Milk CSA or buyers club in SF?

[DavidForer]

We have been really happy of late of the CSAs we are members of - Two Small Farms for veggies, Marin Sun Farms for meat, and Mission Pie/Pie Ranch for eggs.

I am trying to close the distance on alot of the food we eat at home and hoping to find a milk and dairy CSA or buying club. Does anyone know of one?

I've heard of a milk/dairy delivery service that does Strauss - called Mr. Moo or something - anyone heard of him? If we can't go direct with a CSA or something like that we'll try Mr. Moo.

Thanks in advance

... dave

[takuhead]

There is a raw goat milk farm that delivers to a coop hosted through Three Stone hearth as well - evergreen petting acres - there was a drop for SF too but not sure if it is active right now
http://www.petstouch.com/deliveryarea...

I currently host the Palo Alto drop on Fridays.

[Robert Lauriston]

You can get Claravale milk delivered through Dairy Delivery in Petaluma or West Coast Distribution in Berkeley, but you'd be "closer" to the producer by buying Straus from Rainbow or wherever.

http://www.chow.com/places/28307

[xanadude]

Why not just buy Strauss milk from a store (vs using a delivery service)? Most stores around me carry it, though Rainbow has the best prices.

[lexdevil]

Unless you consider Trader Joe's, whose cream top = Straus.

[xanadude]

Yah, good point. I strongly prefer the glass bottles, though.

[DavidForer]

If we don't need to go to Rainbow to get dairy, and we get veggies, meat, and eggs from CSAs, then I might only have to go to Rainbow every 6 weeks when toilet paper and cleaning supplies run low. ;-)

Ideally, I'd like to join some buyers club/CSA, but I've had a tough time finding one.

[osho]

Is Rainbow the only retail store in SF that sells gallon containers of Strauss non homogenized milk ?

[Robert Lauriston]

I've never seen the gallon containers, but all Straus milk is non-homogenized.

[osho]

I buy two of the gallon containers every week from Rainbow. My question is - are they available elsewhere ?

[Robert Lauriston]

Straus could probably tell you who else carries them:

http://www.strausfamilycreamery.com/?...

Two of the Trader Joe's half gallons might be cheaper.

[osho]

RL, thanks for the link.

For the benefit of fellow 'hounds, I did contact Strauss and they confirmed that their gallon containers are available exclusively at Rainbow - within the city of SF.

Cheers

[Kosmonaut]

Yes, the gallon Straus containers at Rainbow come in a plastic bottle, not glass. They're on the shelf below the half gallon glass bottles.

[farmersdaughter]

Tell me more about the eggs . . . I didn't see anything on Pie Ranch's website about them.

[DavidForer]

One of the mom's at my kid's school has Mr. Moo's number I think. I'll try and get it from her (I hope it's cool to post phone numbers on this board - maybe I better check with him first.)

The eggs come from Pie Ranch, the partnership with Mission Pie. We know Karen from the 'hood - we live a few blocks away and have been observing/loving the transformation they've been doing to the building. So when they started the egg CSA they asked us if we wanted to join. This year was the first year, and they did all the capital expenditures and bought chickens and stuff. We got to go down to the farm and our young daughters helped paint the coup which was great fun for them. If I remember right, it was ~$250 for the year, with a dozen of the best eggs imaginable coming every week, picking up at Mission Pie.
If you're interested, email Karen from the missionpie.com site and ask - feel free to mention my name.

... dave

[Pei]

$250 a year for a dozen eggs a week? That's over $16/dz, which seems steep even for farm fresh eggs. Especially since they're not delivered.

[lexdevil]

It's $4.81 per dozen. You calculated it at one dozen per month.

[Pei]

Oh phew. It's per week. Thanks.

[farmersdaughter]

Are the eggs a consistent size? What size are they? Are the chickens pastured? The problem for me is that it's hard to make some recipes work where the balance of yolk to white or the amount of yolk and white are important -- i.e., if the eggs aren't consistently sized or for that matter if they are medium sized instead of large or extra large/jumbo, which is preferable for me. Thanks.

[xanadude]

They sometimes have dozen eggs for sale at Mission Pie (beautiful assortment of colors) for $3/half, $6/dozen or so iirc.

[wolfe]

Three Stone hearth has Strauss products which may be available through a cluster group near you. Check this site.
http://threestonehearth.com/

[chemchef]

Three Stone Hearth does use some Strauss products in their cooking, however, what they sell to the public is Claravale raw milk and raw cream (when they can get it).

[Atomica]

Do you have a link for Mr. Moo? Anything I try is turning up a dead end or a dead link. I talked to him about 3 years ago. His name is Ron La Mariana. Maybe if you call Straus directly they could tell you if he's still in the milk delivery business.

[Erin Bennett]

Here's a link that has Mr. Moo's phone number, though I don't know if it's current: http://www.dailycandy.com/san_francis....

[Kosmonaut]

This is the # I have for Mr. Moo: http://www.yelp.com/biz/sonoma-marin-...

I've called several times and he never answers. I left a voice mail and he never called back, so I can't figure out how to get on his service. If anyone has advice, please let me know, as I'd really love to get Straus milk delivered.