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MOO Milk has higher enzyme levels
The sunrises in Maine on a charming old mustard mill, and fields of cows
The Washington County Food Aliiance was showing off its best stuff in the Hall of Flags in the Maine State House in Augusta on March 4 -- from milk to mustard.
Raye's Mustard in its innumerable flavors -- ginger mustard, perfect for glazing holiday ham, and jalapeno mustard, hot on hot -- was arrayed for tasting. Whole milk ricotta from Tide Mill Organic Farm was creamy and fresh.
The milk from the cows at Tide Mill Organic Farm is also inside cartons of MOO Milk, Maine's Own Organic Milk brand now on the shelves of Hannaford Supermakets, Whole Foods Market, Shurfine Supermarkets and elsewhere, and glitches with packaging have been resolved. A sample of the whole milk tasted good, with fresh flavor and bright creaminess.
According to Aaron Bell, who owns Tide Mill Organic Farm with his partner Carly DelSignore, MOO Milk is subjected to pasteurization at lower temperatures than ultrapateurized milk, leaving it with more of the enzymes that have been identified as helpful for digestion of milk's nutrition.
You can count on the milk to be from Maine farms that graze their cows when there's grass and feed them high quality organic hay and grain in the cold weather. The animals can lie down when they feel like it and are not confined to cages.
The 10 farms supplying the milk are being paid more money for their milk than suppliers to other dairies are -- and the hope is that they will be able to support their farms. "Ninety percent of the company profits go directly to the farms," the Web site claims.
Oakhurst Dairy in Portland is processing the milk -- and uses it in its own production of conventional milk when there is more than is bottled. The Moo Milk Web site has a detailed explanantion of the number codes on dairy products, allowing you to figure out where they came from. But in the case of MOO Milk, there is no mystery.