Filed under: Organic dairy
Packing PastureLand butter 2, originally uploaded by PastureLand Cooperative.
This is the first of several videos from watching PastureLand butter churned and packed at Pine River Dairy earlier this week. More coming over the next few weeks. Thought this was a good one to get everyone thinking about buttery mashed potatoes, whisky butter sauce for pecan pies, and other buttery Thanksgiving recipes.
This is the WWII era machine that packs our butter into one pound blocks. The machine was made by Blanchete, a Canadian manufacturer, long gone. We have tried to find an attachment that would allow us to pack butter in quarter pound sticks but they are rare, and very expensive. Most of the small dairy processing plants like Pine River Dairy went out of business in the 70s – 90s, and much of the machinery like this was shipped to plants in Asia.
Happy cooking and baking, and happy Thanksgiving from all of us at PastureLand!
Filed under: Organic dairy
We are just about ready to order labels for our new Goodhue Grass-fed Gouda. Should be ready to ship on January 20, 2010. We’ll put updates on the PastureLand website when the cheese is ready. Can’t wait to taste it!
Filed under: Organic dairy
Butter mountain, originally uploaded by PastureLand Cooperative.
I watched our butter made this morning at Pine River Dairy near Manitowoc, WI. Just about all you can say when you see it coming out of the churn like this is, “WOW!”
I have tons of pics on our Flickr site, and took some video, and will post here over the next few weeks. It’s sort of like taking pictures of a sunset – you know you’ll never do it justice, but you keep snapping away. There is such an art to knowing just how to churn the cream to get the butter just right. I have so much respect for the artisans at Pine River Dairy. The folks are rock starts in our world!
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: becca dilley, heavy table, james norton, master cheesemakers of wisconsin
Our friend Jim Norton and Becca Dilley of The Heavy Table blog published their long-awaited gorgeous new book Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin. Can you say Christmas list?
“Meet the Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin! This book—beautifully photographed and engagingly written— introduces hardworking, resourceful men and women who represent an artisanal craft that has roots in Europe but has been a Wisconsin tradition since the 1850s. 
Wisconsin produces more than six hundred varieties of cheese, from massive wheels of cheddar and swiss to bricks of brick and limburger to such specialties as crescenza-stracchino and juustoleipa. These masters combine tradition, technology, artistry, and years of dedicated learning—in a profession that depends on fickle, living ingredients—to create the rich tastes and beautiful presentation of their skillfully crafted products.”
James Norton and Becca Dilley interviewed these dairy artisans, listened to their stories, tasted their cheeses, and explored the plants where they work. They offer here profiles of forty-three active Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin, as well as a glossary of cheesemaking terms, suggestions of operations that welcome visitors for tours, tasting notes and suggested food pairings, and tasty nuggets (shall we say curds?) of information on everything to do with cheese.”
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: animal welfare approved, global warming, industrial ag rebuttal, pastureland, reduce reverse global warming, sustainble ag
Always – ALWAYS – consider the source, especially when it comes to topics as complex and laden with agendas as the fight about the causes of global warming. Recent studies funded by industrial agriculture concerns such one-time Dow Chemical partner Eli Lilly have tried to discredit the positive role pasture-based agriculture plays in reducing and reversing global warming.
Animal Welfare Approved fights back with a lengthy rebutal worth reading. Here is an excerpt. Memorize a few choice bits for discussion this weekend and with extended family members at Thanksgiving. This is sure to give your GMO farming cousin fits.
The paper claims that a “whole-system approach” proves that intensive livestock systems – where meat or milk production is maximized per animal, per acre – are less environmentally damaging than “inefficient” pasture- or grass-based systems. In the face of increasing global demand for meat and dairy products, Dr. Capper argues in her presentation that the answer lies in further improving the “efficiencies of livestock productivity” by increasing the quantity of meat and dairy products produced from each farm animal, while maintaining current levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Yet it is Dr. Capper and her co-authors who are not actually looking at the whole system – or indeed the “bigger picture” we all face. The vast majority of scientists who are working on climate related issues contend that it is intensive agriculture – with its heavy reliance on fossil fuels and other damaging environmental practices – which is the real climate culprit. And in the face of the reality of climate change and ever-decreasing oil reserves, “business as usual” agriculture is just no longer an option.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the world’s leading body for the assessment of climate change – recognizes that modern agriculture contributes more than 20% of global anthropogenic GHG emissions in the form of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane (IPCC, 2001). And intensive livestock production is responsible for the vast majority of agriculture’s GHG emissions.
In the US and other industrialized nations, the burning of fossil fuels is the main cause of carbon dioxide emissions. In developing nations, a significant source of global CO2 emissions comes from the clearance of vast areas of tropical forests and other land to grow livestock feed for the global commodities market. Clearing forests and the often concurrent result of soil compaction results in 2,400 million tonnes of CO2 being released into the atmosphere annually (FAO, 2006).”
Creating the fertilizers and growing the feedcrops to supply intensive livestock operations adds an entirely new dimension. A 2006 United Nations report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) clearly states that for intensive livestock farming, the carbon dioxide emitted globally from producing nitrogen fertiliz
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: "PastureLand butter", pie, recipe, thanksgiving, whisky butter sauce
Thanksgiving is our favorite food holiday, and we always seem to find new ways to make old favorites. This year we’ll be test driving Saveur’s grilled turkey recipe, and although we always have several different pies
Pecan Pie with Pastureland's Whisky Butter Sauce
- enough for several days of leftovers – Chef Bret’s Whisky Butter Sauce will make a at least one grand appearance on Thursday.
