Local Milk

[Shelly]

Farmer Katherine Anderson (Blue Oak Ranch) supplies me with pet-
quality raw goat milk, which I pick up weekly at Island Seed & Feed.
This is by special arrangement only (limited quantities) so if you are
interested, call her at (805) 689-8657, or visit her website:
http://www.freetimesw.com/blueoakranch/

[Krista Harris / Edible Santa Barbara]

Here is a little more information about milk:

Rockview Family Farms (http://www.rockviewfarms.com) is a dairy in
Downey - about 120 miles away. Their line of organic milk is called
Good Heart Organics. According to the Eat Local One Year website,
Rockview is the source of some of the Trader Joe's dairy products. If
package's plant number is 06-98, then it's from Rockview. For
instance, I just checked the carton of organic milk that was in my
refrigerator and sure enough the number stamped at the top of the
carton next to the date was 06-98.

Southern California based Alta Dena can also be considered local, but
I have not found any information about where the milk actually comes
from and on their website it says that they do not allow dairy tours,
because of "increased security."

Broguiere's milk is from Montebello, about 100 miles away, and their
milk comes in glass bottles (very handy for those of us doing the
Plastic Challenge!). Huell Howser has done a feature on them, but I
have not seen it. And I could not find a website for Broguiere's, but
there are lots of mentions of them in discussion groups. People seem
to go crazy over their chocolate milk and eggnog.

And speaking of glass bottles, Straus Family Creamery (http://
www.strausfamilycreamery.com) also sells their milk in glass bottles.
They are in Northern California (about 370 miles away), but they are
worth mentioning and supporting because of their environmentally
conscious approach and emphasis on quality.

Organic Valley (http://www.organicvalley.coop) is a co-op of dairies.
The have a handy "Who's Your Farmer" feature on their website, so you
can enter your zip code and see which dairies are supplying Organic
Valley in your area. When I plugged in 93101, the closest one that
came up was Joseph Nunes Dairy, about 212 miles away.

Organic Pastures (http://www.organicpastures.com) is unique in that
they sell raw certified milk. The dairy is located near Fresno (about
220 miles away) and their products are available at a number of local
natural foods stores. Raw milk is legal in California, but it is
required to carry a warning label. You can find out more about raw
milk and its benefits on their website.

So, even though we don't have a dairy in Santa Barbara County, you can
see that we do have some good options for sourcing milk.

-Krista

[Mark]

I found a couple additional sources of information that might help
guide our choices:

http://whereismymilkfrom.com/ -- pretty self explanatory from the
website name.

http://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html -- a rating of
dairies by The Cornucopia Institute.

Mark