1st Dairy stop on January 17: Harmony

Our first stop of the day was Harmony in Westminster. It was out in the country and about 20 minutes closer to Atlanta. Following our Google directions, we found what we thought was the right driveway ~ as we pulled into the dirt drive, there was a cow gate blocking the way. David noticed a man walking towards us so we got out to greet him. It was Harmony's owner Peter. He pointed out that we would need to drive down to the Diary which meant we had to travel through two cow gates. He opened the gate for us and closed it behind us. We drove to the other gate and waited for him to open the gate for us to proceed through.

As we stepped from our vehicle, Peter noticed our footwear and commented that we wore the correct shoes. He elaborated if it was wet, the area where we were standing and our vehicle was parked was often muddy. Folks coming to pick up milk were advised to wear "work" shoes. Since the ground in the area was more dirt with a little gravel mixed in it was easy to imagine how mucky it could get during raining times.

Peter took us into the Milk Parlor and showed us the operation. There were two cows still being milked. Peter explained that each cow was hand fed during the milking process. He pointed out that his system used Pyrex collection bottle to collect the cows milk. After the cows was finished milking and the milk was visually inspected, it was released into the stainless steel system. Peter explained that he preferred this method because he was able to notice problems with a cow from the milk they were producing. He said those what use stainless steel collection, find out problems from what is collected within the filter system and then have to backtrack to the problem cow. While Peter was talking I was videotaping the Milking Parlor, the cows, the Pyrex collection bottles ~ trying to capture it for our members.

Peter also discussed how some of the competing dairy farmers used herbicides on their pastures. He explained Harmony had been pesticide and herbicide free since 1994. Also all the hay that was consumed by the cows was grown directly on the farm. A negative that Peter stated about the lack of herbicide use was that sometime the cows could get into a batch of wild onion, Bitter weed or even blackberries. He stated any of these would change the flavor of the milk. The worse of the three was Bitter weed which left a bitter after taste. When questioned about how Harmony handled that situation, Peter replied he would replace any problem milk as long as it was refrigerated under 40 degrees.

We were then taken into the tank room which was adjacent to the Milking Parlor. The twelve gallons we were purchasing were on the floor beside the tank. Peter explained he has just finished bottling them when he heard the farms dogs start barking. Since the temperature that morning was a brisk 20 degrees, I was not concerned the milk had been sitting.

Peter took us into the processing building located next to the building containing the milking parlor and tank room. He explained Harmony had a license to do low temperature pasteurization and sold to local stores. He showed us the door to the walk-in refrigerator but he warned us we might not want to inspect it because the carcass of a sow he had slaughter was inside. We opted not to do a visual inspection on that note.

David and I packed the 12 gallons into the Transportation bags, thanked Peter and headed to our next destination. Our impressions were that Peter was very passionate about his farm, his animals and the product they produced. My concerns were our coop members would not appreciate the rustic farm setting. If they had problems with Diamond Hill's standards of "cleanliness" and "neatness" what on earth would they think of the shed by the entrance to the Milk Parlor door that was filled with an assortment of farming tools and equipment; much less the a sundry vehicles and farm equipment around the farm yard??

We stopped at the gas station and purchased ice to fill the Transportation Bags filled with Harmony Milk. At $1.39 for 7 pounds, there was an added expense.

Next stop, Cows R Us.