HOW WE DO RAW
Our milk comes in half-gallon bottles, with a $3 deposit per jar. To get in on the milk, you’ll need to purchase a herd share agreement, then pay a monthly boarding fee. Basically, by owning a share of the herd, you own a share of the milk, too.

You can pick up your milk on location at our farm in Buxton, or at our Farm & Garden Center in Beaverton.

If you have questions, write to healingponds@gmail.com.

MEET THE HERD
Our dairy animals are grass-fed and 100% pastured. The only thing the ladies eat besides grass and alfalfa is the handful of grain we offer at milking time, a treat to train them to come happily.
For pictures of our cows and goats, and info on how we keep them, click over to our “Meet Our Animals” page (it’s listed under “Info” on the navigation bar) and choose from the list: goats and cows.

GOATS’ MILK ~ $50 herd share (to join), plus $52/ month boarding
From Toggenburg goats!

Compared to cows’ milk, goats’ milk is more easily digestible, being closer in composition to our own mothers’ milk.

Toggenburgs are the oldest known dairy goat: a gentle breed from Switzerland’s Toggenburg Valley.

Their milk’s unique, scrumptious flavor is renowned for cheese-making.

COWS’ MILK ~ $50 herd share (to join), plus $45/ month boarding
From Jersey cows!

Jerseys are smaller cows, usually weighing only 800 to 1200 lbs. They produce less per cow than other breeds, but the milk is creamier, which makes it taste richer. It has lots of minerals and trace elements, it’s higher in calcium and protein, it’s even richer in color: altogether a tastier, more nutritious (some say superior) milk.

ABOUT RAW
The debate about raw milk can get, well, heated. Is it better for you? Is it safe?

The answer to both questions is “yes,” if you’re getting it from healthy, grass-fed cows at a clean milking operation. The industrial system, meanwhile, puts cows at risk of sickness and milk, of contamination. As a result, pasteurization is absolutely necessary within this model. A grass-fed cow (or goat), though, is a whole different animal.

We encourage you to educate yourself:

• For an introduction to the raw milk debate, click “Raw Milk” by NPR.org. It’s an excellent summary identifying the major players in the milk discussion, with a brief explanation of their reasoning.
• To dig into the details, click “Fresh Milk” by Disabled-World.com. This article covers health benefits, risks, flavor differences, breeds and health of dairy cows. It also compares raw to pasteurized.
• If you’re really interested, you’ll want to visit RealMilk.com at some point. It’s pretty dense stuff, but among the pro-raw community, this is the authoritative information bank. It was created by the Weston A. Price Foundation.
• Where legality is concerned, here’s the official exemption from Oregon.gov which makes it legal (albeit restricted) for Oregonians to purchase raw milk for consumption.
• Where the restrictions make it impractical for the average city-dweller to buy raw milk, people opt for cow shares instead: buying a portion of the cow (or herd), rather than the cow’s milk. Click “Got Raw Milk?” by PortlandTribune.com to learn more about this phenomenon.

Also, check out the articles we’ve written on the subject:

Raw Milk Risks: What’s the Truth?