Download instructions for the sauce here and start thawing some butter and preheating the oven!
Filed under: Organic dairy
PastureLand is proud to announce it will be part of the inaugural Wisconsin Original Cheese Festival!
ADISON, Wis. – Nearly 700 cheese enthusiasts from across the country are headed to the First Annual Wisconsin Original Cheese Festival at the Monona Terrace in downtown Madison on Nov. 6-7. 
Attendees will meet more than 30 Wisconsin cheesemakers and taste 150 of the state’s finest artisan, farmstead and specialty cheeses.
The sold-out, two-day festival features a variety of events, including a Friday night Meet the Cheesemaker Gala Reception, Saturday morning guided tours and afternoon educational seminars, and a Saturday evening Artisan Cheesemaker Dine Around. All advance tickets were sold with two weeks of going on sale in August.
Hosted by Wisconsin Cheese Originals, a new member-based organization dedicated to celebrating Wisconsin artisan and specialty cheesemakers, the festival is intended to be a premier destination for cheese enthusiasts and food buyers from across the nation, says Jeanne Carpenter, executive director.
“I am astounded at the response from people across the country who purchased hundreds of tickets, just to meet our Wisconsin cheesemakers and taste their cheeses. What an amazing testament to the quality of our dairy industry,” Carpenter said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that this will become an annual event, which will only grow in size and attendance. It’s very exciting.”
Festival events include a Friday Night Meet the Cheesemaker Gala Reception, where attendees will meet 31 Wisconsin cheesemakers and taste 150 different Wisconsin original cheeses. On Saturday morning, participants will either take a private coach bus tour of Green County cheese factories, or partake in a personal guided tour of the largest producer Farmer’s Market in the nation, with lunch at Fromagination on the Capital Square.
Saturday afternoon features a stunning line-up of six seminars at Monona Terrace, including wine, beer & cheese pairings, the art of crafting cave-aged and pasture-grazed cheeses, and the science behind “stinky” cheeses. Wrapping up the two-day event will be six Artisan Cheesemaker Dinners at participating Madison Originals restaurants, where each chef is partnering with a local cheesemaker and hosting a one-of-a-kind three-course dinner. Attendees will join the featured cheesemaker at a private table for 12.
Additional sponsors and partners of the First Annual Wisconsin Original Cheese Festival include: BelGioioso Cheese, Dairy Business Innovation Center, Fromagination, Madison Originals, Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, and World Import Distributors. For more information, visit www.wicheesefest.com.
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Wisconsin Cheese Originals shares information about Wisconsin artisan cheeses through a variety of events, including educational seminars, tours, cheesemaker receptions, and an annual cheese festival, all in the spirit of celebrating Wisconsin cheesemakers. For more information or to inquire about membership: www.wisconsincheeseoriginals.com
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: balsamic vinegar, butter, candy, candy thermometer, caramel, grass-fed, recipe, sea salt
Just putting this recipe up this morning got our mouths watering.
Sea salt and balsamic vinegar caramels on a cold and rainy fall morning, could it get any better than this?!
We lurched from summer to fall a couple weeks ago. We’ve had rain and occasional snow in the past few days, so we’re in a mood to get a fire in the fireplace, pre-heat the oven, and head to the kitchen for some baking.
Share your favorite fall recipes with us – especially if they have butter in them. If we put one of your recipes up we’ll make you famous (sort of) and send you some free butter! Cookies, anyone? Squash, maybe? Happy fall, and happy baking!
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: "PastureLand butter", artisan, cress spring bakery, Dane County Farmers Market, hero, locavore, New Yrok Times magazine, NYT, organic, pastry, wheat sensitive
Our friends at Cress Spring Bakery near Madison, WI, are in the news again! Check out the October 11 New York Times Sunday magazine, dedicated to “Putting America’s Diet On A Diet.” “Once seen as a barefoot hippie baker, Jeff Ford of Cress Spring Bakery is now a locavore hero.” Bravo Jeff!
Check out our post from July 30 here for a peek at the pastry case at the Cress Spring booth at Dane County Farmers Market in Madison. It will make you drool!
Filed under: Organic dairy | Tags: dairy prices, grass-fed, local fair trade, milk price, organic, tough year for dairy farmers
Riding the dairy price rollercoaster this year has been more like trying to hang on to a bucking bronco. Up and down, then way up to the point where the dairy industry produced a lot more milk than it needed, and way down to where farmers are losing money every day – not just “not making enough” but actually losing money every time they milk.
We’ve been talking a lot at PastureLand about how milk pay prices affect us, and what we can do to protect ourselves from wide swings in the market. See this reflection on our site, about a recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on what a tough year it’s been for dairy producers.
A gallon of regular milk may be less than $2 in many stores, a bonanza for people looking for a way to cut food costs, but what are you supporting when you go for the cheapest option possible? Retail milk prices are lower than at any time in recent memory, but processors like Dean Foods are posting the highest gains ever and farmers are going out of business.
One thing is for sure, the system is broken, and something has to change. This is a call for consumers to support local suppliers who charge a fair price for sustainably produced goods and services. Local fair trade is not just a catch phrase. Local fair trade means we all do well, together.
