Field Trip - the report on the fun!

As I said earlier, a couple of friends and I went on a field trip to check out a local creamery.  I really liked it!  The owners of the creamery run a little country store, with a lot of products from different local Iowa families.  It was fun to look at all the items! 

They let us sample milk and ice cream, which I enjoyed.  Their cows are grass-fed, hormone-free, and anti-biotic free.  Here's the label from the milk I bought with the info:

I really liked the taste of the milk - it tastes more....fresh?  Natural?  It does taste different from store-bought milk.  The store keeper (who I think was one of the farm owners) said that it's because the cows are grass-fed.  It not only changes the taste slightly, but improves the nutrients and vitamins found naturally in the milk. 

I let another friend try some of the milk we bought and he didn't care for it, but I've really liked it - more than any other milk I've tried.  So, to each their own.   

The milk is vat-pasteurized, which means it's done in smaller batches, which is supposed to be better for taste and for quality control.  It's also non-homogenized.  I didn't know what that meant before our trip, but learned that when milk is homogenized, it's heated to the point where the cream stays suspended in the milk, rather than rising to the top.  It also changes the structure of the proteins in the milk, potentially making them harder for your stomach to process.  So non-homogenized milk is more natural, allowing the cream to rise to the top of the milk, and is possibly easier to digest as well.  

I also got some of their chocolate milk, which they make with raw sugar instead of refined sugar.  It was...amazing. Yum!  

I'll definitely be back!