work on figuring out the root cause, healing, and then reintroducing dairy.

No matter the illness, nourishing your body with food is paramount to healing. And dairy is a delicious and nutritious staple food.

Especially for children, let’s not take dairy away without good reason. 

Eating regeneratively farmed, natural foods provide you with optimal nutrition that your body can use with ease. It’s so different from vitamins and supplements. You can learn more about regenerative healthcare here. 

It’s also important to note that BIG diet changes can put unneeded stress on your body. If you’re already ill, we want to reduce stress and not create more.

The lesson learned? Obsessing over your diet isn’t going to heal your eczema or psoriasis. 

Learn to let it go. Learn to listen to your body. Be patient. Your body is complex and finding the root cause can take time.

How have you dealt with health struggles in your life? What has helped you heal? Do you view food as medicine?

I’d love to hear from you. Comment below (no account required, start typing for the guest option) or contact us.

I recently watched a season of the show Alone. 

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.

I wasn’t the only one who became fascinated with the “Alone diet” (both food and lifestyle). Lots of people started thinking about and researching it.

Here are the basic principles:

• Eat organic
• Eat less
• Eat less often
• Eat an extremely limited menu
• Fat and protein will sustain life
• Protein alone will not sustain life
• Foraging for plants and wild edibles, fiber carbs, is calorically insignificant
• Starch and refined carbohydrates are eliminated
• Daily exercise is critical (build shelter, haul rocks, hunting, fishing, daily firewood cutting)

You might be wondering, why? Well, contestants on Alone crave and need meat because their digestive system changes to a “fat-burning metabolism”.

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. 

It’s similar to the Carnivore Diet, which is simple to explain. You eat meat, not plants. Dairy, eggs, and seafood are ok, too. 

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:

• Clearer Thinking. Going into a state of ketosis allows your brain to generate more energy and clear excess ammonia, which slows the thinking process.
• Improved Gut Health. It removes the most common triggers of gut inflammation and allows your gut to heal.
• Weight Loss. It delivers the perfect mix of nutrients to shut down hunger and spike fat burning.

But, I mean, do we really need to research it to prove it? The sad answer is yes. 

Humans have lost their connection to nature and their food and their bodies. It’s as if we don’t have primal urges anymore… or at least we can’t hear or understand them.

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.

It really shouldn’t be this difficult to know what and when to eat. 

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?

And, it’s only going to get worse. In a time when plant-based and vegan diets are being promoted from so many angles - health, climate, economy - food and nutrition is getting more and more complicated.

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. 

What do you think? How can you respond to your primal urges when you live in a world surrounded by more food options than we should? Do you have a carb-burning or fat-burning metabolism? Do you follow a specific diet?

I’d love to hear from you. Click the button above to comment on the blog (no account required) or reply to this email.