Dreamy creamery
Organic Hoosier operation brings cream to the top with a flood of memories
By Christine Barbour
November 5, 2003

In case you were thinking that chocolate milk is just a kid thing, think again.

The chocolate milk produced by Traders Point Creamery is a grown up fantasy — a dreamy creamy concoction of dense Dutch cocoa and rich whole dairy milk. When Jane Elder Kunz offered me a taste one sunny fall afternoon at her farm, I accepted politely, but after one sip I wanted to wrest the bottle away from her and refuse to share. Maybe chocolate milk is a kid thing after all.

Chocolate milk is just one of the luscious products turned out by the creamery, which is located on the lovely little Zionsville farm that Kunz inherited from her grandmother. Looking for a way to keep the farm alive as a sustainable enterprise and to give practical expression to the principles they believe in, Kunz and her husband, Peter, an Indianapolis surgeon, came up with the idea of organic dairy farming. With 25 grass-fed cows, they are giving the central Indiana community a delightful and wholesome alternative to homogenized, non-organic, mass produced milk.
 

At the moment, their primary products are creamline milk — milk that is safely pasteurized but not homogenized — and European style yogurt made from that milk. Both are pasteurized and bottled (in real old fashioned glass bottles!) on site at the farm.

Doing it right

The Kunzs have decided to eschew homogenization because, in a modern age where the trend is toward ever-easier shortcuts, they wanted to do things the old-fashioned way (albeit with shiny, new fangled, state-of-the-art equipment).

Homogenization is not necessary to make good healthy milk — it is a process by which commercial milk producers extend the shelf life of milk by breaking up the milk fat globules into tiny bits so that they stay suspended in the milk and thus stay fresher longer. Modern milk manufacturing immediately separates the creamy fat from the skim milk, breaks up the fat, and adds it back in the desired proportion (at 3.5 percent for whole milk, or 2 percent, or even 1 percent for low fat).

In creamline milk, the fat globules do not stay suspended, and eventually they rise to the top. The lucky people who get the first pour out of a bottle of creamline milk get a rich and creamy treat. This layer of cream can be skimmed off the top and used as cream, or shaken back into the milk.

Many people including Kunz and her husband, believe that nonhomogenized milk is easier to digest and carries the additional health benefit of containing "good fat," fat that does not pass directly into the blood stream with damaging effect but is rather detoxified by the liver.

Since the Traders Point cows are also pasture fed, there is some additional reason to believe that their milk contains healthy omega-3 fatty acids that lower blood cholesterol. Further discussion of the health claims for this kind of milk can be found at http://www.westonaprice.org/.

Yogurt expertise imported

Regardless of the health benefits, however, the Traders Point milk products taste wonderful. The fresh whole milk hearkens back to half-forgotten after school snacks of milk and cookies, and the yogurt is a tart and refreshing surprise. Thinner than most American yogurt, which contains stabilizers to help it gel, this yogurt is the accomplishment of Fons Smits, the Traders Point milk expert who came to Zionsville from his native Holland by way of places like Mongolia, Tanzania, and California.

Smits, with a degree in dairy sciences, is the only person I have ever met who seems genuinely excited about the possibilities of milk. From his schooldays he has been fascinated by all the things you can make with this familiar white liquid, and by all the different traditions of milk production around the world.

He has been involved in every aspect of dairy production, including the creation of a prize-winning California cheese, and he is full of ideas for things he can make at Traders Point. He is experimenting with ways to flavor yogurt, and I'd call the pineapple, orange and cherry variations I tasted a smashing success. The chocolate milk is a treasure (did I mention that?) and he plans to start making ice cream by next summer. Also on the agenda are butter-making and different methods of producing fresh cheese, cottage cheese and hard cheeses. Smits is passionate about cheese making, and it is that niche that he eventually wants to make his own.

Organic starts with cows

The Traders Point dairy products are USDA certified organic. That means, among other things, that the cows are raised on pesticide- and herbicide-free pasture, and that the animals are not given antibiotics or synthetic hormones.

Keeping the cows happy and healthy is the job of New Zealander Neil McDonald. If Smits' obsession is with milk, McDonald is crazy about the cows that produce it. An animal lover myself, I was charmed to hear him speak affectionately about how much he learns from the animals he tends. They tell him what they need to eat, they reveal distinct personalities, and they let him know when they are stressed or unhappy. There are likely to be few who will feel that way — McDonald's goal is to give the cows the best life they can have, with plenty of fresh air, good grass to eat and soft earth to lie on.

McDonald pays close attention to the link between the health of the cows and the quality of the milk they produce. Scientists have no idea what really makes great tasting milk, he says, and he is interested to find out how changes in the seasons and in the animals' feed and treatment translate into changes in the milk.
 

If he had his druthers, someday he would like to ensure that customers get the best tasting, freshest milk around by delivering the milk to nearby homes, an ambition that evokes my childhood memories of a daily visit from the milkman, delivering bottles of cold milk to the metal box by our front door.

Memories wash over

In fact, I've noticed more than once this special and unexpected side effect of drinking Traders Point milk — its tendency to induce sweet nostalgia in otherwise level-headed, middle-aged adults. When they taste the creamline milk, or even hear about it, their eyes soften and their faces light with memory. They recall their grandfather's farm, or their grandmother's fresh churned butter, or the milk their father used to drink or the rush to get the milk before one's siblings could skim off the creamy part.

I also remember a comforting sound I had nearly forgotten: the early morning music of milk bottles clinking together in the fridge — so much nicer than the impersonal chuff chuff of waxed cartons. And the dark, satisfying flavor of rich and velvety chocolate milk (I did mention that, didn't I?) In addition to being delicious, for many of us Traders Point Creamery milk is worth its weight in golden memories.

Christine would love to hear from you about a favorite food or culinary experience. E-mail her at cbarbour@heraldt.com. Food Fare partner Jennifer Piurek will tell us about her lesson in Asian cooking in next week's column.

Fruit and Yogurt Breakfast Smoothie
There is no hard and fast recipe for a breakfast smoothie – it is just fruit, yogurt, milk, and wheat germ whirled in a blender with a little vanilla extract, honey, and some ice. I have to tell you, however, that a smoothie made with Traders Point yogurt and creamline milk is a treat that will set you up for a wonderful day. Cold, thick, and creamy, it is like starting your day off with a milk shake. Now what could be better than that?

1 cup milk

1 cup yogurt

2 bananas (if you freeze ripe peeled bananas and keep them in a plastic bag in the freezer, they are perfect for blending in a smoothie, and you can skip the ice. They may turn a disgusting color, but try to ignore it. The smoothie will be great.)

A cup of berries or some strawberry jam (again, frozen berries work well. Blueberries are particularly easy to freeze. A handful of them in a smoothie gives it a gorgeous deep purple color)

1 tbs. of honey (if you used jam instead of berries, skip this)

2 Tbs of wheat germ (or more, if you like it)

1 tsp of vanilla extract.

A handful of ice if you did not use frozen fruit, to thicken the smoothie

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until thick and frothy. This usually makes enough for two large smoothies, with a little left over for the first one finished.