Happy Cow Creamery

Happy Cow Creamery

For many health aficionados raw milk is nutritionally a perfect food, but is a commodity that is not always easy to find and for some folks the health concerns of drinking milk straight from the udder is a little worrying from a disease standpoint.  So what is the next best thing to raw milk, one that alleviates the worry of bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis while maintaining its nutritional content  - answer: milk that is not heated beyond 145 degrees Fahrenheit and not homogenized; and that’s the milk you get from Happy Cow Creamery. SO how happy are the cows? Well given their lush pastures pretty much guaranteed year round life is quite good…for a dairy cow.   Milked twice a day these Holsteins are relieved of their 74lb plus load of milk in a procedure lasting not much more than ten minutes, so they fair quite a lot better than their industrialized counterparts who are usually milked three times a day. Dairy cows are worked harder than any other farm animal since tractors and ploughs became motorized.  Milk production is ten months of the year at Happy Cow Creamery leaving a two-month rest period in the final stages of a cow’s pregnancy. Famer Tom’s eighty or so milking cows have about 70 acres at their disposal and are corralled and moved around on a rotational grazing system.  On a not so “happy” note and to reiterate the sad demise of family farms - in the 1980s there were 44 dairies in the counties of Pickens and Greenville, now there is only one - the Happy Cow Creamery.

Tom Trantham the owner of HCC was formerly an ‘industrialized’ dairy man and tells a cute story  (apparently true) about how when at the end of his tether, down to his last dollar, and about to sell his herd before the bailiffs moved in, it was one of his own cows who showed the rest of the herd and Tom that all was not lost so long as there was fresh green forage to eat; that the lush pasture on the farm was all they needed to produce the richest creamiest milk, and that Tom didn’t need to be spending thousands of dollars on feed to produce milk that didn’t compare to the new pasture produced milk rich in GLAs and omegas.  "Here's this big 1,400-pound cow, and she's standing there in the lush April growth, and she just takes the top half of the plants, and then moves on," he says. "I said, 'Whoa, cow!”  And there began what Farmer Tom call’s his  “12 Aprils’ rotational pasturing – year round ‘April fresh’ forage.  There are 29 pastures at Happy cow Creamery and the dairy herd is moved daily to fresh forage, the cows eat the soft green tops off the grass and move onto the next pasture, by the time they get back to the first pasture again the forage has regrown and so the cycle moves on.   After each paddock has been grazed a few times it will be bush-hogged down and over seeded with a mixture of grass seasonal appropriate, and so continues the cycle of year-round green pasture for the dairy herd.  Farmer Tom does feed a little grain as a supplement and also as an incentive to get the girls into the parlor.  The parlor is small (only 4 cows inside at a time) therefore calm and stress-free so getting the girls to meander and line-up at the milking shed is not really an issue. 

After leaving his industrialized methods behind Farmer Tom Trantham was all ready to tear down his silage tower when his wife (seems like all the females at HCC have the best ideas – sorry Tom) suggested turning it into a bottling plant!  So the milk travels about a hundred yards from the cow’s udder directly to the bottles!

The concrete covered stalls where the herd wait their turn to be milked, was where they used to live 24/7 until Farmer Tom had his epiphany – thanks to his cows.

Happy Cow Creamery milk has a wonderful reputation in South Carolina, and the on-farm shop is as busy as any market. Unfortunately the milk is not available outside of SC because of bureaucratic red tape that Farmer Tom doesn’t need to get involved with as business is booming.  However, if you live in surrounding states HCC accommodates bulk buying from customers who want to call at the dairy and share in a personal co-op with friends and family back home.  So if you live in a neighboring state make a day of it – take a cooler and have a picnic in the lovely countryside at the Creamery and take home coolers full of fresh creamy milk.

                                                                                           

                                                                                           

Is it possible to be an ethical omnivore?

