Raw Milk Detour

Sometimes, life just takes you to wonderful places.

We left the NOFA Conference and segued into our summer vacation: visiting friends and enjoying some down time in the great state of VT. I decided to pick up some raw milk at a farm along the way--well, slightly off the beaten path. This required us to move our driving plans off of a major interstate and on to a local "highway." (It has a number, so it's a highway...other than that, it's a back road.) Good move--the scenic route was the better way.

Chase Hill Farm is in Warwick, MA (Google map) and has organic raw milk, farmstead cheeses, grass-fed beef and veal, and whey-fed pork. They are members of NOFA MA (that's how I found them--in the NOFA guide!). The milk has an excellent creamline and tastes great. For more information, see the dairy page of the NOFA MA site (scroll down to the bottom of the page) .

NOFA Conference Impressions

I went to the 2008 NOFA Conference as an eater, not a farmer. My expectations ran the gamut until ultimately, I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting at all. Some questions I had were: Would it be boring? Would it be aimed at specifically at farmers? Could a small gardener/big eater glean enough to make the trip worthwhile?

The workshop topics were varied enough that anybody could have attended this conference and found something of interest. There were practical and instructional "how to" topics, environmental topics, political and theoretical topics, and more. It was anything but boring!



Kudos to the UMass Amherst kitchen staff that served exclusively organic meals, with Saturday night's dinner being both organic and local!



I'll probably post more about the specific workshops I attended and my impressions of the keynote speakers in upcoming blog entries.