If you live near Lafayette, IN, and you'd like to get a good price on local, raw cheese, I've found a source. Once we clear 30# on an order, we get the prices below. To order, just join the People's Elbow food buying club and go to this table.
Contact Info for Meadow Valley Farm:
Meadow Valley Farm
Samuel Stoltzfus
4102 North 400 East
Rockville, IN 47872
765-597-2306
Mr. Stoltzfus warned me that if you call, you usually need to leave a message. However, we've called him a few times, and he always calls back. He doesn't have email or a web site (or Internet access, for that matter).
Meadow Valley Farm cheese is available at Nature's Pharm, if you'd like to try it before ordering.
It's good cheese
Although this cheese is not "certified" organic, these cows are grassfed, and they are not given hormones or antibiotics. And if you haven't heard about the goodness of raw (or rather, not cooked) milk, I'll save that for another post.
Although Meadow Valley doesn't have its own web site, you can find a short writeup if you go here and scroll down to "Meadow Valley Farm Cheese."
Cheese Prices
The prices below are accurate as of 2008-Aug-27. I can't guarantee their continued accuracy. But I'll try to keep up.
All prices below presume an order of at least 30 pounds. Prices marked "unsure" are those I muddled in my notes, and need to recheck. (Sorry.) Feel free to double check my math on the "totals". :) In fact, some of the total prices may be approximate; I doubt that the "two-thirds" block he quoted is always precisely 0.67 pounds.
Baby Swiss: add $1 per pound to all prices.
Unless someone happens to be driving through Rockville, we'll be getting the "shipped" prices.
| Block weight (may be approx.) | Per # (shipped) | Total (shipped) | Per # (pickup) | Total (pickup) |
| 0.67# | $6.25 | $4.18 | $5.50 [unsure] | $3.68 [unsure] |
| 1.25# | $6.00 | $7.50 | $5.00 [unsure] | $6.25 [unsure] |
| 2.5# | $5.50 | $13.75 | $5.00 | $12.50 |
| 5# | $5.40 | $27.00 | $4.90 | $24.50 |
| 10# (wheel) | $5.20 | $52.00 | $4.50 | $45.00 |
| 20# (block) | $5.20 | $104.00 | $4.50 | $90.00 |
Note that 10# and 20# have the same price.
Perhaps we can work out a split system, for sharing large blocks?
Types of cheese:
- cheddar
- colby
- monterey jack
- pepper jack (hot monterey jack)
- jalapeno (hotter monterey jack)
- havarti
- gouda
- baby swiss ($1/more per pound)
Shipping
The shipping price is included in the price per pound in the "shipped" column above. Shipping is through DHL, and the cheese is be packed in insulated boxes with gel packs. Orders will be placed on Monday, for a pickup of Wednesday or Thursday.
I'd like to co-ordinate this with our monthly People's Elbow order, since that pickup is on Thursday. Perhaps I could have the cheese delivered to my house, then bring it to the People's Elbow pickup location?
Payment
Mr. Stoltzfus will send an invoice with each shipment, and we'll send a check by mail. Ideally, we can each write a check for our own piece of the order, and I'll send all the checks together.
The salmonella incident
When many people hear "raw milk", they often think of salmonella. This is an odd mental connection, given the actual rates of sickness from raw milk, and considering that people regularly get sick from pasteurized milk too.
As I mentioned, Mr. Stoltzfus has neither a web site nor home Internet, so it can be hard to find information about Meadow Valley Farm online. A cursory search will, in fact, bring up a 2004 warning from the FDA or the Indiana state board of animal health that a batch of this cheese was found to have salmonella.
I asked Mr. Stoltzfus about this, and he was happy to explain. The state board of animal health does routine tests on his cheese, and in 2004 they tested a batch of sharp cheddar and claimed to find salmonella.
Strangely, the number of the lot they tested was 199, which doesn't happen to be the number Mr. Stoltzfus uses for sharp cheddar. He uses 199 for monterey jack, and 139 for sharp cheddar.
The board assumed that it must have been his sharp cheddar anyhow, and issued a recall. This stark warning persists on the Internet to this day.
However, what doesn't seem to be on the Internet is the followup. The board came and did a thorough round of further testing on Meadow Valley Farm cheese, and failed to find any salmonella. They continue to test the cheese regularly, and haven't found any salmonella since.
Ready to order?
Again, to order, just join the People's Elbow food buying club and go to this table. Let me know if you have any questions.