Why should I buy Ozark Mountain Creamery milk? There are lots of reasons! I will list them in no particular order, as what is important to one person may not be as important to another. Number One: Our pasteurization process is unique. We use a vat pasteurization process, which safely pasteurizes the milk but at a lower temperature for a longer time than other brands. We pasteurize at 145 degrees for 30 minutes. This is the old-fashioned method. Newer methods, such as “high temperature/short time” (HTST) is at 162 degrees for 15 seconds and “ultra-high temperature” (UHT) is at 191 degrees for 1 second. Most organic milk is UHT pasteurized; which most anything that could possibly be good for you is killed by the extremely high temperature. Your typical milk on the store shelf is HTST pasteurized.
Number Two: Based on customer feedback, many people that are lactose intolerant can drink our milk. We think it has to do with the vat pasteurization, but without a scientific study to prove it….well, who knows, maybe we just have miraculous cows!
Number Three: OMC is truly a family owned and operated dairy and creamery. OMC is owned by David & Teresa Fry and Dwight & Lori Fry. OMC utilizes the milk produced by Fry Dairy. We have several children and grandchildren between the two families, all of which are either currently working at the farm and/or creamery or have in the past or will in the future (some are away to college, some are not old enough yet). We have a strong hands-on philosophy — no one else is going to care as much as we are about the quality of our product — so we oversee the operation every step of the way.
Number Four: OMC milk is local milk from Fry Dairy and not co-mingled with any other milk. We are located in Mountain Grove, Missouri. Our milk travels less than an eighth of a mile from the dairy barn to the creamery for processing. Most of the larger dairy processors have milk brought in from all over the US; yes, some of it is local also, but it is co-mingled with milk from who knows where.
Number Five: Except for the required Vitamin A and “strongly recommended” Vitamin D3, there are absolutely no additives in our milk. Of course, the chocolate milk and other seasonal flavors have other ingredients, as listed on the cap.
There are other reasons to prefer our milk, but most of them will be addressed in answering other questions.
Where can I purchase OMC milk? We are in over 100 locations in Southern Missouri, Eastern Missouri, Central Missouri, and NW Arkansas. Please go to our locations page and put in your city or ZIP code and click on “search”. The locations nearest you will be listed.
How long should the milk be good past the sell-by date? If your refrigerator is kept below 38 degrees, the milk should be good 4-5 days past the sell-by date. If you consistently notice the milk going sour prior to that, please check the temperature in your refrigerator.
What is homogenization? Homogenization is a process that breaks down the fat globules (cream) into miniscule particles; resulting in the cream being dispersed throughout the milk. Without homogenization, the cream will separate and rise to the top.
Is your milk homogenized? We offer both homogenized and non-homogenized. Most people prefer the homogenized because that’s what they grew up with, so most of our milk is homogenized. We offer a whole non-homogenized milk, which we call cream line. The cream line milk can be identified by a pink cap. You can either scoop the cream off the top to be used however you prefer, such as in coffee or in recipes, or you can shake the bottle vigorously to disperse the cream. You may still have small clumps of cream in the milk.
Does the cream line whole milk and your homogenized whole milk have the same butterfat level? Yes, the exact same. However, the cream line will taste richer simply because of the cream being left intact. Our whole milk, both kinds, typically has a 4% butterfat. This may vary slightly, as we do not mess with it at all, we do not add to the butterfat, nor take away; it is as it comes out of the cow!
What do your cows eat? The majority of our cows’ diet comes from feed that we grow and store as silage so that they get a healthy and consistent diet year-round. Our silage consists of wheat, rye, and forage sorghum; all of which we grow and harvest ourselves. This constitutes about 85 to 90 percent of their diet. The remainder of their diet is a purchased commodity mix consisting of corn, cornmeal, gluten, hominy, soybean meal, and a mineral pellet.
Is the cows’ feed GMO-free? The silage that we grow ourselves, as listed above, is GMO-free. The commodity mix that we purchase does contain GMO-corn.
Why do you use glass bottles? Simply put, the milk tastes better out of a glass bottle. But there are more indepth reasons to use glass instead of plastic. There have been studies that show that chemicals leach out of plastic and into whatever the plastic is holding. Those chemicals are not good for you! You can go to the website of http://www.mindfully.org, click on Plastics, and read on. Another reason to use glass bottles is we re-use those over and over again. It is believed that the typical lifetime of one glass bottle keeps 40 plastic milk jugs out of our landfills.
What should I do with the empty glass bottle? First, please wash or at least rinse the bottle out. Then return it to the store where it was purchased, or some other store that carries Ozark Mountain Creamery milk. You will get a bottle deposit refund ($2.25 at most stores). We do not need the cap returned.