Delivering organic dairy products to our community

Hi, Friends,

I’m Ben Turner. My family and I operate Turner Farm Organic Dairy, and we serve families, the community, and the earth through agriculture.

In an industry driving many farmers to “get big or get out,” we’ve decided to stay small. We keep a herd of 10 milk cows raised with an acute focus on sustainability — but this means we cannot meet the “minimum volume requirement” to maintain a commercial milk pickup contract as most large farms do.

For the last few years, we have sold organic, grass-fed raw milk directly to local customers who come to our farm. Many local families are loyal on-farm customers, but we still see much of our milk go underutilized. For a family farm to survive while staying small, we need to make the most of every drop of milk — and so we are turning to you.

We are fundraising to expand our processing capacity to serve more families in our area with an increased variety of organic, grass-fed dairy products, including pasteurized whole milk (plain and chocolate), yogurt smoothies, and cheese.

With your support, we will finish remodeling our milk house to include a creamery space; purchase a lightly used complete package of equipment to pasteurize and bottle new products which will provide new purchase avenues for our local communities, including home delivery and natural food stores.

These investments are costly for a small farm, and most financing resources are geared toward large-scale operations. With your help, we will be able to purchase a few of the most expensive barriers to entry:

Milk Bulk Tank — $5,000 (funded!!)

Complete MicroDairy Designs 15gallon processing package— $12,000

Initial Production Supplies for Six (6) New Products — $2,000

With this new equipment and supplies, we will launch six new Turner Farm products:

1. Pasteurized creamline milk

2. Pasteurized chocolate milk

3. Yogurt smoothies

4. Cheese curds

5. Cheddar cheese

6. Alpine-style cheese

While our raw milk will remain an on-farm exclusive, these new products will be made available for online orders with home delivery, as well as through select local retailers.

When small farms thrive, local communities can connect to the land — and through quality local food we can see a revival of local economies and ecology. Please contribute what you can, and help Turner Farm continue to grow and serve as many local families the most nutritious dairy products!

With deep gratitude,

Ben Turner, Farmer