I have just read a blog by Jo Tyler entitled Why keep looking for the right way to do the wrong thing?  In a nutshell as I understand it this blog is saying that the term ethical omnivore is an oxymoron (my words not the author's).  Now I have pondered the question often - is it possible to be an ethical omnivore? So far I have not come up with a definitive answer, and there might not be one.  The author of this blog suggests that it eases people's conscience, thereby allowing them to eat meat guilt-free.  I am going to use the word humane from here on as I believe we can more readily talk about animal welfare in humane terms rather than in ethical terms - after all animal welfare is what this is all about.   So at VITAL AWARENESS I push for humane slaughter and humane farming, not because it eases my conscience, but because I believe in our current climate it is the right thing to do - and I don't believe that I am trying to make a wrong thing right as suggested by Jo Tyler.  I do not believe that we will get the folks in our current culture to stop eating meat - no way, no how!  So as I see it if we are going to eat meat, then let's do it right.  One definition of humane is to treat humans and animals with compassion  -  so the question becomes "can we raise and kill animals compassionately?"  I believe so (I think!!!!).
~ THE ACTIVIST
[Check out our June Newsletter for the article "Why Veganism Isn't the Answer]

Slow Food: Grass Roots

When we used to holiday in the French countryside lunchtime never failed to impress us. All the folks who were working the land would put down tools at noon and go for lunch: a daily ritual come rain or shine, and one that has remained the same for centuries. All the workers gather round long tables in the local hostelry and have a real meal. These labourers, mainly men, would be sitting alongside brothers, cousins and fathers; their grandfathers and great-grandfathers had most likely done the same. In the French countryside it really is about slow food.

Slow food is about good eating, resting up for while, and conviviality with friends and family, or in the case of our farmhands - fellow workers. Slow food is about the goodness that goes into the food, not only in terms of the ingredients but also in terms of the time and care that is taken to bring a meal to the table. These farm workers have tended the field, grown the crops, and raised the animals that have now been transformed into the lunch on the table. There is something to be said about cooking and eating that which you have grown or that which has been grown nearby, and especially by someone you know. One has a completely different respect for food when one is in touch with its source. We would waste so much less if we had raised it or grown it. A farmer wouldn't kill a steer that he had raised from birth only to use the best bits, the rib-eyes and tenderloins, and throw away the rest: and he wouldn’t let his children waste the food on their plate if he had raised the meat and tended the vegetables that were on the table. We get food easy and fast and we eat it in the same way, and just as easily throw away what we don't want.

I was reminded of my French holidays when I visited White Oak Pastures just recently. Owner and stockman Will Harris has created a place for his workers to eat – not exactly a restaurant or a dining hall - it is simply a quality built, open-sided tasteful wooden shelter, probably about 50 feet long, with a long wooden table and bench running down the centre, rustic tasteful lights provide ambience, and there is a modern clean kitchen for cooking up tasty meals. The dining area is set to the side of an open pasture and with the big industrial sized ceiling fans is able to capture and utilize whatever breeze is available in SW Georgia - a most inviting setting.  Now why would Mr Harris go to all this trouble, work and expense to create this wonderful space simply for his employees to eat lunch?  Granted the ‘restaurant’ is open to the public, but Bluffton is hardly a metropolis and passing trade will definitely not be thick and fast, so restaurant revenue is not his motivation.  So why is he doing it? Because he cares about the welfare of his workers – they give him their ‘pound of flesh’ in terms of hard work and hours, and in return he pays them with a fair wage, health insurance and now a hearty home raised, home grown, and home cooked lunch (for a dollar a plate!!)  

photograph from Atlanta Bearings

Will doesn’t want his workers grabbing a fast-food lunch everyday (although it would have to be very fast indeed as the nearest ‘McDs’ and its cousins are 12 miles from the farm). Neither does he want them lunching on vending style food such as chips, candy, or Instant Ramen Noodles.  The butchers, the farm labourers, and office staff sit down to eat in a communal environment with meat straight from the pasture and vegetables straight from the garden - as Will Harris calls it "Pasture to Plate". Now this all sounds very pastoral and utopian and I am not suggesting that everyone sits down in a community of bountiful blessings - but having shared in the work of the day, the week, and for some of them the years, eating the spoils of that shared work does, even unconsciously, connect the participants.

The Slow Food Movement has its origins in Italy where it was set up in reaction to fast-food, specifically by Carlo Petrini following his outrage at a McDonald's restaurant opening up near the Spanish Steps in Rome. Slow food has been a 'way of life' (not a ‘movement’) in many European countries for centuries so I am sure some folk are wondering what the fuss is about, but there is no doubt that the Slow Food Movement has taken off in Europe and many other nations, including the U.S.  Unfortunately it is quite easy for the ethos of the movement to get lost or hidden by the culinary artistry of the chef, and can become a brand name.  As I understand it Slow Food is a philosophy not a brand or a recipe.  

