Staff Writer
Maine’s Own Organic Milk — MOOMilk — will hopefully be available in grocery store dairy cases throughout Maine, and in selected stores in New Hampshire and Massachusetts by mid-week.
Contributed photo
The first batch of MOOMilk comes off the production line at Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook. MOOMilk is slated to hit the shelves of Hannaford and other supermarket and smaller grocery stores in the coming days.
The initial launch of Maine’s Own Organic Milk Company (MOOMilkCo) was supposed to take place this past weekend, but was postponed due to equipment calibration issues in the newly installed carton filling machine. The problem with the filling machine occurred Thursday night during final testing and technicians were unable to resolve it in time to meet the day’s production schedule.
Produced by 10 Maine family organic dairy farms in Washington, Aroostook, Penobscot and Kennebec counties, the milk will be trucked by Schoppee Milk Transport of Holden to Smiling Hill Dairy in Westbrook for processing, then distributed by Oakhurst Dairy of Portland and Crown O’ Maine Organic Co-op of Gardiner. That makes it the only organic milk available in Maine that is produced, trucked, processed and distributed exclusively by Maine family businesses.
“This truly is local milk,” said Bill Eldridge of Bar Harbor, MOOMilk’s general manager, “customers who buy MOOMilk will know they are supporting the Maine economy by supporting Maine family businesses.”
“We are extremely pleased with MOOMilk hitting store shelves this week,” said Vaughn Chase, an organic farmer in Mapleton who is one of the suppliers for MOOMilk. “It’s been a long, hard road since we started this endeavor last February, but we’re happy with the progress we have made in getting our milk to market.”
Eldridge said, customers should know that 90 percent of the profits from MOOMilk will be returned to the farmers.
“We aren’t a co-op,” he said, “we’re a special kind of low-profit business, with a mission to make just enough to keep running and return most of our profits to the farms. Under our charter, we exist to help farm families stay in business by making enough to keep their operations viable.”
The farmers own part of the company and have three seats on the seven-member board of directors, he said.
“We’ve come a long way and this is an important time for all of us, especially those of us from Aroostook. Five of the 10 farms producing for MOOMilk are from the County,” Chase said. “We’ve had terrific support from the Maine Farm Bureau, MOFGA, the Maine Dept. of Agriculture and some investors who understand the value of supporting organic farming and family farms in Maine. Several Maine family businesses (including Schoppee’s Transport, Smiling Hill Farm and Oakhurst Dairy) came together in a good way to make this all happen and we are hopeful that our product does well. A lot is riding on it, but we’re confident that we have a fresh, local, high quality product that’s good for Maine – its people, its farms and communities as well as many local Maine businesses.”
Maine’s Own Organic Milk Company was formed through the cooperative efforts of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), Maine Farm Bureau and the Maine Department of Agriculture after the H.P. Hood Co. of Boston notified a number of Maine farmers that it would no longer be picking up their milk after last summer. At the time, those farmers were faced with either going out of business or finding a conventional, lower-paying, market for their milk. While there is good demand in Maine for organic milk, Eldridge said, the demand for local milk is greater. Finding a way to fit into both of those market niches is what made the project possible, he said, adding that every carton will feature a story about one of the 10 farms producing for the company.
MOOMilk will be available in half-gallon paper cartons, in whole, 2 percent, 1 percent and skim. In coming months, the company will offer retail customers organic butter, cream and half & half, but for the startup these products will only be available to wholesale markets, Eldridge said. The milk will be homogenized and pasteurized, he said, also making it the only organic milk available in Maine that is not
ultra-pasteurized.
The farms shipping to Maine’s Own Organic Milk Company are HB Farms, Woodland (Aroostook); Griffin Family Farm, Perham; Kauffman Family Farm, Smyrna; Oliver Farm, Hodgdon; Chase Organic Dairy Farm, Mapleton; Tide Mill Farm, Edmunds; James Pond Dairy, Charlotte; Rocky Ledge Farm, Perry; McKusick Dairy Farm, Dexter; and Windy Acres Farm, Clinton.
More information on MOOMilk may be obtained at MOOMIlkCO.com, or by contacting Eldridge at gweconsult@roadrunner.com or by calling 242-5034. Inquiries may also be directed to MOOMilk secretary David Bright at dbright@brightberryfarm.com or by calling 234-4226.