Big Milk News

TC Farm milk will be in cardboard cartons

That's right! Cardboard - and not that fancy plastic screw-top cardboard that probably just gums up recycling plants and has as 2-3 month shelf life (gross, right?). OUR milk will be in throwback old school cartons!

When we started planning how to get TC Farmer Wayne's milk to our members, we knew it would be a challenge to get the packaging and logistics figured out for the smaller scale, higher quality production we envisioned. We knew we could get plastic jugs, but nobody wanted that compromise. We have been working on it since last fall and now have a plan in place to start with cardboard recyclable cartons!

Fun fact - we will be using the same equipment that cedar summit previously used to make their amazing milk! - TC Farm's milk will actually be higher quality as we move to fully A2 genetics, but otherwise meeting the same standards they had (Organic, 100% grass fed, rotational grazed, allow calves to stay with their mothers, etc).

Timing update: This change may delay our start of our deliveries. We will explain more later when we have a bit more details. In short: just like meat items, the big challenge with dairy is getting access to processing, facilities that can bottle the milk for us. In fact, even big companies with feedlots like Organic Valley don't have access to enough processing and are dumping raw milk because bigger companies like Kemps are limiting their access to the processing facilities. In order to provide cardboard cartons, we update our plans in coordination with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture - our packaging needs to be redesigned and approved and then printed. Look for more details soon.

Save the planet - drink milk

When Betsy and I first visited Cedar Summit's farm, well before we started TC Farm, it was amazing for us to see the fence line. I know, fences aren't really THAT exciting, are they? But THESE fences were.. they were actually profound.

You see... Rotational grazing like we do for our beef, pork and chickens (and now diary!), actually builds topsoil. Tons of carbon is pulled out of the air and sequestered into the ground - that's why beef raised like ours has a net negative green house gas emission (every pound of TC Farm beef sequesters about the equivalent of 4.8 pounds of carbon from the atmosphere). I don't know the conversion for milk, but I can tell you this:

The thing about those fence lines at Cedar Summit is that they were a solid two feet higher than the neighbor's land. Rotationally grazing for the diary cows had sequestered so much carbon, there was a huge drop off to walk into the neighbor's field! Once we had our farm, we saw this occur as well. It's just so amazing to visually see the benefits to the environment.

Fun fact - TC Farmer Kerry, who was Betsy and Jack's neighbor when TC Farm started, worked at Cedar Summit milking before starting his farm!

Most grass-fed and organic dairy comes from huge feedlots where the carbon emissions are through the roof. By choosing our milk, you will avoid plastic and offset some of the emissions from traditional agriculture.

We need your help

Our group has made some major commitments in order to ensure these logistics work to support the type of dairy many of us have been missing since Cedar Summit closed their farm. But we need your help!

Over 300 families have helped us by registering to receive milk at least once a month, but we need a bit more of a commitment to ensure we can meet the commitments our group has made.

If you drink milk and want to help us make a difference, we need about 75 more families to register to get their milk in order to meet our minimum weekly bottling commitments. It is really hard to get access to bottling, especially with the cardboard cartons... so your help to pre-reserve the milk is very appreciated!

Please register below for milk and/or any other items you'd like. If you want a delivery every week or every other week, that will require home delivery, but you can now get home delivery for just $4.99!

Fill out your name and email below - then be sure to at least select dairy on the second page so that you have the option to reserve milk.