1/31 Milk Run: Cows R Us and Harmony

Another milk weekend finds David and I traveling to SC. In the days before we went, I kept thinking on what I had seen as Harmony during the January 17 visit. Yes, the milk tastes clean, refreshing and creamy, but it is very rustic. My memories of the early months of the coop members visiting Diamond Hill Dairy for the first time kept popping in my head. Our coop had to be the biggest pain in the butt to Gloria and Winfield in those early months.

Most of the coop members were brand new to raw milk; they had purchased their milk from local grocery stores which was clean, bright and organized. Now they are being asked to drive their nice clean vehicles to a dusty, dirty (often muddy) farm complete with strong smells of cow manure and swarms of flies (especially as we headed into summer). The Transportation Bags ended up getting wet during loading; this wet mixed with the dust/dirt that tracked in from outside and of course was transferred into the nice clean interior of our driver's vehicles. Often there was no one around to assist putting the milk into the Transportation and hauling them out to the vehicles; many husbands can attest to their sore backs the next day.

Currently we were getting a product from a dairy farm who had incredible high standards for cleanliness. A place that has an ice machine on premise at a very reasonable price. There is more often a family member or employee available to help us with packing and loading.

I kept asking myself CAN I COPE WITH THE PLETHORA OF COMPLAINTS ALL OVER AGAIN?

I made a phone call to the other coop leader in Atlanta who purchased milk from Harmony and expressed my concerns. She related her members often grumbled after making the trip to Harmony. Most loved the milk but if they ended up making the trip on a wet/mucky day, they were generally unhappy and complaining of the experience on the return. One of her last drivers had to pick up their milk from the Tank Room because the owner had just finished bottling it. This driver made lots of negative comments about how disorganized the shed area was that he had to walk by. She also reported some members had complained about taste variances with Harmony. Okay ... so was the coop just jumping from a hot frying pan into the fire?? There were so many unknowns.

On the morning of January 31, I packed the camera and videos camera along with lots of extra paper to take notes.

IF WE WERE GOING TO CHANGE OUR DAIRY, I WANTED EVERYONE TO BE TOTALLY CLEAR ABOUT WHAT THEY WERE AGREEING TO.

I am so blessed to have an amazing husband who really enjoys going on drives and who is generally good humored. The night before I had spent up with our 19 year old powering through a project of great importance ~ I crawled into bed at 5:30 and rolled out at 8:30 AM.

In my original (pre-drama) plan, we would stop by Harmony and pick up our order then head to CRU for that order. However, the day before, I received a request from Harmony's owner to not arrive at there prior to 11 AM. So we flipped the plan ~ CRU first, then Harmony pickup.

CRU pick-up:
As we pulled in, the milk tanker truck was pulling away from the milk building. At the door, a note was posted stating "gone for lunch", a cell number, and instructions to call them for help. Through the window, I saw movement and as I walked inside there was Jennifer in her boots with a scrub brush and hot water was streaming from the stainless steel tank. She greeted us with a big smile and stopped cleaning to assist us with loading the bags.

As I opened the door, Jennifer pointed out the cream line of the jug in front of me. The cream line was almost to the base of the jug handle. WOW, it was about in the same position as what we had gotten last time from Harmony.

Jennifer packed the bags while David scooped ice over them and hauled them out to our vehicle. While they were working, I walked around snapping pictures of the property. Jennifer was very gracious and understanding of my situation. Her bottom line to me was she was putting this situation in God's hands.

Harmony pick-up:
As we were leaving CRU at 11:30, I had a message from my son saying that Harmony had called the house to find out where I was. In a brief call to Harmony, I explained we had to pick up from the other dairy first and would be there in approximately an hour. The owner did not fuss at me, but it was clear to me that he had expected me to make our pick up between 11 AM and noon. Oops ... sure didn't understand that from the email I had received. When we arrived at Harmony, I started taking pictures. I wanted everyone to see what they would be seeing when they had to make this trip. I took pictures of the entrance lane, the first cow gate (and how to latch it), the second cow gate (and how it had a different latch), the various views to be had as I walked up to where David had backed his vehicle up to the door of the processing room.

Peter entered the processing room and proceeded into the walk-in refrigerator. I started opening bags as David brought them in along with the ice we had picked up on our way to the farm. Peter brought out the gallons of milk in crates on a dolly; there were 4 gallons in each crate. David and I started loading bags while Peter went back to the walk-in refrigerator for the more milk. David and I packed bags and poured ice onto the jugs before zipping them up. As I grabbed a bag to haul to the vehicle, Peter said he'd help. So I went out and took more pictures.

We apologized for being late and inquired if it was important for our coop's driver to arrange a time to do pick up. The owner said he wanted the drivers to contact them by the Wednesday before the pick up to arrange when they would be coming. He confirmed their dairy was Certified for Grade A Raw Milk production by SC; David asked lots of questions about the last inspection. I decided I'd would make it a priority to verify the SC Certification.

After saying our farewells, I took lots of pictures of the only cows visible. Most of the cows in the area between the first and second cow gate were hanging out in a mucky area. The visual difference of the pastures readily viewed here were noticeably different than those of CRU. It looks like a lot of the grasses in this area were "winterized" (brown as apposed to green).

Trip back to Smyrna:
On the way back to Smyrna, we talked about what we had seen between the two farms. One thing that really stuck out to me was how similar the cream lines were between the two dairy products. That was encouraging as someone had commented that maybe Harmony's milk had more butterfat/cream than CRU. Based on what I saw with my own eyes between the two, I thought IF there was a difference, it was SLIGHT.

I also pondered how to deal with the 3 families that emphatically stated they only wanted to purchase milk from Harmony. If they only took Harmony milk home and did not have any CRU milk to compare, wouldn't they just cast their vote for Harmony?? I decided it was worth the sacrifice of 3 quart jar and a gallon of CRU milk so each family would be able to do a side-by-side comparison.

Then there was the question of how to make sure each family took at least 1/2 their order from each dairy's bags. We decided to color code the Order Tracking Sheet and the Transportation bags when we got to the house. Thank the Lord for colored construction paper I had not tossed and the ease of use with the Excel spreadsheet used for the Tracking Sheet.

Once we arrived back in Smyrna, we dashed around to get everything ready before making the CallingPost alert to our members. Thankfully our kids were having friends over for the night, so I was available to meet with each coop members as they picked up.

I explained to each member we had taken lots of pictures of each dairy as I was putting together a Dairy-to-Dairy comparison via email; the plan was to email get that done by Wednesday night.