Milk! Buy it local.

I had been buying organic milk for years hoping to avoid nasty hormones and to support farmers who want to treat cows nicely. I was so disappointed to find out that most organic dairy farms are huge operations that treat cows just as badly as non-organic ones. I have also learned that pasteurizing milk at high temps kills off most of it's healthy qualities. Over the past couple years I have tried many different brands of local milk that is either raw or non-homoginized with a low heat pasteurization. My absolute favorite local milk comes from Happy Cow Creamery in Pelzer, SC. It's so rich and creamy and taste like a caramel candy. I often drink it as a desert. They have a grass grazing and pasture rotation process that has been studied by other farmer's around the world! Wil-Moore farms sells this at the many farmer's markets they attend including the All Local market in Olympia every Saturday year round. You can also buy directly from Happy Cow's on site store where they also sell organic produce and fresh cheeses. Shumpert's Dairy told me they studied the world renowned Happy Cow process but I am not sure they are grass grazing the cows. I feel like it's a great buy though because they are right here in the Midlands and can be bought locally at Reid's in Cayce and directly from at them several Farmer's markets including the one at Riverbank's zoo . Hickory Hill farm in Edgefield has milk that taste almost as good as Happy Cow and utilizes a similar low temp process and grass grazing process. It can be found at Earth Fare and in Lexington at Piggly Wiggly per my friend April. Last, raw milk produced by Butter Patch Jersey's in Saluda has made a frequent stop in my refrigerator. Again, it's not as tasty as Happy Cow but it is raw and local, two big pluses. Buy this directly from the farmer's at the All Local market. Take a look around http://www.localharvest.org/ and find a creamery local to you, it's better for your health and your community. Plus those cows that work so hard to produce the milk you drink would thank you if they could!