The misguiding nature of the new A2 milk discovery means you need to talk to your farmer.

I was given a postcard for another small farm that said something like “100% Jersey cows producing A2 milk”, and this got me frustrated. It’s bad enough that “grass-fed” means a cow can be finished on grain and that “pastured” means a chicken may never touch grass, but now small farms are doing it, too!? I know farming is a hard gig, and I don’t think anyone is being maliciously deceitful. I’m disappointed. Unscrupulous farmers interested in high quality nutrient-dense food should do thorough research about new products, like A2 cow dairy, and present accurate information. And conscious consumers should do the same.

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Hey, why are my egg yolks yellow?

If you order eggs from us, you are used to getting eggs with a deep orange yolk. But, recently, you may have gotten a few eggs with yellow yolks. Gasp! Yellow yolks?! I know it’s shocking, but this does happen around this time every year. Here’s why.

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Does soil quality affect food value, and how to know if your food actually has value?

Dr. William Albrecht made a film in the 1950s called The Other Side of the Fence (watch it here). Dr. Albrecht, a soil scientist, started his research to answer a few questions. Why do animals choose certain foods (often on the other side of the fence) over others? Why do some farms produce healthy livestock and some sickly? How is our soil affecting our animals’ diet?

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Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-op gives members access to nutritious produce and other small- batch products.

As you may have noticed, we’ve had a good number of new products lately, specifically in the produce department. This is due to the farmer’s new partnership with the Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-op (LFFC), a non-profit cooperative of over 100 small farmers from Lancaster County, PA, many of them living the Amish culture. We are so thankful to have this resource to connect our members with even more food produced on highly maintained and nutrient-rich soil.

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Farmers unite at a conference

Earlier this week, our farmer attended the 25th Annual Southwest PA Grazing Conference for people interested in the grass-fed opportunity. The theme for the 2018 conference was “The Next 25 Years”. The conference was attended by about 400 people. This is about double last year’s attendance, and the farmer thinks the reason why is the presence of Joel Salatin, who is a pretty big player in the current regenerative farming and real food movement.

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Eating the whole beast

In today’s kitchen, modern home chefs opt for lean cuts of meat that are quick and easy to prepare. Think chicken breast, steak, or pork chops. By giving preference to specific cuts of meat, most modern Americans are missing out on the flavors, textures, and nutrition that comes from the rest of the animal. Think organs, bones, and fat.

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Making the perfect chocolate milk

Instead of all-natural ingredients, the chocolate milk that kids (...and adults) know today is full of refined and artificial ingredients and additives. The chocolate milk that you find in grocery stores typically consists of partly skimmed milk, sugar (or glucose or fructose), cocoa, artificial color, salt, carrageenan, artificial flavor, Vitamin A, and Vitamin D3. Let’s take a look at why manufacturers choose these ingredients and why, when you are using high quality ingredients and purchasing directly from a farm, they aren’t needed.

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Is your honey adulterated, and how can you avoid it?

A grand majority - 75% according to Food Safety News - of the honey sold in US grocery stores is adulterated. It has been ultra-filtered and is almost certainly diluted. The astonishing part is that there’s no way of telling if your honey is 100% pure by the label. It’s being sold as “honey” and is marked as such in the grocery store.

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Who's defending our raw milk farmers' rights?

Step into someone else’s muddy boots for a bit. Imagine you are a small dairy farmer (if that’s the case, your father was probably a farmer, too). You made the choice to produce a product that you believe in – nutrient-dense raw milk. It’s what your customers want for optimal health, and you can hopefully break even every year (most farmers don’t make much or are in debt). You raise naturally healthy cows on a natural diet of grass. Your milk is clean (and you know it, because you have it tested regularly). One day, seemingly out of nowhere, someone writes you a letter or comes to your farm. They say what you are doing is wrong and threaten lengthy legal action. With little money (if any at all), what do you do?

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A brief history of the raw milk debate

Raw milk is 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.

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