October 2012
In a Hidden Mountain Cove, Gilmer County, Georgia
Dear Mountain Valley Farm:
I just visited your farm store for the first time. What a wonderful store, and such very nice people! It was so neat and clean and hygienic and so well organized. The meat and milk coolers were bright white and immaculate, I did not see even a single fingerprint on the insulated glass doors of the milk coolers. Outstanding! The selection of Dry Aged Grass Fed Beef and Heritage Pork was incredible! And the Wright Family History, the farm and dairy and store located on the same land the family has worked since 1840, how can this be, 172 years later, that you welcome guests with such kindness and hospitality!
And the milk! I want to share a picture of my favorite milk bottle with you. It was posted in a Facebook group of which I am a member, Buckhead Natives. I grew up in an Atlanta neighborhood, Brookwood Hills, and one of the true delights of my childhood was drinking tall cold glasses of R. L. Mathis milk, often three or four times day. Certified, Raw Homogenized Milk powered the children of Atlanta, and I can not recall any child ever becoming ill from drinking raw unpasteurized milk, delivered early in the morning to the doors of thousands of Atlanta Households. How many thousands of quarts did I open and curl on my index finger the rich cream floating just below the bottle’s lid? What a wonderful treat, unknown to the children of today! As a child I drank at least a quart of milk a day, as a high school athlete at Marist School it was nearer a gallon a day! Even now, in my mid sixties, I drink a quart or more of Mayfield Whole Milk daily. And as good a milk as Mayfield is, nothing beats the sweet creamy flavor of raw unpasteurized cow milk. Every child, and most adults, should know the pleasure of such rich wholesomeness, but even if we can’t, our pets, Butch, Bumper, Fido, and Sweetie, Simone and Kitty can enjoy the same flavor and health benefits we enjoyed way back in the middle of the last century, thanks to the strict regulation and oversight of the Georgia Department of Agriculture. My pet has almost finished the gallon I bought yesterday at your delightful store, and even now begs for more! And so I offer this photograph to you as a toast to Mountain Valley Farms, for the wonderful memories and your wonderful milk…for my pet, of course.
