DG and I were shopping at our local, local food supermarket after Need-a-Bag yesterday, and I remembered that DJ, my son, needed milk. As I was carrying away a half-gallon of Organic Valley 2%, DG ran back to the dairy case and gave me a half-gallon of local milk from Kurtz and Sons Dairy in Lake City. Of course, I wanted to be local so I put the Organic Valley back -- it is so automatic to buy that brand of milk that I didn't even see the local options. It's neat-- it's got cream pooled at the top. When we were checking out I said, "hey, I could make butter from cream at the top," to which DG replied, "sure, you just get yourself about 8 of those and you can make a stick of butter, maybe." I wonder if I could freeze the cream clumps and then, when I have enough saved, I can make it into butter by shaking it up in a mason jar.When I got home with the milk I started having second thoughts. First of all, the milk is full fat unless you take the cream out -- I just wasn't sure how DJ would cotton to this after drinking 2% most of his young life.
The test came this afternoon, when I made DJ a turkey sandwich and he wanted some chocolate milk to go along with it. When I started pouring the milk the cream starting glopping into the cup, so I ended up using a strainer and putting the cream back into the jug. DJ did not have anything to say about the milk at all, and drank it all.
At about $4.25 for a half-gallon, it's maybe a little more expensive than any of the non-local organic brands at Publix. I'm willing to pay that little extra for grass-fed cow's milk that comes from a dairy about 70 miles from where I live.
Here's a link to Slow Food Tallahassee that has a blog post about Kurtz and Sons Dairy that explains the stuff better than I can.
3 comments:
ooo, kewl link. Did you see in the comments where the person drinks a ton of it and sometimes gets a sample that tastes godawful? That is the kind of thing that just charms me into a state of unconsciousness. I bet the cows got into a patch of wild onions or ate some oak leaves or something. Man... just like in Tess of the D'urbervilles where they have to throw out a bunch of butter because the cows were eating garlic... sniff. Dis is what I love about this stuff: it's not quality controlled to death, it's real effluent of cow. I'm glad young DJ liked his chocolate milk: it'll have more of the omega 3s, they say, the oils that let you think like Jeeves.
You gotta shake it like a polaroid each time, man.
$4.25? I think the price has come DOWN since the last time I looked into it! I did a lot of looking into soures of local/raw/and/or nonhomoginized milk a while back. Decided it was great, but I just couldn't afford it with a large family. But it's tasty, isn't it? There are some nice local folks currently making butter and yogurt and buttermilk, and of course milk, for pretty good prices, but you have to go meet them for a pick-up, not very convenient.
Hey at that local local market, you just have to ask, and you can get the raw stuff from the back, if you want to live like a renegade. They can't keep it out in the dairy case, but have to keep it quarantined less it give cooties to the other dairy items.
yeah, Bren's right- you gotta shake it up! :) Looooove that milk. haven't had it in awhile but T & I liken it to drinking ice cream. :) Tim says it's muy bueno in his coffee. For me? on cereal, it's amazing!
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