I believe that in Carlo Petrini's vision there is no room for industrialized farming practices in Slow Food. If we are literally farm to table, or as Will Harris puts it ‘Pasture to Plate’, then slow food begins from the seed that is planted in the ground to the calf or the piglet that is born on the farm, and it follows that we nurture the livestock and crops through natural and healthy methods. Slow food goes even deeper, literally beyond grassroots, right to the very essence of the soil - the livestock and the crops can only be as good as what is in the earth – so Slow Food is also about sustainability and replenishing the earth with what we have taken from it.  The Slow Food Movement is not simply opposing the fast track cooking and conveyor belt style of serving of the likes of Burger King and McDonald’s; it would not be doing its job if it was simply about a style of cooking: what good would it be for the future of the food community if it was. For example a chef might braise a piece of beef for hours with vegetables and bone marrow stock, and serve it with whole grains;  but what good would that be for the greater good of the food community if the steer was finished off on a CAFO, the vegetables were sprayed with umpteen pesticides and the grains were genetically engineered.  

These are the three guiding principles underlying the Slow Food Movement Good, Clean, and Fair :-

“GOOD - a fresh and flavorsome seasonal diet that satisfies the senses and is part of our local culture; CLEAN food production and consumption that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; FAIR accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions and pay for small-scale producers”.

- A grass roots movement with grass roots ingredients.

Slow Food is about re-engaging - we need to educate ourselves and connect to the source of our food - right down to the seed that is planted in the ground, and to every plant and living creature that makes its way to our plates.

Industrialized food producers rely on consumer ignorance to get away with genetically engineering our food, commodifying and abusing animals, and poisoning our crops with harmful chemicals. When we, the consumers, engage with the source of our food then we can begin to change its methods of production.
 Let's get back our food intelligence.  We can call it slow food if we want to or we can call it real food.  Whatever term we use it will only be through re-engaging with it, and demanding healthier methods from our food producers through our food dollar that change will begin.  ~ THE ACTIVIST

[Check out our website, blog and Facebook posts  - and keep abreast of how you can make changes that will impact the way our food is produce.]

Zen Lamb: Hidden Acres Natural Farm

HIDDEN ACRES NATURAL FARM is picture perfect in many ways with its pretty pastures, abundant vegetable patch, sweet farmhouse,
and of course healthy happy sheep.

One of the biggest personal challenges that owner Vickey Russell faces is being the best shepherd that she can be for her sheep especially her breeding ewes with whom she has formed a strong bond.  

Combining her best efforts, excellent shepherding skills, her compassion, and the help of her sheep dogs Vickey produces an excellent quality lamb from her hair sheep: which is quite different from the lamb I grew up with.  In season, free range lamb is readily available in the UK, and Welsh lamb in the spring garnished with mint sauce, served with tiny new potatoes (still tasting of the earth), was a Sunday dinner at its best.  The lamb that I grew up on and probably the only lamb that is available in the UK comes from wool sheep which have more fat and a stronger flavour than hair sheep. This is hardly surprising given their hilly terrain ('moors' as they are called in the U.K.) and hardy lifestyle: Vickey's main breed is the Katahdin, with some cross breeds with the Damara. Another difference between the hair and the wool sheep is the breeding cycle. Wool sheep are seasonal breeders and ewes are usually mated in the autumn to give birth sometime between February and April. Generally ewes in the U.K. are bred only once a year but as sheep are plentiful so are the lambs, and there is a bit of money to be made on the side from the wool - so sheep farmers get by. Hair sheep have monthly cycles and hence breeding is flexible: Vickey harvests lamb four times a year (March, June, September and December). The meat is sold direct from the farm and is available by the side or the whole lamb; the pre-butchered weight is around 80lbs., the hanging weight will be just under two-thirds of this. The lambs at Hidden Acres do not have to suffer the trauma of travelling long distances to the processing facility and everything is taken care of at Blalocks - a local meat processing facility in Rabun which offers large to small processing including custom cuts. Vickey says that she wants to feed families; she wants children to grow up on healthy naturally raised meat and for this reason, despite entreaties, has not got into the restaurant trade.
 Interestingly she became a sheep farmer in the first place through her dog training business. She acquired a couple of 'cast-off' sheep from a friend to train her dogs in the art of herding - two sheep became three, three became four...and the rest is history.
Her expertise as a dog obedience trainer means that she has excellent help from her border collie 'sheep dogs' and you can watch the video we took of her and one of her dogs in action (this is one of her 'fresher' collies and he has a bit of challenge from a bossy momma).

