Dairy is a Community

You already know that shopping at the farmers market is a great way to support local food, small farms, and the local food economy. 

And it makes sense: when someone buys food from a grocery store, on average, less than 15% of what they spend goes to the farm where that food was grown (Farmer’s Share - National Farmers Union (nfu.org).  At a farmer’s market, 100% of the money you spend goes directly back to the farm. 

And we are incredibly grateful for that support: this liberates us to farm in ways that may be less economically efficient, but better support a holistic understanding of our farm and its role in the larger system.  We can make decisions on behalf of animal welfare, ecosystem health, and people care that larger farms selling to centralized wholesalers often can’t make.

 But supporting one farm at a farmers market has impacts that ripple through the farm community: shopping with us isn’t just good for Clear Spring Creamery, it’s good for the other dairy farmers and agricultural businesses around us. 

So many farms operate in community, sharing resources and knowledge with neighbors, and we are no exception. 

While conventional business philosophy tells us that we should see our neighbors as competition, that’s never been my mindset—and it’s doesn’t seem to be the mindset of my neighbors either.  Instead we find ways to work together, and it benefits all of us. 

For example, our neighbors up the road, Country Creamery (https://maps.app.goo.gl/M3wV1KmNuzdA4o63A), are another dairy farm with an on-farm processing facility.  Every once in a while we call each other because one of us has run out of bottles before the next delivery is coming, and so we skedaddle up the road to buy a bag or two from the other.

During one such trip, the folks at Country Creamery were telling me they just couldn’t get their yogurt to set right—it was chunky and weird, and they didn’t know why.  They were using the same cultures as us, so I told them our time and temperature protocol—and their next batch came out perfect!

I didn’t do this because I thought it would somehow be to my advantage, but sure enough, several months later, we made a mistake on our ordering and ran out of yogurt cultures.  Since Country Creamery had begun making yogurt regularly once we helped them figure out the recipe, we knew they would have some cultures on hand.  So up the road we went, and we came back with what we needed to make a batch of yogurt!

We farmers also share ideas and information with each other—if something works on our farm, we are happy to tell a neighbor about it.  At Clear Spring Creamery we are really lucky to be a part of a cohort of organic and pastured dairy farms that meets monthly.  Each meeting a different farm hosts the group at their farm, and last year, our neighbors were impressed with our low fly populations. 

We’d quit using synthetic insecticides and seen an unsustainable boom in fly populations, so we began releasing fly predators—teeny tiny wasps that target just “filth flies”—the sort that lay their eggs in manure and bother cattle (Fly Eliminators FAQ's | Everything You Need to Know (arbico-organics.com).

This spring, a friend with a certified organic dairy farm called me to get ordering information for the fly predators we had been using—he wanted to give it a try on his farm.  And I was more than happy to share, because I wanted him (and his cows!) to do well.

I could list more and more stories, but the key thing is:

We are so grateful for your support.  It is the key to our success as a small, pastured dairy farm.

AND your support of Clear Spring Creamery doesn’t just help us—it helps us help others in our community.  Buying from us supports dairy farmers throughout the region.  Thank you!