Buying Local, Buying Raw
We had a great day today! My husband was off of work, a rare thing, so we loaded the kids up in the truck, and set out with the two important missions: to find local food sources, and to purchase some real, unprocessed food.
Our first stop was at a dairy just up the road from us. We had never been there before, but had heard about it through the grapevine. It wasn’t a big factory like I imagined it would be. Just an old two story farmhouse, with a large pasture behind it. Several black and white cows grazed along the fence line.
Some men were out by the barn, so my husband got out of the truck to go talk to them. He immediately recognized one of the men as our neighbor from up the road. I got out to say “hello” too. We told them that we were there to buy some milk. Unfortunately, the farmer was not there. At first the guys acted like they weren’t sure if he sold milk directly… but after we shared that our other neighbor (and midwife) told us that she buys her milk from him, they eased up and spoke more openly. I guess he doesn’t advertise that he sells to individuals, so the word isn’t supposed to get out.
A younger man there who works for the farmer helped us get some milk. We brought out our 1/2 gallon wide mouth mason jars, and he took them to a large tank to show my husband how to fill them up from the tap. We paid him $4.50 for a gallon and a half. What excites me is that this is fresh, raw whole milk that goes straight from the cow into the tank. No pasteurizing, no preservatives, nothing. Now I can make butter, buttermilk, yogurt, and even cheese!! I am so excited.
After running the milk back to the house, we took to the road again in search of a source of local meat. We knew of a place not too far from us that sells fresh meat and eggs, so we headed there. Down a little dusty dirt road we found a barn with a little shop beside it. Chickens were walking around everywhere, and roosters were heard crowing from afar. We unloaded the kids and went inside.
Immediately through the doors we walked into a large open space with tables of chopped meat, butchers working hard, and a cashier behind a counter ready for her next customer. Off in a little side room were a bunch of freezers full of meat. They had everything from goat meat to pig tongues! I picked out a little whole chicken and Jerry got a pound of sausage, which had just been made the day before. The shop’s prices were pretty much consistent with grocery stores, but with the advantage of having locally raised, fresh meat.
I’d still like to find a source of organically raised meat, though I’m afraid it will be pretty expensive. Hopefully we’ll be able to raise at least our own chickens for meat soon. I wish so badly that we had room for a cow… our one acre just isn’t enough.
We took a pit stop back at the house for lunch, then packed the kids in the truck once again and headed downtown. We found a grocery warehouse and decided to check it out. Man, am I glad we did! It was a bulk foods store, just what we needed to add to our food storage!! It wasn’t long before I found my way to an obscure little shelf with a bunch of scratch and dent #10 cans, mostly of fruits and beans. I cleared the shelf! I even found other dented cans along the isles that weren’t discounted, and added them to my cart (which they were glad to take 20% off of at the checkout counter). I think $4.83 for a can of over 6 lbs of peaches is an awesome deal!
We were also excited to find 50 lb bags of pure cane sugar, something we’ve been wanting to switch to for a while. They were $25 per bag. I thought that was a good deal. Along with the other stuff, we bought a 50 lb bag of pinto beans, and another of peanuts (I’m gonna try making peanut butter with my new mill).
Our next trip was to Whole Foods, where we bought some raw honey, organic yogurt (as a starter to add to my raw milk to make more yogurt) and hummus. I’d never had raw honey or hummus. Let me tell you, they are both delicious!
Whew! What a day!! And the kids were so good. I just adore them. It was like a field trip for them!
You know, it feels really good buying milk straight from a farmer up the road. It’s amazing how we are so conditioned to just run to the grocery store for all of our needs, and even be a bit leery or hesitant of buying anything straight from the farm, as if there may be some health hazard in doing so. I’m done with grocery store milk and plastic gallon jugs. We really need to be supporting our farmers! Big industries are cheating these hard working men, paying them so little for their products, and then turning around and making ridiculous profits off of them. There is something about looking in my fridge and seeing mason jars full of rich, fresh milk that makes me proud of my decision to buy local.
Tonight, we all crowded around the dinner table enjoying the goodness of food the way the Lord intended it to be- local and unprocessed!
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Oh I am so envious! I am looking for local meat. I think I’m close to finding some. We’re anxious for our goats to have kids so we can enjoy some fresh milk, too! With all your new finds, what did you all have for dinner? (Although, after all that adventure I’d be too tired and have to fall back on something super easy!)
