Sad Day for Maine Organic Milk (Bangor: apartments, foreclosure, new house)

[BrokenTap]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

It pains me everytime I see Chile produce in a grocery store.

I hear you. Products from Vietnam drive my Dad mad. He spent two tours over there and on one of them, they took fire from a village. His friends were literally dying so they call into headquarters and they come back and say, "Don't return fire, our sources say it is a friendly village". At which they replied,"well friendly villages don't normally attack us." Still they were denied return fire.

After taking a few more casualties they said to heck with command and returned fire. The command came in a few days later and docked every man on that river boat 2 month wages. Now he sees "Made in Vietnam" on tags of clothes from Cabela's. He sent the shirt back with a note telling them where they could put their "made in Vietnam" shirt...though I don't think it would be properly adorned in such a location as he suggested...

As for milk.I put up 4000 gallons a day, but there is no way I am going to drink unpasteurized milk. I knew of a 9 year old girl who had a softball size lump on the side of her face for a few months because she drank tainted goats milk from a hippie-type farm.

I dislike the lowered fat content, and miss the taste of the cream...and of course wish they would get rid of the sugar the creameries put in milk, but depite having access to an infinite gallons of milk...yep I buy 2 gallons of milk a week.

Edited to say: crazy huh?

[Deborah Caldwell]

boradbill,mMy issue is with ultrapastuerization, not with raw milk. I do not recommend raw milk for anyone unless they are interested in raw milk, because many people are allergic to milk. It has been the Dairy INDUSTRY that made it difficult to think by leaving out facts and bringing in unnecessary suggestions, such as eating and drinking a lot of dairy. Good for you, tcrackly, for listening to your husband's first-hand experienc. broadbill, I would not use the words 'quality issue' when referring to watching the cream separating out. Pasteurization has made it possible for large farms to safely monitor the onset of TB. Small farms are much more easily monitored and therefore safer when it comes to the TB disease. Homogenization is a very strange phenomenon. And ultrapasteurization is beyond the pale when it comes to attaching it as an adjective to food. In my opinion, that is.

[RHB]

Originally Posted by starwalker

The Master Gardener class keeps talking about a program called "Plant a Row" where folks plant a row in their garden and donate the produce to local food banks.

...

When I had children doing 4H, we worked closely with the local food bank and senior centers...garden club grew food for them, sewing did some clothing and blankets, cooking cooked the food...it's a good thing....

Back to topic...

Working in a grocery store, we are seeing that as long as the organic is close in price to non organic then we will sell more organic. When that price difference is great, then it's the regular stuff. People do what they need to, to feed their families. If a pound of organic beef is $5 a pound, and the regular stuff is $2, well, 2 1/2 meals for the price of 1, the 2 1/2 is going to win, when money is tight.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by BrokenTap

I hear you. Products from Vietnam drive my Dad mad. He spent two tours over there and on one of them, they took fire from a village. His friends were literally dying so they call into headquarters and they come back and say, "Don't return fire, our sources say it is a friendly village". At which they replied,"well friendly villages don't normally attack us." Still they were denied return fire.

After taking a few more casualties they said to heck with command and returned fire. The command came in a few days later and docked every man on that river boat 2 month wages. Now he sees "Made in Vietnam" on tags of clothes from Cabela's. He sent the shirt back with a note telling them where they could put their "made in Vietnam" shirt...though I don't think it would be properly adorned in such a location as he suggested...

As for milk.I put up 4000 gallons a day, but there is no way I am going to drink unpasteurized milk. I knew of a 9 year old girl who had a softball size lump on the side of her face for a few months because she drank tainted goats milk from a hippie-type farm.

I dislike the lowered fat content, and miss the taste of the cream...and of course wish they would get rid of the sugar the creameries put in milk, but depite having access to an infinite gallons of milk...yep I buy 2 gallons of milk a week.

Edited to say: crazy huh?

I grew up drinking the milk from my grandfathers cows. I love the 'real' milk. I would have to know and trust the farmers to get raw milk though.

[broadbill]

Originally Posted by AustinB

I would have to know and trust the farmers to get raw milk though.

exactly...as a kid my family drank raw milk until one day we brought home a bottle from a farm down the road and realized it was pink! Once we realized what made it pink, that was the last time we drank it.

[tcrackly]

I was told that the enzymes in FRESH raw milk actually assist the human digestive system to assimilate it. I can understand caution ...a lot of folks are allergic or lactose intolerant. I am not.

[BrokenTap]

I was allergic to milk as a kid but quickly out grew it when I was two years old. How it affects people is very different. Some are lactose intolerant of raw milk, while some are intolerant of pasteurized milk. Some are intolerant of the sugar in processed milk, while others are intolerant of higher bacteria counts.

Over the years though a lot has changed in the milking parlors of modern farms. We get bonuses for low bacteria counts and its not just doing one thing that gets these counts down...it is doing a lot of things right in every step of the process. From clean stalls to medical grade iodine placed on the teats of cows prior to milking.

For us, it is paying off. We are a Gold Star farm which means we are consistently low all year long. We can go lower of course, but overall we are very low. It's a lot of work, but overall it is worth it. I drink a lot of milk too.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

I went to work when I was 14. My first job was working on a dairy farm, sunrise to sunset. I milked the cows, ran the milk through a clarifier and pumped it to a bulk chilling tank. All of it was pasteurized. Then some of it was homogenized. We sold milk and iced cream right from the dairy. When a customer came to the window and asked for six quarts of milk we always asked, "Regular or homo?" At that time there were no other connotations for the terms. We sent out the six quarts in a metal cooler with a chunk of ice in the cooler.

Regular had the cream on top. We used it on hot cereal mostly. If we didn't separate it off at home we just shook up the bottle before pouring it into a glass. Regular was less expensive than homo. It was bottled in glass bottles with cardboard caps. We also sold chocolate milk made with real Hershey syrup.

Boy, could we make a milkshake. All fresh milk and home made iced cream. I grew about six inches that summer and six the next. Big strawberries in the strawberry iced cream. All natural flavors.

[starwalker]

Having been part of a cow co-op (several families owned/milked a bovine) and having raised milk goats, I STILL shake milk before I pour it... even though I grew up on "store bought" and that is usually what is in our fridge today.

I do miss having a farm down the road that I knew well enough to trust -- and that was willing to sell milk straight from the tank/cow/goat. I do agree... you gotta be a fanatic on cleanliness when you are milking, checking each udder for potential issues if you are going to drink the stuff as it comes.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by RHB

When I had children doing 4H, we worked closely with the local food bank and senior centers...garden club grew food for them, sewing did some clothing and blankets, cooking cooked the food...it's a good thing....

Back to topic...

Working in a grocery store, we are seeing that as long as the organic is close in price to non organic then we will sell more organic. When that price difference is great, then it's the regular stuff. People do what they need to, to feed their families. If a pound of organic beef is $5 a pound, and the regular stuff is $2, well, 2 1/2 meals for the price of 1, the 2 1/2 is going to win, when money is tight.

very good post!!

this is very true!!