local milk

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

In the past few months there have been several threads on this community about local milk and/or milk delivery. It has been pointed out that Crescent Ridge Dairy delivers local milk to towns all around Somerville but not to Somerville itself (see their delivery map which conspicuously omits our entire beloved town from existence).

I emailed Crescent Ridge a while back to ask about the chances of them adding a Somerville delivery, and got back a typically wishy-washy answer from a sales-type person (you know, "we are always considering new opportunities" or something vague like that).

I also did a little looking into other options for acquiring locally-produced milk in the area, and found that:
* Shaw Farm milk is sold at Kickass Cupcakes. However, since most of my shopping would be done with kids in tow, it just isn't feasible to be going into a cupcake store on a regular basis. ;) Also, it's inefficient for me to have to buy four quarts when I want a gallon.
* Shaw Farm milk is also sold at Wilson Farm in Lexington. This is a bit far for me to justify going on a regular basis just for milk.
* Shaw Farm's website does not list Kickass Cupcakes on its list of stores that sell its products, which leads me to wonder where else it might be available that isn't on the website.
* I heard a rumor that Dave's Fresh Pasta carried local milk, but this turns out to be incorrect (at least according to the somewhat confused person behind the counter there this evening).
* I also heard a rumor that McKinnon's Meat Market in Davis Square carried local milk, but have not investigated this yet since I'm a vegetarian and the place intimidates me.
* You can also get Crescent Ridge milk at Whole Foods, which is an okay option but still not really convenient for me (and again only available in quarts, at least at the Central Square location).
* Hood delivers, but the milk is not necessarily local and (from what I can see) is factory-produced.

Anyway, with the foregoing in mind, my questions to you are:
* Do you know of anywhere else in the immediate Davis Square area where locally-produced milk can be purchased?
* Do you know of any other establishment, besides Crescent Ridge and Hood, that delivers milk to Somerville?
and finally,
* Would you be interested in signing up for regular milk deliveries from Crescent Ridge if they added Somerville to their delivery area? I was thinking that it might work better if a bunch of us banded together to approach them saying "here are x people representing y gallons per week who really want to give you their money." If you would be interested in that, please post here (or email me at this username at gmail) and let me know.

Thanks everyone! Now let the flaming begin. :)

Comments

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Whole foods in Alewife has the Highlawn Farm milk...

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

Are any of those dairies organic too? Is it preferable for the planet for us to buy local milk rather than organic, if such a choice is presented?

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

to your second question: yes.

[tolchocky.livejournal.com]

Highlawn, while excellent (especially the chocolate milk), is out in Lee, which isn't exactly close by. How close is local?

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

I think Boston Organics will bring you organic milk with your fruit/veggie box if you pay for it. They cover somerville, but they only come once a week and you don't get to pick the day. And, well, you have to get a fruit/veggie box too.

I don't know if their dairy is local. I think the eggs are Vermont. They say they try to get local produce when possible. As the name suggests, it's all organic.

I really like them, because I'm too lazy to bother getting organic produce (or, often, any produce at all) at the grocery store and way way too lazy to get a farmshare, and also boston organics goes year-round.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Cut please!

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure whether any of them is organic, but given how thoroughly the US gov't has watered down the meaning of organic, it doesn't mean a whole lot necessarily. And yes, local is preferable over organic, as a broad generalization.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

What, instead of the Crescent Ridge? or in addition to it?

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

yeah, I just re-upped for my farmshare for this year, so that's not the greatest option for me. But thanks for the tip.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

According to www.bostonorganics.com, organic milk is not available as an add-on. The grocery items they offer are cheese, eggs, chocolate, bread, soy & peanut butter, coffee, and tea.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Seconded. I am not a vegetarian and I'm perfectly happy drinking the milk I get at Shaw's! And I don't have children I need to deal with...ie, I don't care about much of this post.

[aquastar.livejournal.com]

While I understand that this post may not being important to a group of people ... I didn't think it was all that long and/or needed a cut tag ...

Just thought I'd give my opinion.

[ron_newman]

This is on the edge, but I think it's just barely short enough not to lj-cut.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Yes, extremely local is preferable to organic.

[inahandbasket]

agreed.
just because you don't care about it doesn't mean it needs a cut.

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

I've often seen people use 100 miles as a basic rule. So, within 25 of that. :)

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

In some aspects, definitely. And many local farms which aren't pure organic are still organic-minded, treating animals well and minimizing use of chemicals. But as for "preferable for the planet", it's all a matter of what you're prioritizing.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

IAWTC

[catbird.livejournal.com]

I would be interested in going in with you on the milk order. Leave a comment here if you get enough interest to feel there's enough interest.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

I am curious as to why, and where the trade off occurs?

I do always try to buy organic, and as far as I am concerned, the more local the better. I am very thankful to places such as Whole foods who go out of their way to list where the food is coming from.

However, I cannot see how it would be preferable to buy milk from a dairy that, for example, was using hormones, if there was a more "organic dairy" within n miles.

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

organic milk is better for you, but not necessarily the environment. trucking in milk or produce is bad for the planet. hormones are super bad, but AFAIK aren't polluting waterways and killing beneficials the way chemical fertilizers and pesticides are. smaller farms also tend more toward organic (or act organic even if they can't afford the certification) because it is their own land and because it helps their bottom line (the chemicals are expensive and a farmer may rather go out and pull weeds for just the cost of his time than have one more expense). they're probably consuming the product as well, rather than being workers in a factory, money-making enterprise. given the number of farms within the 100-mile radius, eating local isn't that hard and gives the consumer the choice of which farms to eat from--so you'll quite often get the choice of local AND organic, which is great! unfortunately not all dairy farms will process their own milk into the final product (be it milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.)--the middle man picks it up and takes it for processing--which is why local milk and eggs may be hard to come by.

as for where the trade off occurs, that's a good question. I could make an educated guess, but it's really not a clearcut answer. maybe some outfit has done the actual research and theorizing to give a precise answer.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

My feeling is, whenever a question that can be asked in 15 words is strung out over a page, something should be done about it.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

My goal is to convince the new management of the convenience store on Willow and Highland that they should stock local milk (and eggs and some other things) because as much as I love the Shaw's farm milk, it does get a bit heavy to buy in the quart.

I have emailed Crescent Ridge in the past, but I will email you to be added to the list.

[attackpenguin.livejournal.com]

What I'm more interested in is if there is any place that does pasture/grass fed milk that is local, or even not local. Does anyone know? I can find yogurt from pastured/grass fed cattle at wholefoods but I couldn't find any milk. However, I don't remember seeing Highlawn so maybe I'll have to look again and look to see if they are pastured (of course weather permitting)/grass fed.

[attackpenguin.livejournal.com]

I think the animal treatment has to be put in there as well. Sure hormones/antibiotics don't kill the environment but I'd rather not drink milk than inflict a life of suffering on an animal just so I can enjoy my fruit loops.