Sitting in the shade of the trees chatting with Vickey an atmosphere of serenity pervaded the farm, despite the fact that life is busy for Vickey - with only one assistant she runs both the sheep farm, dog obedience training school, and boarding kennels.  We later found out that Vickey begins her busy day with yoga and meditation.   It is a time honoured fact that the 'energy' we put into something is reflected back and I am sure that this peaceful stress-free environment is reflected in the meat - this isn't just my hippy-dippy point of view: it's a fact.  Makes you think doesn't it - ninety five to ninety nine per cent of the meat found in supermarkets comes from industrialized farms (I am assuming you aren't new to our blog, website or Facebook posts and you know by now what goes on behind the closed doors of factory farms): not only do these places produce dirty and diseased meat but are a breeding ground for negative energy.  Factory farms are hostile, devoid of heart,  devoid of compassion, often abusive, and the animals are miserable and stressed - all of this negativity goes into the meat, and this negative energy infiltrates our bodies every time we bite into a piece of factory farmed meat.  This isn't just New-Age claptrap: look at it in terms of human health, we aren't just what we eat, our health is also dependent on what we think and feel.  It is a medical fact that the way we humans lead our lives in industrialized countries is the biggest contributor to our 'western diseases' - the 'energy' that we put into our daily lives, including stress, leads to high blood pressure, heart disease, digestive problems, some cancers, and the list goes on.  It's a medical fact that type 'A' personalities are more susceptible to heart attacks because of their tendency towards competiveness, and over-achieving personalities. In other words disease does not necessarily have its beginnings in physical factors - the energy we put into something reflects in the end product: it follows then that good vibes = good meat.  At Hidden Acres Farm these good animal husbandry 'vibes' are carried through with the lambs right to the very last.  Vickey drives the lambs to the abattoir herself and always takes a trusty collie to gently herd the lambs off the livestock trailer into the holding pen - familiarity and compassion right to the end.
Vickey tries not to become emotionally attached to the lambs for obvious reasons, and she says of her lambs they "live short and they live well" - nonetheless this is not an easy task for her  - but having done the best she can for her flock from birth to death she says a prayer then lets them go.   

 ~ THE ACTIVIST

On The Brink of Change: 2012 Farm Bill

Why Food? Seems like a simple enough question, but you will be surprised, hardly anything we see on the shelves of super markets today has any resemblance to actual real food: it comes in vacuumed pack, pre-portioned packages of sterility and convenience. Yet, what does it mean to actually eat food, to touch it, see it, cook it and feel it? We are so divorced from what comes to our plate that we are willing to take produce at face value. Such an attitude leads consumers to settle for food that is Chlorinated and Irradiated, unaware that despite the band-aid sterility such items necessitate toxic treatments in order to render them even remotely fit for human consumption. Small farms are the only real assurance consumers have to assure themselves that the labels present any form of transparency; everything else is a carefully calculated, carefully orchestrated and a highly governed system of smoke and mirrors.

Obviously, the final solution is to buy local, shop at farmers markets, enlist in a CSA programme and shop directly from your friendly neighbourhood farmer. However, this is not as straightforward as one would hope for. The pastures green that once thrived upon the amber waves of grained kissed nation is dwindling faster than you can say recombinant bovine somatotropin.

According to Farm-Aid, 330 American farmers leave their land each week. 330 of the most hard working individuals you will ever have the good fortune to meet are giving up on the only job they have known for 7 days a week, 365 days a year for the majority of their lives. That is 17, 160 individuals per year: an absolutely staggering amount.

Why? Why this mass exodus? What are we doing as a society that would possibly drive -I would consider- the back bone of America out in droves. I will tell you : The current farm bill and the practices it promotes.   

