How to get a Thanksgiving turkey

It’s less than a month until Thanksgiving, and that means it’s time to start sending our turkeys to the processor! Here are some quick notes about our turkeys:

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How to be absolutely certain the milk is 100% A2

It seems that there’s a lot of confusion and even misinformation out there about A2 milk. I’m hoping to bring some light to the topic. How can you be absolutely certain the milk is 100% A2? It’s NOT the breed of the cow. It’s NOT the fat content. It’s NOT whether it’s raw or homogenized. It’s NOT the nutritional content. It’s NOT what the cow is fed. It’s NOT how a cow lives.

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Is it possible to be more transparent?

As you probably know, almost all of our weekly news stories are inspired by our awesome customers. I’ve been getting a lot more questions than normal lately. They’re on a variety of topics but all have an underlying theme - trust.Some examples - How can we be sure your milk is A2? How do we know you do not give your cows hormones? How can I be certain that your animals are treated humanely? Are you sure there’s no soy in your feed? It didn’t say “sourdough” on the bread label, is it really sourdough?You get the point. Our customers want to know that what we say about our products is true!Miller’s Bio Farm prides itself in transparency. I mean, can’t you tell? We send out lengthy posts about what we do every week.Do you want quality info on the website? We try our best to keep the website up to date and continuously add more info. Do you want reviews? We have that! Check out our Google reviews (oh and if you haven’t left one already, we’d love your personal and honest feedback).Do you want excellent customer service? We have that, too! You can email any questions to hello@millersbiofarm.com, and I’ll reply. I try to reply ASAP but definitely within 24 hours. Consider me your farm liaison. I speak with the farmer nearly every day. And I visit the farm multiple times per year. And, I’ve been buying Miller’s food for my family for 8 years, way before I became an employee.But, I get it. Especially in our current world, it can be so hard to trust information. How can we know what’s true and what’s “fake news”? Add this to the fact that, as a society, we’ve become so very disconnected from our food. According to recent polls, about only 27% of Americans cook every day and 35% of households grow food at home or in a community garden. Really, the only way to 100% be certain about how your food was produced is to grow it and cook it yourself. Not so easy these days considering busy work/school schedules and lack of garden space (especially me on my 0.15 acres in the woods). What else can Miller’s Bio Farm do? How can we be more transparent? Do you want food labels? Labels like “certified organic” and “fair trade” and “GMO free” and “certified humane” can make you feel safe and supported. But, if you’re reading this, you likely know that the labels can be misleading. Miller’s Bio Farm is not certified in anything. Farmer Aaron feels that it’s a waste of time and resources. You can read a bit more about that here.Do you want photos and videos of the farmer and his family? Or how about social media? I’m sorry, farmer Aaron does not do this. He is Amish and does not participate in things that promote an individual’s vanity. At first, I was shocked and disappointed by this. But now, I have a profound appreciation for these convictions (anyone watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix?).Do you want to visit the farm or meet the farmer? Usually we host at least two events a year where this is possible. This year all events were unfortunately cancelled due to… you guessed it...  the pandemic. Also, we know that not all customers live close enough to make attending an event on or near the farm possible.That being said, if you do live close enough, you are welcome to schedule a short and private farm tour with farmer Aaron. If you live far away, you are also welcome to speak with farmer Aaron on the phone. To do either of these, leave a message at 717.786.7895 ext 0. The farmer is usually good about calling back quickly.What else can we do? What can we do to help you feel secure in your food sources? Videos or info sheets on certain topics? Signed affidavits from all farmers we source from? More info about our local vendors? Is there particular information that’s lacking from the website? Any ideas?We want to hear from you!

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How the fear of Mad Cow Disease lives on

A customer asked a question about what organ meats we offer (check out a complete list with the status here). I take all customer questions seriously and do my absolute best to answer honestly and accurately. This particular question led me down a rabbit hole and to a fascinating and timely revelation.

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Organ Meat Status

Don't waste - eat the whole beast. Plus, the organs are packed with major nutritional value! Here's the status of bones and organs as of today.

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A shout out to my meat thermometer

It seems that we are trying to measure and track a lot of things these days. Whether the data is actually valuable or useful or accurate is another story. There is one tool that I use regularly in my kitchen, and it is data that is certainly useful and reliable. This is a shout out to my meat thermometer. Thank you for all you do to cook delicious meals for my family!

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Is beef rennet really the best option?

This year, we started getting the same question from a bunch of our awesome customers. It goes something like this, “I’m vegetarian. Can you make A2 cheese with vegetable rennet?” Of course, I relay all feedback to farmer Aaron. So, he started looking into it. We went down a rabbit hole of knowledge on this one. It turns out, there’s good reasons we use beef rennet.

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Welcoming a new helping family on the farm

Farmer Aaron and his family needed help. Completing all the farm chores, running a business, holding down a household, and being active with their church and community was getting to be too much to handle with sporadic help here and there. The Miller’s needed some relief. They needed some freedom. They needed some more sleep. So, farmer Aaron put an ad in the Busy Beaver...

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Don’t waste it - just make some cheese

You’ve likely heard the sayings “turn lemons into lemonade” and “don’t cry over spilled milk”. But what do you do with too much milk or sour milk? There certainly should be a saying about that. If you accidentally over-purchase milk or your raw milk sours faster than you can drink it, please don’t dump that wonderful liquid down the drain. The ladies on the farm worked so hard to produce it. I have a solution for you - “Ricotta get going!” Turn your extra milk into ricotta cheese!

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Ways to tackle a bad day

The other day, I read a great opinion piece about how the stress of the pandemic is different from any other stress we may encounter. I chatted with farmer Aaron about this. The next day, I got an uplifting fax from him with some fantastic remedies for overcoming bad days. When I asked Aaron how he tackles a bad day, he said “Well, I don’t know, because I don’t really have bad days. Within a bad day, you can have a good day.”

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