A single share purchase will allot a gallon of milk per week to you.  A half share will allot a half gallon.  If you want more then one gallon a week, you must purchase more then one share.  To get 2 gallons a week, one must own 2 shares of the herd, 3 gallons 3 shares, etc. 

All boarding contracts are annual and renew every year unless a notice is given before the renewal date. We have however structured our program to allow anyone who has a need to terminate the contract early to be able to do so with ease. All you need to do is give a 30 day notice of your termination and keep your monthly fees paid until the time comes. Annual fees are non refundable for early termination of contract.

Invoicing is done in the middle of each month. Monthly fees will always be due on the first of the upcoming month.  You may either pay by check, cash or money order by mailing it to our address found above. You can also conveniently pay any invoice on our Website, or find us at the market during market hours and pay us in person.

No, we never issue financial credits for this. You are paying for the cows to be tended, fed, milked, etc. and that must be done every day regardless if you drink the milk or not. We suggest that if you run into a week you cannot pick up your milk to have someone else pick it up for you. You can give out your milk to family or friends in circumstances like that, but under no conditions should you sell your milk to anyone. It is illegal to sell unprocessed and unregulated milk in Virginia.

Each week we delivery milk to your designated drop.  You will have until the next delivery to get your milk at your convenience.  If for any reason you do not pickup your milk before the next delivery, we DO NOT leave old milk behind when we do, and it is a forfeiture of that weeks milk.  We do not have the room at our drops to do that, and we could never take the chance that another member would accidentally pick up the old milk for their weekly allotment.  We can however make arrangements to hold it at our farm so you can come and get it, but if arrangements are not made by the new delivery, we will personally use the milk ourselves.  You will never have to worry that your missed milk will go to waste.

The cows you're buying a share in are Registered Jersey. Jersey cows are the most popular family milk cow. They have the highest butterfat content of any milk. Jersey's also have milk that is the most yellow in color due to the high content of very yellow butterfat. We prefer this type of milk over other cow’s milk and hope that you find the same satisfaction we get from it.

The calves are "purchased" by Goshen Homestead in return for the cost of keeping a bull on farm for getting the cow bred and raising any calves for the program. The heifer calves from these calving will be used as replacement heifers and additional milking cows for our boarding program as we grow.

Our cows graze primarily on fresh grass under a highly managed rotational grazing program, and on hay during the winter.  They get a small amount of some molasses and non-GMO fermented alfalfa at the morning and evening milking as a treat and as a way to give them extra vitamins, protein and probiotics. We purchase nothing but the highest quality hay once we have depleted our own stock.

As of right now we bottle all milk in plastic gallon and half gallon milk jugs.

All milk we deliver will have a date sticker on the cap of the milk.  The date represents the day the milk was collected.  The milk is guaranteed to be fresh for the following 10 days with little exception, so long as the milk is handled properly in your care. 

Always keep your milk chilled. If you have some distance to travel, or stops to make before you arrive home, it's imperative that you keep your milk in a cooler with ice until you return home. Take care that it's not left out for long at meal time.  If at any time your milk becomes unpleasant to drink due to leaving it out or of its age, simply discard the product.  If you do not feel comfortable drinking aged milk or aging it into other products, just stick with the fresh milk you get every week.  That will keep your supply fresh and you won’t have to worry about how old your milk is getting.

There are however many things you can do with aging milk. Sour cream, yogurt, cheese, pudding, the list is endless. There are alot of recipes you can find online that will show you what to do with your aging milk. As time goes on we hope to become one of those online sources of information like that so keep an eye out as we grow and develop our site.

Yes.  We milk our cows in a Grade A inspected facility on farm and the state of Virginia pulls samples from our tanks every month. The monthly tests cover the quality of the milk (SCC), the cleanliness of the equipment used to handle it (PC), and antibiotic residue. Our testing has been so exemplary that our farm has received the designation of "Virginia's Finest" by the state for the last 2 years. Share owners have access to these records any time upon request. It is our highest priority to ensure that the milk we provide you from your cow is of the highest quality and safety.

Our first and foremost mission is to keep our cows healthy and happy.  In the event there is a sickness or injury in the herd, our go to is to treat our cows with natural, homeopathic or herbal remedies. All sickness within the herd is treated as a high priority and any sign of infection will result in a cow to be quarantine and pulled from production until the situation is remedied. Under certain situations, we do and will use antibiotics if necessary. If we ever have to treat an animal with antibiotics, which suggests there is a situation we could not contain naturally, we will dispose of the milk for the duration of the entire sickness and withdrawal period of the antibiotic.  Obviously we will do everything in our power to avoid that option.

As far as antibiotics is concerned- it is illegal for ANYONE, even commercial dairies, to sell milk tainted with antibiotics to anyone. So no milk you ever drink from any source should contain antibiotics if the milk is lab tested. 

When everyone had a family milk cow that grazed on grass, no one worried about bad milk. When milking made its big move to commercial dairies, the diet of the cow switched from mostly grass to mostly grain. With this change in diet and the crowded commercial dairy conditions, suddenly raw milk became a health hazard. To preserve their large commercial dairies, the solution was to pasteurize the milk. Pasteurized milk of course destroys all the bacteria (good and bad) in milk. The result was that the milk that was produced under these new conditions could now be consumed with minimal risk at the subtle expense of flavor, nutrition, good enzymes and bacteria and a product that doesn't age on the shelf anymore, but now rots and goes rancid.

Obviously the dairy industry had to do a big sell to the consumer to get them to accept this different product, thus the marketing that many of us were raised under to belief that only pasteurized milk is the truly safe option to drink. In fact, a few backyard cows fed primarily grass & hay and milked in a clean facility produces fresh milk that is perfectly safe to drink unpasteurized.

If you search the web for "raw milk" you will find many discussions on the topic of consuming fresh unprocessed milk. I refer to information found on Raw Milk Facts and Real Milk. Much of the other information on fresh milk, in our opinion, comes from misunderstandings, perversions of truths, and political pressures from the commercial dairy industry to keep a competing product out of the market and protect their market share. It is advised to do your own due diligence and form your own opinions on the matter. There is much conflicting information out there and everyone is trying to sell you their angle on the subject.

Overall choosing to drink fresh unprocessed milk is no light matter. The truth is that any milk, pasteurized or unpasteurized, that is contaminated with deadly pathogens can be very dangerous if not fatal to consume. To make this choice demands alot of responsibility on the part of the consumer to do diligent research on the matter and most importantly know the conditions the cows you wish to consume milk from are raised in. The same risk applies when buying pasteurized milk from the grocery stores, with the exception you cant just meet the producers of that milk when you buy it, so you have to weigh your options and always make informed decisions.