If you sell milk

My customers bring their own. If I were to fill jars I can only keep the milk for 2 days in that jar. Once that jar and lid have been used I can not re- use. So I have all of them bring their own. We have a gas station right down the road so if some one forgets they run down and buy water, we give the water to the animals and they have a container clean and fresh.

Cheaper than $.39, which includes shipping? Wow. Hard to imagine.

Also, if you live where there are no dairies, Dahltech is fantastic.

Also, it was on Vicki's board that I learned about Dahltech. I appreciate that

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

Today at TSC I saw mason (BALL) jars that say freezer safe and have the white lids that you can also put in freezer or fridge. Does anyone know anything about that. Could you put your fresh milk in the jar, but that white lid made for those jars and put in freezer? Also what is the way you thaw? In fridge?

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You can freeze milk in any glass jars as long as you leave room for milk expansion and don't tighten the lid all the way until the milk is frozen. The main problem I have with freezing in glass jars is that they break so easily when cold. Just tapping them together can crack them if they are cold.
I thaw my milk in the fridge, yes.

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Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net

"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence

I used to freeze milk in plastic freezer bags laid flat, but they invariably leak when I'm defrosting.

At first I thought it was because I was overfilling, but it happened when I used less milk.

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

I do not sell huge quantities of milk, but I do sell some, keep the family supplied and keep our freezer full. I use plastic gallon water bottles. Sometimes our water well gets funky so we have to buy water anyway. So I save the gallon water jugs and am careful not to contaminate them or their lids. I also freeze small quantities of milk in small used water bottles but ONLY in water bottles that have not been on someones lips. I make sure that the water is poured into a glass and not drank from the bottle. I intend to start ordering plastic gallon jugs though because I am needing more and more each year. I also need another deep freeze. We have one of those smallish ones and it is usually full of meat and I don't have enough room in it. Now it is full of wild grapes too

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Diane Rhodes
Feral Nature Farm
LaManchas, MiniManchas and Boers
Member ADGA, MDGA

Lada-Make sure you check to make sure you can sell Raw milk where you live. I have to sell "herd shares" in order to provide raw milk to an outside of my family consumer. It is a pain. Anyways, I use quart mason jars (although I juist found out that there is a hardware store up north that sells 1/2 gallon size for $11.00 a case) and my herd share buyer pays me $1.50 per jar..then they own 4 jars and we exchange 4 jars each time they pick up. Now if they don't return their jars then they pay me for another 4 jars...the third time they forget their jars they don't get any milk. I get tired of having to buy jars or search for yard sales with jars. I also wash all jars no matter if they washed them already. I soak them in bleach water and then wash and rinse and air dry then I am sure they are clean before putting milk in them.

Alice-have you ever had an off taste to your milk in the plastic jars. I have always read that the plastic has pores that holds onto bacteria that could cause a bad taste in your milk. Just wondering because I would like to order some and use those instead of my Mason jars.

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Sarah Patterson
M & L Farm
Lamanchas, lamancha cross, Sable and Sable cross

You can also find us on facebook! M&L Farm

http://www.mandllamanchas.com *UPDATED*

I find that the plastic water jug type jars are nearly impossible to clean. They have a textured inside that holds on to the milkstone.
I use smooth gallon jars http://www.jarsource.com/128ozsquare.php
You can get your hand in and really get them clean. I also sanitize prior to use.

The plastic jugs are single use only, and they are going (frozen) to a meat goat farm for their use during kidding season. Humans aren't drinking that milk. The buyer requested half gallon plastic, so that's what I'm doing.

For my own use, we have half gallon glass jars. Available from:
http://www.canningsupply.com/product...ning_jars_lids

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

http://www.pressurecooker-outlet.com/Obohpmb.htm

The 1/2 gallon glass bottles they have ^there^ are WONDERFUL...but expensive. I recently figured out that Whole Foods stores sell these exact same bottles--with milk in them-- for $2.99...sometimes less. I usually buy some everytime we are near a Whole Foods store.

Usually the $2.99 is for milk, and you have to pay an additional $3.99 or something like that as a bottle deposit. Are you actually paying $2.99 for the milk with no additional deposit? If so, I may have to head down to Whole Foods!

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www.glimmercroft.com
The basic message of liberalism is simply: The true measure of a society is how it treats the weak and the needy. A simple Christian message (Matthew 25:40). -Garrison Keillor