How long does it last? Check out the new shelf life guide.

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March 4, 2022

I get so inspired by the amazing customers at Miller’s Bio Farm.

One of the top customer questions that our team answers is, “How long does it last?”

More often than not, the customer is asking about a specific dairy item like milk, yogurt, or cheese. But, we get questions about the shelf life of eggs, meat, produce, and at least half of our 600+ products.

It’s such a hard question to definitively answer. After all, best by dates are a little ridiculous anyway.

It’s important to note that the dates given are not for when a food is no longer safe to eat. They are a guide for how long a food will remain at optimal quality, before it starts to degrade.

There’s no way to magically predict when a food will no longer be “good”. It’s always an estimate. Food slowly changes and doesn’t have an on/off switch.

Plus, there are so many variables that can affect shelf life.

Perhaps the biggest variable that can affect shelf life is the temperature or humidity of your fridge.

If it’s too warm or too humid or too bright, your food will spoil more quickly. These three variables speed up the process of decay. This is why fruit ripens more quickly on a windowsill and raw milk clabbers more quickly on the counter.

Another big variable is with opened vs. unopened containers. Opening a container reduces the shelf life.

For example, when you open a container of yogurt, you need to take it out of the fridge. Now it’s at a warmer temperature. The longer it stays out, the more the shelf life is reduced. When you scoop some yogurt out, the spoon and the air let contaminants in. Contaminants also reduce the shelf life.

The tricky part is that it’s hard to say exactly how much the shelf life is reduced. There’s simply no way to calculate this precisely.

This is why the biggest tip I can give you when it comes to shelf life is to trust your gut.

Far too much food is thrown away simply because the expiration date passes. Food waste is a big problem. In the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30-40 percent of the food supply. Wow!

Instead, your nose and mouth are the best way to know if a food is no longer good. This is, of course, a precariously subjective measure of quality. Everyone has a different palate.

I’ll give a personal anecdote. I’ve been drinking raw milk for years. My taste buds have become accustomed to the taste of souring milk. I simply don’t notice the difference as much as others. When I first started drinking raw milk, this was not the case. I would notice the sour undertones sooner.

Shelf life is important to understand, especially if you’re buying things in bulk to meet the free delivery threshold.

I love being helpful, so… I gave our Shelf Life Guide a makeover! It has lots more information and tips. Plus, it now has charts that are visually easier to tell how long foods last in the pantry, fridge, or freezer. Here it is!!

I have it saved on my phone, so I have it handy no matter where I am. But, you could also print it and hang it on your fridge or put it on the shelf with your cookbooks.

Do you struggle with shelf life? Is a guide like this helpful for you? Are there any other real food resources you wish you had or big food questions you want answered?

I’d love to hear from you. Comment below (no account required) or contact us.

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Food web vs food chain. I'll use the crazy egg recall as an example.

