Where the Wise Foods Are

Bay Area Sources for Wise and Nourishing Traditional Foods

For more information about Wise Traditions Foods and the Weston A Price Foundation, go to www.westonaprice.org.

Raw Dairy in the Bay Area

Raw milk, cream & butter

We are very lucky in California to have two sources for raw dairy available at our markets: Organic Pastures and Claravale.

Organic Pastures is run by dairyman Mark McAfee and is the only organic, raw, pasture-fed dairy selling commercially in the country. Cows are on pasture all the time. Mark invented a 'mobile milking barn' that gets taken out into the field where the cows are - a hygienic and effective way to milk truly 'free range' cattle. Check out his wonderful website at www.organicpastures.com.

Claravale Dairy is an historic raw-milk dairy with exceptionally rich milk and cream. Cows are not all pasture-fed, nor is it certified organic, but I do believe they use wonderful feed and the dairy is extremely wholesome, safe, nutritious, and delicious.

Supply on raw dairy products is unpredictable and shelf-life is short, so I recommend asking the dairy stockers at the store what day raw dairy is delivered, and then planning to shop on that day. At my local natural grocery, Claravale comes on Tuesdays and Fridays so those are the days I buy it.

Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco carries the best selection of raw dairy I have found in the Bay Area: Organic pastures milk, cream, and butter, as well as Claravale milk and cream.

Berkeley Bowl carries Organic Pastures milk and colostrum.

El Cerrito Natural Grocery and Berkeley Natural Grocery carry Claravale milk and sometimes Organic Pastures as well.

Bay Area Whole Foods stores generally carry both Organic Pastures and Claravale products, though supply is quite variable.

Raw Milk Cheese

My favorite raw cheddar and jack are made by Greenbank Farms and are widely available. Really delicious. Look for "raw" on the package.

My favorite raw milk blue cheese is Point Reyes Farmstead Original Blue, which is made locally by the Giacomini family. It is available Saturday mornings at the Giacomini's stand at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. It is also available at Berkeley Bowl, the cheese counter at the Pasta Shop, and I would imagine it is at Rainbow and all the Whole Foods stores. Check out their website at www.pointreyescheese.com.

Redwood Hill makes raw milk feta and cheddar from goat's milk. Available at Ecology Center farmers markets in Berkeley and Saturday morning Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

A great source of raw milk cheeses, although not necessarily local, is the Cheese Board in Berkeley. All raw milk cheeses are marked with a green dot and you can taste everything. They have dozens of raw milk cheeses.

Other good cheese shops with a good selection of raw milk cheeses are:

Cowgirl Creamery, with a shop in the Ferry Building and in Point Reyes in the Tomales Bay Foods store. Check out their website at www.cowgirlcreamery.com.

The Pasta Shop on Fourth Street in Berkeley has an excellent cheese counter.

Rainbow Grocery also has an excellent cheese counter.

Cultured Dairy Products

Yogurt

Straus organic yogurt is local, pasture-fed, and widely available. Unfortunately, it's difficult to separate out the whey - it seems like it's emulsified somehow. Widely available at all natural grocery stores & health food stores.

Redwood Hill goatmilk yogurt is tangy and delicious, and local. Widely available at many natural grocery stores & health food stores, as well as at many local farmers markets, including Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco on Saturday morning and Ecology Center Berkeley Farmers Market on Tuesday afternoon and Saturday morning. I don't remember how well it works for whey.

For a long time my favorite yogurt was Brown Cow Cream-top Yogurt. For a while you could find the organic version in the yellow container. This yogurt is delicious and also is excellent for dripping to make whey. In fact, the whey separates out in the container so you can often just pour off the whey. It is widely available at all natural grocery stores & health food stores. Unfortunately, the company was recently bought by Dannon, the organic line is discontinued, and I no longer feel so good about buying it.

When I can find it, I like to buy Nancy's organic whole milk yogurt. It's delicious.

A small, local, artisanal yogurt maker is Saint Benoit. Two French brothers make whole milk yogurt from local Jersey milk, and culture in glass or ceramic jars that you can return for deposit. Unfortunately, they only make small containers -- I've been trying to get them to sell quarts. There are only two flavors: plain and plum. Both are good. You can find them at the Thursday and Saturday Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

Yogurt is actually VERY easy to make from scratch. I am doing this more and more. I often make it from raw milk without heating it above 110 degrees, and culture it in glass jars.

Butter

My favorite is Organic Valley cultured and unsalted, widely available. www.organicvalley.com

Organic Pastures makes and sells raw butter, available most everywhere that Organic Pastures milk is sold.

Vermont Butter and Cheese Co. also makes a wonderful cultured butter. Cowgirl Creamery, Berkeley Bowl, and Rainbow Grocery all carry it.

Crème fraiche

Perhaps the best Creme Fraiche of all is made by Bellwether Farms (www.bellwethercheese.com) which also makes lots of fabulous fresh cheeses. The crème fraiche is available at Rainbow Grocery.

Cowgirl Creamery (www.cowgirlcreamery.com) makes a good crème fraiche, available at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco on Saturday morning from their stand, and also at their shop inside the Ferry Building and in Point Reyes. Cowgirl Creamery also makes a fabulous cultured, clabbered cottage cheese. The only cottage cheese I eat.

Alta Dena also makes a delicious crème fraiche. I generally buy crème fraiche and then when it's almost gone, I culture a pint of Straus Creamery organic whipping cream myself at home by mixing in the last tablespoon of the crème fraiche and leaving it in a jar overnight (24 - 36 hours) to culture. It works even better with a tablespoon of buttermilk instead of the crème fraiche.

Do you know of great Bay Area sources for Wise Traditions Foods? Email me and let me know!

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