Ithaca Milk® was started a few years ago with the idea in mind that small scale, sustainable farming is possible in a modern farming landscape. The animals and the land that produce our food should be treated with respect, and managed with the living environment in mind.
Since inception we have focused on supporting a few small, single breed farms with extremely high quality milk. Milk is made by cows as a highly variable and complicated natural ingredient, and we know that the best way to make great yogurt is to use great milk.
Rather than add artificial ingredients, thickeners and stabilizers, or devising complicated processing methods to correct for low quality milk, we focus on getting the best milk possible from the healthiest, happiest cows possible.
All of our Grade A Cow Milk products are produced using non-homogenized vat-pasteurized Jersey Milk. Jersey Milk has a distinctly sweeter flavor and is creamier than that of Holstein milk.
Our farm and creamery are located just outside of Ithaca in the country. We invite you to visit the Ithaca Milk website for more information on our farms, our processes, and our products.
The Quest for the perfect cup of yogurt
Most milk available to bulk purchasers (like a company keen on making yogurt) comes from many different farms, each with several of different breeds of cows, mixed together on the transport truck long before it reaches the processing facility.
In our quest to make the perfect cup of yogurt, we needed to find a milk that was naturally higher quality than the comingled milk coming from modern suppliers, with most of the breeds focused on quantity over quality.
With the distinct flavor and natural characteristics of Jersey milk, we’ve found a truely unique milk for our yogurt. In order to get the milk we want, we pick it up from the farms in the morning with our own milk hauler and deliver it fresh to the creamery, to be processed that same day.
By keeping things small scale, we can say our 100% Jersey yogurt is the best yogurt you can make with cows milk.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Our yogurt is lower in sugar than the big guys and uses only cane sugar and maple syrup to achieve its sweetness (No high fructose corn syrup here).
- Our yogurt does not use any additives or stabilizers to obtain its thick natural set. We have found there are many chefs and household cooks who use the plain yogurt for cooking and preparation of yogurt-based sauces.
- Our cows milk yogurt products have a 3-5 mm layer of rich cream on top. If customers prefer a lower fat product they can simply skim the cream layer on top and are left with a product that is less than 1% fat, but still rich in protein and flavor.