At Miller's, we're building a food web. This is a lot different than the modern food chain most Americans rely on. A food chain is a factory-filled engine. Here are the links that usually make up the food chain. Mega feed mills and fertilizer plants --> mega factory farms --> mega processing plants --> mega distributors --> mega supermarkets. And in between all of those things are mega supplies and transportation companies. When one link breaks, the whole chain goes down! Sure, it's made food more affordable. But, it's also made our food system fragile. Let's use the egg recall that's happening right now as an example. It's a conventional egg recall (NOT our eggs, which we have plenty of btw). The current salmonella outbreak has sickened at least 89 people to date. It's affected 1.7 million cartons of eggs in 9 states, starting in March. Hundreds of thousands of people have eaten contaminated eggs. Wow, I mean, that's awful on such a big scale. But, here's what's interesting to me - there are 29 different products affected. How could that be? How could they be related? Well, those products come from 10 different egg brands who all have their eggs packed at 2 facilities. Talk about mega ag! Now, I don't know this for sure, but I would bet that all of those millions of eggs come from one mega-farm that has a salmonella outbreak inside one of its mega buildings. Keep in mind that a CAFO (confined animal feeding operation) is defined as having a minimum of 82,000 laying hens. In other words, it's plausible for those millions of eggs to come from one "farm". And the saddest part? All of those hens were likely culled to stop the outbreak quickly. One last note here -- the egg recall example is actually a small one. It's even worse with beef. Did you know that 85% of all grain finished beef is processed by just 4 companies? Geez! And, I mean, we all saw the food chain break during COVID. On the flip side (and gosh, I'm happy there's an alternative), a food web is a collection of small feed suppliers, farmers, processors, etc. They are all independent, and each has an important role in getting your food to you. When one intersection in the web breaks, it's fairly easy to repair it and find someone else to fill in. It's a resilient way to produce food. The downside to a food web is that the food does cost more. Let's take our egg farmers as an example. They work in small "pods". They all get their feed and cartons from the same place. They all follow the same farming practices. But, other than that, they work independently in "pods". Right now, we have 2 egg pods. A "pod" consists of 1-5 family farmers with small flocks (no more than 3,000 birds each). And that group of farmers has their eggs packed at one small family egg packer. If we need more eggs, then we need to start another pod. If one pod (or a part of a pod) goes down, another can likely fill in. What do you think? Is it worth it to pay more for food from a resilient food web? Do we need the food chain to supply affordable food? What does our food future look like? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below (no account required) or contact us 😊 ----- PS: Did I mention we have plenty pastured, honest yolk, corn & soy free eggs right now? There's no outbreak or shortage for us! ----- Sources Eggs sold at Walmart, other grocers in 9 states recalled amid salmonella outbreakExplainer: How four big companies control the U.S. beef industry

Hidden ingredient in pure maple syrup? Yup, a defoamer! Ours is PUFA free.

