Filling up the milk bottle is a ritual in cleanliness: wash hands, spray down the spigot and floors, let a cup of milk fall into the bucket, fill the bottle and snap on the cap, respray the spigot, respray the the floors and wash my hands again.
At the store I mindlessly grab and go, but these rituals force me to think. Even before the cream rises to the top of the glass bottle, I think about the owners of Emerald Farm, the Warnke family and their six children (yes six). How early did they get up to milk the cows so that I could fill up this bottle? Will they make it when so many farming families are struggling?
They could have farmed like so many other in the area with thousands of cows, stalled and tethered and with an insurance policy of hundreds bushels of corn stored in the silo for feed. They instead chose to have faith that the grass will grow. They have faith that fewer cows will provide and they trust their family will thrive. Yes, it’s Monday, time for my lesson in cleanliness, humility and faith.
Tags: dairy, farms, local, Michigan, milk, raw milk, RGBH free