Raw Milk Now Available In Framingham MA From Eastleigh Farm

A few hours ago, Eastleigh Farm in Framingham, Massachusetts announced that they are open for business selling raw milk. Here's what they said:

Eastleigh Farm is pleased to announce that we have obtained all of our permits to sell raw milk and we are open for business. Initially, we will be open from 2 PM until 7 PM, every day. Milk sales are available to the general public and to Eastleigh Farm CSA members. The CSA membership provides the option of a prepaid quantity of milk that is guaranteed to be available on a weekly basis. The CSA application is attached [here]. We hope to see you soon and to share the good health of our product with you and your family.

Our address is 1062 Edmands Road, Framingham, MA 01701. Our gallons are priced at $8.50/each and our half gallons are $5.00/each for non-CSA purchases.

Eastleigh is now the source of raw milk closest and most convenient to Boston and many of the surrounding areas.

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A recommendation for anyone thinking of buying raw milk (from any farm, not just from Eastleigh):

Talk with your farmers about their farming practices, and make sure that you are satisfied with how they are raising the animals. Ask them what the animals eat, how much time they spend outside, what happens when they get sick, and so on.

As with other products, if there is demand, the supply will be created to meet it. If enough people ask for organic, or 100% grass-fed, or whatever, and if it's clear to farmers that customers are willing pay for it, then they will find a way to produce it.

In the meantime, even if you are not able to find exactly the product you ultimately want, build a relationship with a farmer and buy food from them. You gain a huge amount of transparency into what you're eating. The farmer gets a better livelihood, since the intermediaries no longer get their cut. To use milk as an example, distributors pay farmers about $2.50/gal for organic cow milk; farms in Massachusetts get between $6/gal and $12/gal for raw milk (not even necessarily organic).

Direct-to-consumer raw milk sales are the one bright spot in an otherwise bleak outlook for small dairy farms.