Trouble brewing

Late Fall 2008, the calls started from some members complaining that the milk from Cows R Us tasted different. Having just returned from a two week trip to Arizona and Utah where we were exposed to two different raw dairy farm, I knew that milk taste can alter from place to place and from season to season.

I guess it seemed like it was common sense: a raw product will reflect changes to the environment more so than a product that is processed and sold through a grocery store. Throughout the 2 years we've drank raw milk, it's taste and texture had changed from time to time. But the overall product was fine. When it was rich, sweet and creamy, we drank a lot; when it was just ... well, milk, we drank less.

At this point, the only course was to alert the dairy to find out if they were doing something different. And to attempt to placate the members who had issues as best we could. I diligently purused the internet looking for reasons why grass fed raw milk could change in taste. There were blogs from other dairy sources around the states that discussed weather and change of seasons affecting the milk taste.

Jennifer Tessier of Cows R Us was very concerned over the complaints. She was very excited because they had just been able to let the cows onto the new pastures that were planted in during the summer. And here our coop was raining on her excitement.

However, I was aware that something was going on with the milk with other members as well. Although some folks were not making negative comments, the numbers per order were changing. Some of it may have been from holiday travels and less milk needed, but it was noticeable.

Sometime between Thanksgiving and New Years, a coop member approached me with the name of another S. Carolina Raw Dairy. Because of the holiday, I did not take any action with the information.