Author Dan Imhoff, “Although the committee proposal includes important reforms to the commodity title, we are deeply concerned that it would continue to give away subsidies worth tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to the largest commodity crop growers and agribusinesses even as it drastically underfunds programs to promote the health and food security of all Americans, invest in beginning and disadvantaged farmers, revitalize local food economies and protect natural resources.” (Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to the Next Food and Farm Bill).

Whether you are democrat, republican, moderate or Monster Raving Looney party (for my UK friends) the health of your person, your progeny and your environment ought to weigh heavily on your mind. If you however do not actually give a proverbial you should perhaps stop reading and go crack yourself a Bud and go play beer pong.

In 1933 President Roosevelt passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act in order to help a struggling nation emerge from the Depression by creating policies that aided national issues such as rural poverty and hunger. This was a visionary Bill to rescue agriculture and support a starving nation. So why is it today that we are looking at two major health crises that despite appearing as disparate are in fact interconnected by our current farming policies and legislature?  Food Insecurity and Obesity. Namely, because the Food Bill remains more or less the same as it did 80 years ago, thus allowing for large agribusiness such as Monsanto to maintain an oligopoly on farming, reducing crop diversity and blanketing the landscape with mono-crops such as corn and soy. During the 60’s 70’s and 80’s, the bill provided incentives to farmers to either get big or get out. Small rural farms and agricultural communities were greatly ignored. Unfortunately the current draft of the upcoming legislature leaves the money and the power in the hands of Big Agribusiness.  In 2012, 1 in 7 Americans signed up for food stamps, despite the highest commodity prices in history, rural communities are falling deeper into debt. In 2010 17.8% of individuals living in rural communities were living below the poverty line. In order to feed themselves and their families they turned to cheap highly processed food loaded with high fructose corn syrup and GMO-ed soy.

The monetary proposals of this year’s bill would provide hundreds of billions of dollars per year for agriculture that could, if fairly and wisely proportioned provide the landscape and means that could aid in the obesity crisis, target water pollution from chemical and animal waste run off, prevent the possibility of another dust bowl and support the expertise and ingenuity of a new wave of farmers and ranchers whose land stewardship ideals will benefit future generations.

According to Dan Imhoff and Michael Dimock (president of roots of change and chairman emeritus of Slow Food USA), in order to promote real farming and challenge the Monoculture giants who are destroying our landscape and monopolising good growing and livestock fields with round up resistant mono crops, at least four fundamental shifts must occur:

Supporting Food, not feed. Crop subsidies and federal insurance currently are used for disproportionately favourable to commodity crops used for animal feed, or for to produce over processed food. This leads to a distinct lack of available fresh and affordable produce for most Americans and the likelihood Americans will ingest more packaged food. Combined with a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program including incentive programs for fruit and vegetable purchase that would reduce diet-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Such a program would save trillions of dollars in health cost in future decades.

Focusing on safeguarding the land. As with original bill, government investments should promote the maintenance and good stewardship of the land and waterways. Currently the farm law only supports a minimal amount of requests from farmers seeking to cost share dollars for projects that would protect water and soil quality and endangered species.

Adding labour to the equation. A labour policy to protect the 6 million farmworkers must be implemented. Currently there is nothing in place in the 1000 page document that prevents exploitation of workers.

Increasing research.  The new bill must emphasise the importance of helping food producers and businesses promote practices to end obesity, hunger, water and soil scarcity and species degradation. The bill needs to provide a platform for ingenuity and innovation

The farm bill’s renewal allows such tremendous opportunity to change the face and shape of agriculture. However, the current bill is a dinosaur, a relic that does nothing but support the very factors that are harming our health, or environment and our animals. YOU have the power to change this nation, one food choice, one meal and one vote at a time. Get informed, take a stance and as always instigate some good eatin’ y’all. Always with love THE EPICUREAN. 