I love using cane sugar instead of regular, once you have used it for a while and you try regular again you can really taste the iodine in it
Hummus is really good, but have you ever tried falafel? Falafel is one of my favorites, I make mine from mix, but I deep fry then stick it in a pita with some lettuce and pickled beets, add some sauce of choice and even some hummus in it and it is perfect.
i have had raw honey, but never raw milk. I hear it is really sweet compared to store bought.
That is so awesome! We have some of the same things around here but we are still looking for a butcher. We try more so in the summer to really support our local farmers by only buying our fruits and veggies from roadside stands or local farmer’s markets. We also only buy pure maple syrup that is made locally- what’s great is I can buy the maple syrup in bulk and stick it in the freezer. Pure maple syrup never freezes and will last for months and months that way! If its too thick, you stick it in the microwave! We love it and my kids won’t eat anything else! Good job for feeding your family the way the good Lord had intended! We are really trying- we are still on the hunt though! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog!!!!!
What a great day! That is so awesome! I really wish we had a local dairy farmer here. We do have a pig farmer a few miles away, and we buy pork from him. Best bacon ever! I think it’s a win/win to buy locally. The farmer gets financial support, and we usually get a much better product. Am I the only one that loves seeing pictures of stocked pantry shelves???
Carmen-
Well, dinner was something super easy, but still healthy
We had hamburgers (the ground beef was all natural from The Fresh Market) wrapped in organic lettuce, organic blue corn tortilla chips with bean hummus dip, raw milk to drink, and a spoonful of the raw honey for dessert!
It is illegal to sell or even give away raw milk in Tennessee. That may be why they acted so funny. People get really up in arms around here about not pasturizing milk….all political junk. Another idea is to check with local slaughter houses and they can sometimes find a farmer that will sell you a live animal and then have it delivered to the butcher.
What a fun-filled day! I think it’s awesome that you’re able to find all of that natural food where you live. We are slowly but surely switching to a ‘real food’ diet. I now make a weekly trip to Trader Joe’s to buy organic produce and better meat. I plan on hitting the farmer’s market again with a passion this summer. I still need to find local meat and milk. We can tell a huge difference already in the few changes we’ve made. I’m really enjoying your blog.
Wonder if that farmer could get into trouble by you publishing you bought his milk? Be careful. The way to get around that is to buy “cow shares”, where you pay to co-own a cow and therefore can do what you want with your portion of the milk. If he is a real dairy, that may not be feasible for him.
We raise bees, and you could do that on even one acre. But to be completely honest, unless the honey has picked up a certain flavor from a particular local plant, I can’t really tell if honey is raw or not by taste alone. Commercial honey is mixed with many localities of honey so distinctive flavors some may like and some may not are diminished. Spring is when you start new hives, so look and see if there is a beekeeper club near you.
It is the time to start planning your meat chicken crop. If you can find or borrow a plucker, do it! Otherwise I would skin. Hand plucking just isn’t worth it. I go ahead and even plan what meals I need pieces for and cut them up and freeze them like that as well. Here is something I did one year which was really convenient for the rest of the year. Use the backs, and bones to make broth while you are cutting up the chickens. (Extra freeze in bags labeled Broth bags.) Take pint jars and drop in one raw thigh per jar, fill with broth, process for 90 minutes. When you want to use them, dump in a pan,pick out the skin and bones, (it will fall apart) and warm for at least 10 minutes. I add a handful of dried homemade noodles and you have “Cambells” noodle soup quick and natural. A few times I have had “freezer emergencies”, where the freezer died or got turned off. If that happens, take all those raw chickens and cook them. Debone the meat and freeze in meal size portions for casseroles, tacos, etc.
Caroline-
Yeah, I definitely don’t want to get the farmer in trouble. Not many people know where I live though, and there are several dairy farmers in this general area… so I think he’s pretty safe. And I won’t be giving his name and number out either
Thanks for all of the other tips!! Good to know.
A friend of ours is a local Mennonite dairy farmer who said he only wanted $1.00/gallon! In Pennsylvania where we live, farmers aren’t allowed by law to sell directly, but they are allowed to give it away for a donation. Crazy, huh? Gotta love bureaucratic logic. Anyway, we decided we should give him more, so we’ve settled on $2.00/gallon. We fill up when we need more, and send him a check once a month. Who would have thought we could find raw milk for half the price of store “milk.” God is good!
We LOVE hummus. Our favorite way to eat it is with heated up sourdough bread. Just break a piece off and dip. yummy!