I know you've seen it advertised everywhere - "PURE MAPLE SYRUP". But, is it really and truly pure? Not exactly. Why is maple syrup is advertised as "pure" anyway? Well, it's because it's being compared to the Aunt Jemima kind of syrup, which doesn't even have maple syrup in it! It's fake maple syrup made with corn syrup with colors, flavors, thickeners, and preservatives. It mimics maple syrup, but it's definitely not maple syrup. So... for companies that are selling actual maple syrup (you know, the kind that's cooked down from the sweet sap from a maple tree), they like to differentiate their syrup from fake syrups. They do this by calling it "pure". I've even seen it as "100% pure". But, that's not really true either. The dictionary definition of "pure" is "not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material." Well, in order to make real maple syrup, you kinda need to do just that. Enter defoamers... Here's how maple syrup is made, including when defoamer is used. First, you harvest the sap from the trees. This happens at a specific time of year. In early spring, as the weather starts to warm up, the sap starts flowing. Here are the lines that run through the maple forest in Vermont that our syrup comes from: Then, the sap (which tastes like sweet water), is pumped into a big stainless steel tank: After that, it goes into another big stainless steel pot in the sugar shack (yup, that's what an old fashioned place that makes maple syrup is called). And then, the heat is turned on. Our maple syrup is cooked over a wood stove! As the maple sap cooks down, it bubbles. Like a lot. To prevent the pot from overflowing with maple lava, not only making a mess but also creating a dangerous situation, syrup makers use a little defoamer. A defoamer is a fat that breaks the surface tension on the bubbles. Only a little bit is needed. *There are all kinds of defoamers, natural and absolutely not natural. But first, let's finish making the syrup. Keep scrolling to learn more about defoamers. Here's what those bubbles look like as a defoamer is added: When the bubbles are smaller and the syrup has cooked down to the perfect thickness and specific gravity, it's done! It's drained into another stainless steel pot. Final thickness and color testing is done before it's bottled. The Virkler family is serious about color distinctions. They always keep some super dark and super light syrup around to make it just right. Why is maple syrup different shades anyway? It's a natural thing! It has to do with the changes in the sugars within the sap as the season changes. As the temperature warms up, naturally occurring bacteria become active and break down the sugar into glucose and fructose. These simpler sugars caramelize more easily during boiling, making a darker syrup. That's why lighter syrup is generally made at the beginning of the season when it's colder. But, just like the weather, the color varies throughout the maple syrup season. The Virkler family documents this every year. In the pic below, the first sap of the season is in the bottom left. And then every harvest after that goes to the right and then up to the next row. Pretty neat! And voila! That's how maple syrup is made! What's in a defoamer? A defoamer is a fat. It disrupts surface tension, breaking those syrupy bubbles down, because it contains non-polar molecules that are attracted to water. Conventional Defoamers Conventional defoamers are a blend of who knows what kind of cheap oils. They can be mineral oils, silicone oils, vegetable oils (canola, soy, olive, etc), or other hydrophobic oils. Some contain up to 10% silicone. Did you know "pure" maple syrup can have that in it!? Conventional defoamers are a lab and factory made thing. And you know what that means - the actual ingredients are proprietary. That's 100% allowed, especially since the defoamer ingredients don't need to be listed on the label. It's less than 1% and considered a trace ingredient. Natural Defoamers More natural defoamers are straight oils. For example, our old maple syrup used sunflower oil. I've seen other maple syrup makers use canola oil. But, the most common defoaming oils are seed oils, and that means PUFAs. Natural No PUFA Defoamers In an effort to reduce PUFAs whenever possible, we have a new no PUFA maple syrup! Virkler Farm & Forest uses organic coconut oil as their defoamer. We're so proud to offer it to you! *It's important to note that a really tiny amount of defoamer is used. Whatever is left in the final syrup is a trace amount. But, as I say again and again, if there's a trace amount of something bad in everything you eat, is it a trace amount anymore? So, what should you look for in a natural maple syrup? For the most natural maple syrup, you can look for a few things: From a pristine forest, free of chemicals.No added colors, flavors, thickeners, or preservatives.Boiled with wood to prevent any unnatural fumes from contaminating the syrup.A natural defoamer is used.Bottled in glass. This is particularly important with maple syrup since it's typically bottled hot/warm. Our maple syrup checks all those boxes! Do you use maple syrup? Did you know about defoamers? What's important to you when choose natural foods? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below or send us a message. ----- PS: Did you know that the maple syrup we sell is also used in a bunch of our products? That includes our ice cream, egg custard, maple sausages, chocolate and strawberry syrups, and more!

Here's the untold story of raw milk. Raw or pasteurized? It should be your choice.

Raw milk has been a highly contested issue in modern history. Is it a healthy nutrient-dense “cure-all” for nourishing your body, or is it a dangerous vector for spreading life-threatening disease? The two camps are split. It is a complicated issue with mixed battles of bad science vs. personal testimony, morals vs. politics, education vs. advertising, and big agri-business vs. small farms. Let's dive in...

How long does it last? Check out the new shelf life guide.

One of the top customer questions that our team answers is, “How long does it last?”

It’s such a hard question to definitively answer. After all, best by dates are a little ridiculous anyway.

Perhaps the biggest variable that can affect shelf life is the temperature or humidity of your fridge.

Another big variable is with opened vs. unopened containers. Opening a container reduces the shelf life.

This is why the biggest tip I can give you when it comes to shelf life is to trust your gut.

Shelf life is important to understand, especially if you’re buying things in bulk to meet the free delivery threshold.

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Do you struggle with shelf life? Is a guide like this helpful for you? Are there any other real food resources you wish you had or big food questions you want answered?

More from the blog

Food web vs food chain. I'll use the crazy egg recall as an example.

Hidden ingredient in pure maple syrup? Yup, a defoamer! Ours is PUFA free.

Here's the untold story of raw milk. Raw or pasteurized? It should be your choice.

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