December 2013 Newsletter

Kalo Mina!  This is a phrase I learned while I lived in Greece.  It means “happy new month” and the Greek people greet each other with these words at the beginning of each new month.  I found it to be a fun and refreshing tradition, and I try to carry it on here at home!

December is here!  My, how this year seems to have flown by!  Thank you so much to those of you who have made the trek out each week this year to pick up your milk.  Of course, the cows are mostly in the barn now while the pasture goes dormant and recovers, but they are eating sat sweet, alfalfa hay, which definitely makes for some sweet, delicious milk.  I appreciate your support and your patronage of our little micro dairy.

Reminder: We will be milking through the Christmas holiday, those cows just don’t ever take a break!

I am sitting here doing the invoicing December 1st, and I realize that many of you might be out of town over the holidays and others of you have asked for extra milk for your holiday hosting.  If you need to make any changes this month, let me know, and I will put it on the schedule.  I will be having the baby some time this month, but I will still be out milking the cows, and I am always available if you need me, I just might not be as quick to get back to you as normal.  Please be patient with me.  And, of course, I will put an announcement out as soon as our new little one has arrived.

You might have been surprised to discover that I filed a lawsuit on behalf of myself and Cast Iron Farm on November 19th.  I am the sole plaintiff in the lawsuit.  We are challenging the Oregon ban on the advertising of raw milk.  The challenge was filed in federal court as a violation of the first amendment.  I am working with the public interest law firm The Institute for Justice on this case, and they are amazing.  We expect to see this senseless ban removed so we can communicate about raw milk in Oregon.  We made quite a splash in the media (including a TV appearance or two), both locally and nationally!  The article was on the front page of the News Register last week and was published in the Capital Press this week!  I must say that I have been touched by the outflowing of support I have received from the public at large as well as those of you most important to me, my customers.  I apologize if this was a surprise to you!  While the case has been under works for a while, I wasn’t allowed to talk about it until we actually filed the case.  I promise to keep you apprised of how things progress from this point on.  At this point, the judicial system can be slow, and we are waiting to hear back from the state to see how the case might progress.  Hopefully I will have a thorough update with more information at the beginning of next month.

We will be making some major changes at some point this month, and I wanted to give you a warning about them.  To make milking easier, and to get the milk chilled faster, we will be installing a bulk tank in the creamery at some point in this month (it is on it’s way from Greece).  This will change the way you pick up your milk.  I have attached a sheet that explains how the process will work.  Feel free to contact me with any questions while we work through this change.

A few of you have inquired about the yarn sitting on the shelf in the creamery.  This yarn is a part of a co-op.  I have German Angora rabbits, and we shear them every 90 days.  I saved up 5 pounds of this amazing fiber and sent it in with our co-op to have it milled into this yarn.  The co-op has finally set the price.  It is $15 per skein.  I have left some info sheets next to it for those of you interested in the technical details.  I just knitted up some projects with the yarn over Thanksgiving, and I was very happy with the results.

I hope your Thanksgiving was full of delicious food to eat and family to share it with.  May December, the darkest month of the year, bring you much warmth! Happy Holidays to you and yours!