FAQ Page

The thing about our milk is that it’s not like the more processed milk that you can buy in the store. We use a low temperature pasteurization that retains much of the good enzymes which helps with its health benefits, and it retains the flavor of how milk really tastes fresh out of the cow. It’s called Vat Pasteurized. We think this is the best way to drink milk. The trade-off is that it won’t last a month like the higher temperature pasteurized (called HTST pasteurization) milk which is what you generally find in stores.

• Our milk should last for anywhere between 12-21 days from the date it was bottled, and the temperature it is stored at is a major contributing factor to how long it will last. So the best is to try and get it from us when it’s the most fresh, and keep it in the back of a cold fridge (35 degrees is a good goal for the temperature to keep milk, colder is even better, see the next FAQ answer). Since we do small batches, the time-frame will vary slightly, we aim for as close to 21 days as possible without over-pasteurizing). We typically bottle once a week right now, so getting it when it’s freshly bottled will add about a week onto it’s freshness (ask me and I’ll give you the inside scoop on when we are bottling).
• So if you’re needing milk that lasts for a month or more, this is not the milk for you. If you’re looking for that real milk taste and rare, craftsman quality, made from local pasture raised cows where you know what you can say “I know where my food comes from”, then this is the milk for you.
• If you’re the type who only drinks a gallon a month, let us recommend our half-gallon or quart size to you. The flavor and quality are the same, yet you’ll get to enjoy it to the last drop without worrying about wasting any.
• “Sell by date” or “best by date” we try to put a week before we estimate the milk will last until. We also value your feedback on this.

• Temperature matters, big time. And a cool tip… don’t store it in the door of your fridge to help it keep longer. Do you know why? (Pop quiz answer at the bottom of this question)
• The temperature milk is stored at is a major contributing factor to how long it will last. Milk stored at 33 degrees will last significantly longer than milk stored at 40 degrees and the flavor will also be better when stored cooler.
• So the best is to try and get it from us when it’s the most freshly bottled, and keep it in the back of a cold fridge. 35 degrees is a good goal for the temperature to keep milk, colder is even better.
• Pop Quiz Answer: Milk stored in the door of the fridge is subjected to much more frequent temperature spikes than milk stored toward the back of the refrigerator. For a longer explanation and some cool pointers, Click Here to check out an article from RealSimple.com.

I may be crazy, but that’s nothing to do with these awesome tips haha. Since I started bottling milk, I’ve learned all kinds of things, some of them are tricks for stretching the usage of milk if it’s started to turn not-so-fresh. Like many people, I’m big on trying to not waste food, and I’m even bigger on trying cool new things. I love expanding horizons. So I’m going to share some tips and tricks with you, via some awesome articles that can explain it even better than me.

• Did you know that you can use sour milk tons of things including for baking anything from pancakes to cake and it makes your baked goods taste Even Better?! I was surprised when I first heard that, until I thought about things like buttermilk and sour cream… then it all started to make sense. With the type of milk we make, it’s rich and flavorful, and well worth giving things like this a shot.
• Besides my baking (favorite) use, other ways to use it include making cheese and easy cottage cheese, feeding animals and plants, skincare, and even polishing silver!
• Check out this article by LittleThings.com, “9 Reasons Why You Should Never, Ever Throw Away Spoiled Milk” and keep in mind that I do #5 (a skincare trick), but I don’t dilute the milk (I have more skincare techniques I’ll share if anyone is interested haha) And on the ranch, we especially do #9 (feed to our animals, because animals love it).
• Some other cool articles with great tips for stretching the use of that milk:
• Got sour milk? Don’t throw it out! by TreeHugger.com
• 11 Incredibly Delicious Recipes Which Use Sour Milk by Tastessence.com
• Turn Your Sour Milk into an Unbelievably Tasty Jam by WonderHowTo.com wins my vote for coolest one to try next. And then turn it in to the next one:
• Buttermilk Cake with Sour Milk Jam and Gin-Poached Cherries by bonappetit.com
• If anyone tries any of these I would be so interested to hear about it! I’ve never been this excited to keep some milk until it spoils!

Our milk is not homogenized. We believe that milk should be left as close to how it’s made by a cow as possible. Whole food are easier for our bodies to digest, which means we get the most out of them and we function better that way. Plus we just like the taste better. Homogenization mixes things up so much that the milk itself is confused and doesn’t know how to separate it’s own cream, like it’s meant to do by nature, so why would we want to do that to our naturally delicious milk. And for those reasons, we don’t homogenize. Instead, you get the fun task of shaking up the milk up before you use it each time, like us farmers do.

Our cows produce high quality, high cream milk, thanks to great nutrition and a lot of attention to detail. If you don’t see that defined line of cream in your milk, be patient. The thing we learned about pasteurization is that the cream won’t rise to the top right away after pasteurized. It will take anywhere from 2-7 days for the cream to show that nice separation line, but it is still the cream on top milk, not homogenized and not skim milk. You’ll taste the cream, it just won’t show super well at the beginning. As a sidenote, I’d love to get your feedback on when it starts to rise to the top, we are still learning timelines.

On that same note, if you don’t love scraping the delicious cream off the top and using it in your coffee, making some home made butter, or just eating it straight (like my mom does), but you still want whole milk, check with us on our bottling day and just try and get your milk as soon after pasteurization as possible.