Local Products that Make You Want to Cook!

Hi everyone!

Sometimes it is actually a food or cooking product that inspires us to cook.

I am so excited about a new product that is in our area.  My 10 year old and my 6 year old who NEVER drink milk want to drink an entire pint as soon as they get home from school! It is CRAZY! I think it is really sweet and fresh.

Here’s the scoop: I recently discovered Five Acre Farms, a new brand that makes great local food available in the supermarket. (The company’s first products are whole, reduced fat and skim milk, heavy cream, half & half, apple juice and apple sauce.) Five Acre Farms finds great farmers using sustainable practices, pays them fairly and tells their stories to consumers. All of the company’s products come from within 275 miles of where they’re sold. But with Five Acre Farms, you know more than that: You know, from the tag attached to each product, exactly which farm made it. You know that only sustainable farming practices and processes were used along the way. You know that your milk doesn’t contain any artificial or added hormones or antibiotics. You know that your apple juice is not from concentrate and made with 100% local apples. In a sense, through Five Acre Farms, you know your farmers personally.

Knowing all of this makes me want to cook more!

Some background on the dairy farmers and apple growers:

Five Acre Farms milk currently comes from Battenkill Valley Creamery in Salem, New York (http://www.battenkillcreamery.com). The farm’s proprietors, Don and Seth McEachron, are fourth- and fifth-generation farmers who in 2010 won Cornell’s top prize for being the highest quality, freshest and best-tasting milk in New York State. The milk — bottled within 8 hours and delivered from udder to shelf in less than 36 — is Grade A, pasteurized and homogenized, and doesn’t contain any artificial or added hormones or antibiotics. Don and Seth grow all of their own feed, and their cows are not treated with rBST or preventive antibiotics. The apples for the first runs of Five Acre Farms apple sauce and apple juice came from Samascott Orchards in Kinderhook, New York, in the Hudson River Valley (http://www.samascott.com/). Samascott is family-owned and run today by cousins and fourth-generation farmers Jake and Bryan Samascott.

Now available in our backyard:

Closest to home, the full Five Acre Farms dairy line is available at Fairway (Woodland Park or Paramus); you can buy the three varieties of milk at the two Stop & Shop supermarkets in Clifton.

Anyway, just wanted to share!