Frequently Asked Questions and Answers about our Raw Milk!
Have other questions?
Interested in buying milk?
Want to sign up for a milk share? Email us!
What does your milk taste like?
Its very different from milk you can buy in the store. Its rich, without heaviness. It's fresh and pure with a lovely, delicate flavor. If it isn't the best milk you've ever tasted, we'll give you your money back. It also makes incredible butter, cheeses and yogurt.
Why Should I drink it raw?
Enzymes are essential to life. Many beneficial enzymes found in milk facilitate digestion. When milk is pasteurized, all the enzymes are destroyed. Many people have enzyme deficiencies from modern diets consisting of mostly cooked foods. Beneficial bacteria occur naturally in milk, but are destroyed during the pasteurization process. Like enzymes, beneficial bacteria facilitate digestion. Many people who are lactose intolerant, have IBS or are allergic to pasteurized milk say they thrive on raw milk.
What’s with grass-fed cows?
Cows are born to eat grass. But almost all commercial cows (even organic) eat a diet heavy in grain and fermented corn. This stimulates them to produce more than is healthy. It can give them highly acidic stomachs, frequent infections and cause them to produce excess growth hormones (even if they aren’t given rBGH). Nursing moms know they have to think about what they eat, because it has a direct impact on the milk they make. Cows are the same. What they are fed is directly related to the quality of their milk. Grass-fed cows produce healthy milk.
Are you organic?
We are not certified organic. We believe in the principles behind organic practices and for the most part, manage our farm that way. Organic certification requires a farm to sell a cow that has to be treated with antibiotics. Illness sometimes happens and antibiotics can be very effective at treating some serious illnesses. We want to have this option available, without being forced to sell our cow if we have to treat her. We would not sell milk from a treated animal until well after the milk tests clear of contamination.
Why do people consider raw milk and raw dairy products dangerous?
People have been drinking raw milk for thousands of years. If harvested with care from clean, healthy cows it is not only safe, it’s a whole, nourishing, living food used to cure illness – even at the Mayo Clinic! Around the beginning of the 20th century, dairy farms associated with alcohol distilleries started to appear near major cities. These were large, dirty factories where cows were confined to filthy conditions and fed only swill, the hot acidic byproducts of distilled grain. Workers, often sick themselves, milked by hand into open pails and sometimes inoculated the milk with human diseases. This “swill milk” was dangerous. It was implicated in human illness and death. Instead of cleaning up or regulating the safe production of milk, widespread pasteurization kept low cost, low quality milk on the market. Raw milk has been stigmatized ever since. No food product is totally safe from contamination and the laws of the land reflect fear and bias against raw milk. But the laws in Vermont are changing! Rural Vermont, a small farm advocacy organization, led the effort to reform the raw milk laws. We will now be allowed to sell up to 40 gallons/day and deliver to customers' homes! We’ll also be inspected by the Agency of Agriculture, and have to adhere to strict safety and milk testing standards. We don’t mind regulatory oversight because we are proud of our clean process and healthy animals and can easily meet the new standards without changing much.
What goes into the cost of our milk?
Our milk is very special. We feel there is no comparison to milk you can buy in the store. This is because we only have a few cows, giving us the freedom to care for them as individuals, not as if they were in a factory. This type of care is expensive and time consuming. We buy the best dry hay and organic grain for them. We don’t push them to produce more milk than is healthy and they get plenty of rest between calves. They’re out to pasture all summer and roam around a clean, comfortable barn with access to the outdoors all winter. We treat them kindly and handle them every day. We also don’t use a milk pipeline. Since we can physically scrub every surface our milk touches, it is extremely clean. We’ve had it last 3 weeks in the fridge! Since we don’t want to have to boil milk to make it safe to drink, we have rigorous cleanliness and testing procedures, all of which costs us money. We are so excited and committed to producing the safest, highest quality milk for our community and we need to stay in business to do so. We know you’ll think it’s worth it!
(If you truly can’t afford our milk, please let us know. We’ll try to work something out.)
Do you milk by hand?
No. We have at times milked our cows by hand (like when the power goes out), but primarily we use a small, simple machine called a “bucket milker”. It’s the famous “Surge” type that actually hangs from a strap under the cow. Soft rubber inflations attach to the teats and vacuum pressure squeezes them and draws milk directly into an enclosed pail. This system is a very clean way to milk since its entirely enclosed, milk flows through minimal equipment and the cow holds it all up off the ground. Thanks girls!
What kind of cows do you have?
We mostly raise Jersey and Guernsey cows. We have one Brown Swiss, “Tiki” from Shelburne Farms! We focus on breeds known for high protein and butterfat content, and that are efficient and effective grazers.
What do your cows eat?
Our cows eat grass and legumes (clover, trefoil, vetch) in the pasture from May through November and dry hay the rest of the year. We also feed them a little organic grain while they are giving milk. They get free choice minerals and sometimes natural supplements, like kelp or molasses.
How long does the milk last?
We have tested this and found it to taste perfectly good after 10 days in the fridge! We believe this is because of our clean methods of harvesting the milk and the natural populations of beneficial bacteria present working to keep spoiling bacteria in check. If you are a subscription customer and use your own jars, be SURE they are clean and totally DRY before dropping them off.
How do I get to your farm?
From the Village of Hinesburg, take 116 to the most northern traffic light near CVU. Turn left at this light onto Shelburne Falls Road and go 2 miles. You’ll see a sign for Taproot Farm. Go another ½ mile down the hill and on the right will be a blue Family Cow Farmstand sign and a big red barn. That’s us!
From Burlington: Take Route 2 East to Dorset Street. Go 7 miles south on Dorset St. into Shelburne. You’ll come to a 4 way intersections with Irish Hill Road – go straight through. In another ½ mile, stay left at the fork towards Hinesburg. In 1 ½ miles on the left, you’ll see a red barn with big greenhouses. This is Red Wagon Plants. Go 100 feet past their driveway, we are the very next driveway on the left. Look for the blue Family Cow Farmstand sign.
From Williston: Take 2a south till it T’s into 116. Turn left on 116 to go south. In 2 miles you’ll come to a traffic light with a Merchant’s Bank on the corner, turn right on Shelburne Falls Road and go 2 miles. You’ll see a sign for Taproot Farm. Go another ½ mile down the hill and on the right will be a blue Family Cow Farmstand sign and a big red barn. That’s us!