I’m so glad for you, Kendra! We’ve been blessed to have raw milk for a couple of years now. I can’t even comprehend going back to the other stuff. If we had to, I think we’d just do without rather than going back. I pray that never happens! This is why we are anxious to get our own goats. I’m dependent on a friend who is extremely generous – she gives it to me because it is illegal for her to sell it. But, now that we are so dependent on it, I feel the need to go the next step.
Every dollar that is pulled away from the SAD and conventional farmers, is a vote for raw, organic, grass-fed/pasture grazed and non-gmo raised food! Believe me, they’ll get it after it is really hitting their pocket book. Then we’ll be more free to puchase these items.
Kevin-
What a blessing for you guys! Yeah, the logic behind the laws is baffling. I just don’t get how they think they can tell us that it is breaking the law to buy MILK! Give me a break!!
What an awesome day your family had searching for “real food”. Glad you were successful. I grew up on a dairy farm in upstate NY – with milk straight from the bulk tank. Supporting all our local farmers is the way to go.
Congrats on the switch! My brother has a dairy farm and we get our milk, cream, butter, sour cream, cream cheese, and yogurt from him. He also raises cows and chickens so we get our meat from him also, as well as all of our produce. He’s also doing a bee farm for some fresh real honey. It’s all soooo wonderful! You’ll never go back!
Lerin, lucky you! You’ve got the hook-up!!
SO PROUD of you!!!!
Real food is SOOOO good, isn’t it?!!!
Did you see the posts I did recently on all this?…you would love it!
Enjoy!!!!!
I don’t have any place local for fresh milk or meat, but I did go to Whole Foods with a friend, and got some raw honey ~ yes, delicious! I am happily hooked on the stuff, and it’s healthy too
I trade my homemade bread for a gallon of raw cow milk. We have two young dairy goats that we are hoping to milk. We had bought a goat in milk and she only lived about two weeks and got sick and died, that was dissapointing because we had waited for years to get one. I stood there and cried as my husband and son dug the hole and then used the skid loader to pick her up to bury her. It wasn’t that I was so attached but it was like a dream had died. You have to prepare yourself for heartache if you want to homestead, but there are many blessings also. My husband is a beekeeper and I would tell you to find a local beekeeper who does raw honey and buy it by the gallon or 5 gallon buckets. Our gallons are 25.00 and the buckets are 85.00- 100.00 depending if they’re 5 gall. or 4.25 gall. so you get one gall. free. Also it is not recomended to use the microwave for softening honey as it destroys the nutrients, actually it does that to anything you use it on. I’ve also heard of some honey containers exploding in the microwave. Diana
Yea Kendra. I am so happy that you found a source for raw milk. Farmers in our state at least are allowed to sell a portion of their raw milk. They are limited to how many gallons they can sell this way which is one reason they do not advertise. Usually our farmers have enough business for raw milk without advertising. I know the farmer we were buying from in VT asked us not to tell anyone else because someone we had told about the milk was buying too many gal/week. You can check your states regulations on this probably published online. Where we get milk now there are very few customers for this farmer so we could get quite a bit of raw milk, and we usually exchange fresh vegetables with them. We still pay them for the milk though since it is their way of making a living. It pays to be really good to your local farmer… bring them treats once in a while too
Sounds like a very prosperous day. We would love to find a source for whole wheat flour. The flour we purchase from King Arthur which is right nearby, is running 4 – 5.00/5lb bag and we go through about 2 bags per week. If I could find a bulk flour supply it sure would cut down on my grocery bill. I don’t have a grinder and really don’t have the time to grind my own, unfortunately.
Hope we all have successful gardens this year!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. D
Wow! What a great day! My wife and I visited a dairy and they told us that they could only sell or give milk to those that participated in the cow share program, due to MI laws. We didn’t sign up for the program, but we did sign up for cheese making classes. That was fun. You have motivated me to get out and see what is around me. I’d love to find a local butcher to buy meat and even beef lard for soap making and other stuff.
Just notice the comment from Caroline on raising meat chickens. We have done this for years and though it is a hard job and takes a couple days hard work to get them into the freezer I would recommend it. We have done this for 7 years now. We anually raise 40 – 50 meat birds. Plucking isn’t too bad, but you can construct your own plucker from a variable speed drill.
http://board.hobbyfarms.com/Topic4918-5-1.aspx
We used one of these last year for the first time and it worked awesome.
I think I will blog about this soon so if you want to check it out you can.
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