Raise a Glass to Dairy Month!

Ellie Wilson, MS, RDN  Senior Nutritionist

June 1st is a holiday for our dairy farmers – it is World Milk Day, and kicks off the annual celebration of Dairy Month and all that dairy brings us! Full of flavor and nutrients, packed with protein, familiar and affordable, wholesome dairy brings richness to so many foods. Across the Northeast, dairy is considered a unique “natural resource”, which supports healthy people, healthy communities and a substantial and sustainable positive impact on local economies. We use milk, yogurt, butter, and cheese to bake, batch, sip, and savor our way through delicious and nutritious meals and snacks. Welcome to Dairy Month, an annual national celebration of all that dairy brings us. There would be no dairy without dairy farming, which encompasses time-honored heritage and forward-thinking scholarship – this industry keeps innovating, and is full of hard working, passionate people that ensure animals have the best care, and milk is the highest quality. About 97% of dairy farms are family-owned, generation after generation that have moved the industry forward and treat animals, land and the future with reverence and respect. Dairy also delivers crucial nutrients – milk, yogurt and cheese contribute 51% of calcium and 58% of Vitamin D for just 10% of the calories in the overall American diet. The Great American Milk Drive also kicks off in our stores today – with a $1 or $5 donation at the register, you can join in and get milk to children and families that are less food secure. Check out our Facebook Live visit with our friends at Ivey Lakes Dairy in Stanley, NY, follow the blog, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram learn more about how fresh, nourishing dairy foods make their way from the farm to your table, and the delicious ways you can enjoy them. In case you couldn’t tell, we love dairy – Price Chopper and Market 32 are highlighting dairy and dairy case items all month – you will love the selection and the savings. Celebrate with us! Ellie Wilson, MS, RDN  Senior Nutritionist Dairy farming is New York State’s primary agricultural industry. It is a tight knit community, and encompasses more than the farm families – dairy milk haulers, the tireless truckers that move milk from farm to plant, are also an integral and symbiotic part of this landscape. Husted Trucking, based a few miles from Terry’s farm, picks milk up from about 200 farms across a 50 mile radius. Thirty-two trucks and experienced drivers maintain this lifeline connection to plants and processors, with Chobani receiving a lion’s share of local milk. As part of our day, we met the company’s second generation owners, David and Penny. Their son, the third generation, is on the runway, working in the office while we learn more about their operation. David started working with his father hauling milk cans in 1953. Like farming, milk transportation gets no days off – no weekends, no weather can interrupt the schedule. Dairy farms are located on narrow, uneven back roads – drivers must be dedicated and very skilled, navigating through rain, sleet or snow. Drivers are also part of the quality and safety team – every milk load is tested. Drivers take samples from the farm holding tank, and the milk is tested again before it enters the plant to be sure there is no quality issue. The management team works with brokers to direct and deliver fresh milk orders that change daily. The trucks take milk to the plants, and the leftover whey back to the farms – a sustainable circle that promotes land and animal health. The truck are washed and sanitized after they deliver the milk to the plant. The whole system is regularly inspected– local, state and federal agencies all have a role. Regionally, farms collectively manage their food safety and must pass all inspections or they lose their market – their ability to sell their milk. All of these regulatory requirements ensure a safe supply chain from cow-to-cup. Commitment and collaboration rise like cream to the top of this discussion – David’s dedication to his team, longstanding working relationship and friendship with Terry, and pride in their company’s heritage and role are evident. The boxes are always checked, the additional work done, the extra mile driven to protect their cargo and deliver it safely and efficiently to its destination. Three cups of milk make one cup of Greek yogurt. To highlight this part of our tour, we have some wonderful recipes to sip (or slurp!) and transform Greek yogurt into a delicious smoothie. Check them out, and tell us which one is your favorite! Pack a delicious, protein punch – substitute Greek yogurt in recipes and power up taste and nutrition. Check the blog next week for the rest of our Greek yogurt tour with Chobani! https://www.pricechopper.com/recipes/9177/Cranberry-Berry-Smoothie http://www.chobani.com/culture/recipes/berry-banana-smoothie/ http://www.chobani.com/culture/recipes/mango-liquados/ http://www.chobani.com/culture/recipes/pina-colada-simply-100-smoothie/ http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/pineapple_green_smoothie.html http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/strawberry_banana_protein_smoothie.html Written By: Ellie Wilson, MS, RD  Senior Nutritionist, Price Chopper Supermarkets Better & Better From the outside looking in, it might appear that getting milk from cow to cup is actually a very old farming tradition that has been adapted and improved and is no big deal now. It might look like there is not a lot of room for innovation, or that it isn’t really needed – you don’t hear about many problems with dairy, right? You can feel confident in the quality of Price Chopper milk, cream and half and half because there are many safety and quality checks and procedures that go into turning raw milk into all of these wholesome products. It starts at the farm – I already shared some of the procedures that help the farmer get milk ready to be picked up by the tanker truck. Garelick field rep Jackie inspects the farm periodically to ensure they are maintaining their safety practices and supports John with any updates or recommendations that have been identified. Next, the tanker truck has to pump the milk into the two separate holding tanks in the truck and seal those tanks. When the tanker gets to the plant, it is quarantined outside the building, and a lab tech comes out to verify the seals, then open the two compartments and take samples to the lab. If the seal is broken, or anything is detected by the lab, that milk cannot enter the plant. The milk is checked for any substances that don’t belong – like antibiotic residue, or high bacteria count. It is also checked for quality measures, like butterfat content. This is all tracked and is part of the information Garelick Farms sends back to John Green that he uses to take care of his cows. Once the technician gives the ok, the truck can move into one of two bays and the milk is transferred into the raw milk silos. Then the tanker is cleaned and sanitized so it can go back out for pick ups. If the schedule is working, they move a truck in and out every 1 ½ hours. Jeniece Goellner, the plant quality manager, ensures that all of the quality and safety procedures happen at every critical point in the process where something could go wrong and compromise the quality of the milk. This requires great attention to detail, constant consideration on how to improve the process, and passion – which plant manager Dave shared is a key ingredient from the many long term, committed workers that are part of the plant team. This process is so well coordinated, there are only about 10 tanker rejections out of over 1100 tanker deliveries per year. The milk is bottled, labeled and moved into cold storage. Each Price Chopper store has a dairy manager who tracks milk sales and sends an order in to Garelick Farms for exactly what they need each day. That order goes to the plant and then to Garelick employees like Isaac Seldman. He reviews and assembles each order, and out they go to the trucks for store delivery. This is why the milk is so fresh – it can be from cow to cup in less than 24 hours, sometimes even in 12 hours! So there it is – your cow to cup tour. In addition to the milk itself, I hope you can see that there is a lot of passion, commitment, and connection poured into that cup. Enjoy a glass of Price Chopper milk today!