Greenway Farms

What happens when a sheriff and an attorney retire?  Maybe loll in the florida sunshine, drive an RV across America,  or put their feet up and catch up on all the books they promised themselves they would read but never had the time. For this sheriff, Kerry Dunaway and his attorney wife Robin it was  none of these.  They built a farm - Greenway Farms, in Roberta GA.  Both from farming stock they returned to their roots.  Interesting how that happens! For me I suppose I too have returned to my roots.  My dad was a butcher and a slaughter man and his father was the same and raised a few pigs on the side.  I might not be slaughtering and butchering my own pigs but my heart is in farming.  Add to this my passion, from a very young age, for animal welfare and you have The Activist half of Vital Awareness, dedicated to improving the lot of factory farmed livestock through awareness, and supporting the movement to return to real farming practices (the 'old' ways I guess).  This is exactly what I experienced at Greenway Farms, the 'old ways'.  A small farm devoted to sustainable and humane methods of raising animals and crops - the Dunaways know that you only get out what you are prepared to put in  - that's why they are a zero waste farm, what comes from the land goes back into the land with a lot of help from their vermiculture - the worms.  The Dunaways make a wholesome compost, with a Canadian peat starter, worm fodder, fruit and vegetable snacks, and some scraps of newspaper for a worm treat (kinda like the equivalent of worm twinkies)...and of course lots of worms and patience.  It will take about 12 months for the worms to eat their way through the organic matter in their bed and poop it out (I think thats how worms make compost!)

So what do they do with their compost  - grow a wonderful array of vegetables which the Dunaways eat, sell, and 'can'.  The runts of the veggies go to the livestock and...you guessed it to the worms too (a picture perfect cycle).  

Even the local Piggly Wiggly is on board  - instead of throwing the over-ripe un-sellable fruits  and vegetables in the dumpster they donate to The Worms of Greenway Farms. In fact such is the contribution that the Dunaways have a page on their website in honour of Piggly Wiggly.  The Dunaways are in the process of building up their livestock.  They have poultry and laying hens, meat goats, and pork. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the pigs as they were already in Greenway customer freezers - however I did get to see the three acre woodland that these pigs had had all to themselves to forage root and do whatever it is that pigs should be doing.  The hens have plenty of pasture and are the perfect definition of what it means to be free range.  We have touched on labeling and how misleading it is (deliberately so)  - we will cover it in more detail in a later blog.  So back to the free range chickens, as Kerry put it "these hens could catch a bus up to Atlanta for food if they wanted to" - but as I said they know which side their bread is buttered and have no intention of moving to Atlanta.

Currently the Dunaways are building what is for them the perfect herd of goats - how are they doing this? The old-fashioned way of true animal husbandry.  They are breeding from the does and selling on the bucks, and through selective breeding are creating the characteristics for a herd that will suit their needs, farm, customers and geographical position.  When I say this is a no waste farm I truly mean it, there is usually milk left over by the breeding does after they have fed their young - I am  sure a good deal of it makes its way to the Dunaways table but the superfluous gets made into handcrafted soap.  Oh and one more thing, the farm has a sawmill operation (the office and mobile hen house were built from the lumber on Greenway Farms) and the left over odds and ends of lumber are burned and the ash spread on the farmland and pasture as a potash fertilizer.  

The Dunaways are working with other small farmers to get a chicken processing facility built, so that as a co-operative they can share the costs of building and the over-heads of running a processing plant.  This means that chickens will be raised, slaughtered and processed within just a few square miles - this is very exciting for the small poultry farmers in middle GA.  This leads me to the topic of the BIG poultry producers of N Georgia - we know who they are! The Dunaways are keen not to head-butt with the industrialized chicken producers because in any head-on fight there will only be one winner and it won't be the small farmers eking out a living from the land.  

As we at Vital Awareness contend (and I believe that the Dunaways are in agreement) the only way to change the supply is through demand; we have to get consumers to vote with their food dollar as to how they want their food to be produced, so that we can move away from factory farming and get the animals off the concrete and onto the pasture.  How do we do this? We can do it through awareness on four fronts thereby harnessing most consumers (depending on their concerns) - one: pasture raised meat tastes better, two: its better for one's health, three: it is better for the environment, and four: (in particular for me The Activist) from an animal welfare point of view it's the only humane method of raising livestock destined for the food chain.  

TOGETHER - the real farmers and the consumers can make a difference; collectively we can change the face of the food industry - but ultimately the buck literally ends with the consumer, without our help the real small famers of the U.S.A. don't stand a chance.