We purchase our milk directly from one of our favorite little farms. I make the wonderful drive out to the middle of the countryside once a month and purchase our milk and eggs for the month. I always pick up a half gallon of fresh milk for that week and frozen milk for the following weeks of that month. Since neither of us drink milk by the glass, the frozen milk works wonderfully for us!
Once home, I put all the frozen milk into our big freezer in the garage and set the fresh milk in the fridge to separate for a couple of hours.
Once the cream has risen to the top, I ladle it into another little jar... viola, our coffee cream for the week! (I do the same thing with the frozen milk, after letting it defrost in the fridge for a couple of days)
Then, throughout the week I make kefir from the remaining half gallon of milk. This kefir will turn into all sorts of goodies, depending on the week. Some weeks it may be used in our morning smoothies. Or, I may strain it to use as sour cream or cream cheese... and sometimes after I have strained it, I even mix it up with herbs to make flavored cream cheese or dip for veggies!
I love getting our milk this way. It's so wholesome, I can make almost all our dairy products from it (I haven't ventured into cheese, yet!) and we are supporting a wonderful family who is living out our farming dream!
When I was in high school, I would pick up a gallon of raw milk from the dairy down the road. My step mother wanted the cream for her coffee. But being a voracious milk drinker, would mix the milk and cream together. They always wondered why there was only a half gallon left..... and no cream.
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