My father lived in Turner when I was growing up. Family friends had dairy cows. Neighbors had dairy cows. My step-brothers and I used to slip under electrified barbed wire fences to chase after them in the fields. I love barn smells, I know how to navigate a farm without totally ruining my boots and I’m still tickled by the sticky feel of a giant, bristly, pink tongue on my hand.
Then, one day, I became lactose intolerant.
My name is Jessica Strelitz and it’s been nearly 20 years since I last had a full glass of cow’s milk without becoming painfully ill.
Now, I stock up on rice milk. In boxes. But I still LOVE REAL MILK. The smell. The richness. The recipes. Yes, I still cook with it, so you’ll often find it in my fridge. And sometimes, I will drink a glass of 2% and take three Lactaid pills in a fit of guilty/masochistic behavior. But I’ve really cut back on that. Honestly. Ask my nutritionist.
But now, there is a new product that will no doubt bring me a few, delicious minutes of creamy pleasure before a world of searing pain: MOOMilk. I even love the name. It makes me want to roll down the window in the summertime and moo out the window at happy Maine Holsteins.
“Ten dairy farmers formed Maine’s Own Organic Milk Co., MOOMilk for short, last year after their contracts weren’t renewed by large milk distributor H.P. Hood LLC. A year later, the first half-gallon cartons of MOOMilk have reached dairy cases in scores of supermarkets and natural-food stores in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts… The MOOMilk Co. plans to stay within the New England borders and has no intention of competing against the nation’s big organic dairies. In time, it hopes to expand its product line to flavored milks, ice cream, and other dairy products.”
MOOMilk, and innovations like it, will be a great boon for Maine (which has lost 200 dairy farms in the past decade) as well as healthy lifestyles. Oh, and Lactaid. Because I’m going to need a lot of it.
Jessica Strelitz is a contributing writer to Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
