FAQ
Table of Contents
- Can I recycle your glass bottles or where should I return them?
- What Pasteurization do you use?
- What is Creamline Milk?
- Do you bottle anything other than Whole Milk? How can I tell which milk I’m purchasing?
- Do you sell Raw Milk?
- Do you add Vitamin A or D to your milk?
- Where can I find nutritional information for your milk?
- Can I make cheese with your milk?
- Do you have peanuts in your plant?
- Do you have gluten-free ice cream?
- You say that you do not use synthetic hormones; does that mean you use bioidentical hormones?
- What kind of cows do you have?
- Can I take a tour of your plant or farm?
- Do you offer home delivery?
- Do you offer online ordering? Can I order butter, cheese, ice cream or other products to be shipped to my house?
- Where can I find Trickling Springs’ dairy products?
Please use our Contact Us form to send me your questions and I’ll be happy to answer any that I can.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I recycle your glass bottles or where should I return them?
PLEASE, DO NOT throw away or recycle Trickling Springs Milk bottles! We want them returned to us. This is why you pay a $2 bottle deposit when you purchase the milk so that you bring the bottle back to the store you purchased the milk at or any store that sells our milk for a $2 refund. We take these bottles back, wash and reuse them.
- What Pasteurization do you use
We use the HTST method of pasteurization, the milk is heated to 160° F – 165°F for 15 seconds and immediately cooled below 40°F. There are many benefits to this style of pasteurization; our goal is to bring you fresh milk that has been messed with as little as possible, safe but nutritious. Many of the pasteurization methods used today are used so the manufacturer can achieve a long shelf life, shipping it across the country. We sell regionally so we focus on the quality of taste and nutrients instead of shelf life. You can read more about our processing story on our production page.
- What is Creamline Milk?
Trickling Springs’ Creamline milk is whole or 2% milk that has not been homogenized. This allows the milk fat (cream) to naturally separate to the top of bottle, to enjoy it just shake it back into the milk and pour. You can read more about this style of milk at these blog posts:What is Creamline Milk; Creamline Milk, part 2
- Do you bottle anything other than Whole Milk? How can I tell which milk I’m purchasing?
Yes we do!
We bottle Whole, 2% and Nonfat milk as well as flavored milks and cream. Here are the cap colors to help identify the milk you are purchasing; the type of milk is also printed on the glass milk bottle cap.- White = Whole Creamline (non-Homogenized) Milk
- Red = Whole Homogenized Milk
- Dark Blue = 2% Creamline Milk
- Blue = 2% Homogenized Milk
- Green = NonFat Milk
- Clear = Half & Half
- Cream/Tan = Heavy Cream
- Gold = EggNog
- Do you sell Raw Milk?
No I’m sorry we don’t. We support raw milk but it is illegal to take it across state lines so we chose to go with low-temp pasteurization milk so that more people would be able to enjoy this fresh milk outside of Pennsylvania. The pasteurization temperature of 160°F – 165°F allows the milk to retain more of the natural enzyme structure, proteins and nutrients that are found in raw milk.
- Do you add Vitamin A or D to your milk?
We are required by Federal law to add Vitamin A & D to our Reduced Fat (2%) milk and Nonfat (Skim) milk. However our goal is to provide you with milk that has been as minimally processed as legally possible, so we use non-synthetic versions of these vitamins. Our whole milk has NO added vitamins or any other additives, the original version of milk, no additives, full fat, all milk!!
- Where can I find nutritional information for your milk?
Go to this link: Nutritional information and click on the milk you want the information for.
- Can I make cheese with your milk?
Yes, you should be able to. We have heard many success stories from people making cheese using our milk and would love to hear yours! If you make some cheese using our milk, take a picture of the cheese with our milk bottle in the background and email it with your story about making it (200 words or less) to tscorganicmilk@gmail.com and if we choose to feature it on our website we’ll send you a gift pack from Trickling Springs Creamery! And we’ll even pay for the shipping!!
To give you some ideas to get started here are a few people that have made some cheese using our milk in the past.
Mozzarella (made with a kit)
Washington Post story
Off the Vine Market story, no recipe
Paneer
Washington Green Grocer, recipe included
Goat Cheese Chevre (using Trickling Springs distributed goat milk)
Pure Homemaking 2011, recipe included
- Do you have peanuts in your plant?
Thanks for asking, while we take every precaution to avoid cross-contamination, we use peanuts in various forms in our some of our ice creams. If you allergic to peanuts or any nuts then we must recommend you refrain from enjoying our ice cream.
- Do you have gluten-free ice cream?
Our ice cream base is gluten-free, however not all of the ice cream flavors are gluten-free. Here are several flavors you can enjoy gluten-free.
- Vanilla
- Chocolate
- Strawberry
- Coffee
- You say that you do not use synthetic hormones; does that mean you use bioidentical hormones?
No, we do not use any type of added hormones to boost growth or production, we’ve used the term “Synthetic Hormones” to include all added hormones & in an attempt to make it very plain to consumers what we are about. Obviously cunning marketers could use that statement to cover the use of other hormones but in reality if you read over what we do it should be clear, our goal is to bring products to consumers with minimal processing and minimal involvement.
Cows naturally produce hormones and that is part of the process of creating milk so I can’t use the statement that we do not use “hormones” but I can assure you that we do not add hormones.
Thanks for your interest and your desire to keep those that produce your food honest. Trust me we appreciate that.
- What kind of cows do you have?
Our local farmers have a variety of breeds but we require them to be predominately heritage breeds rather than the newer breeds that are bred to produce quantity of milk rather than quality. See what each of our farms have and see pictures of the farms on each farmer’s page.
- Can I take a tour of your plant or farm?
I’m sorry but due to liability concerns we are not allowed to give tours of our production plant. We do however have a large viewing window in our Creamery store where most mornings Monday through Thursday you can watch the production crew bottling your favorite milk! Several of our farmers love to have visitors, for details on visiting a farm that supplies us with milk visit our individual farm pages here or email me at tours@tricklingspringscreamery.com
- Do you offer home delivery?
Read our blog post here: Trickling Springs Creamery home delivery
And find out who will deliver Trickling Springs’ milk to your door here.
- Do you offer online ordering? Can I order butter, cheese, ice cream or other products to be shipped to my house?
I’m sorry currently we are not set up to be able to process orders and ship our products around the country. Thanks for your interest in our products.
- Where can I find Trickling Springs’ dairy products?
Look at our Retail store locator page for your local retailer that carries our products.
If you have a local store that doesn’t carry our products and you would like to see us there, please let us know through our contact form and we’ll be happy to contact the store and see if they would carry our products!
If you are a retail store that sells our products and can’t find yourself on our Store locator page please email us through our contact form and we’ll be happy to add you to our list.
Contact Us
Latest News 
Hi,
I am on a quest to find the best, healthiest (Dr.Price) butter! Please tell me that you will ship to me in California?? I would love to order some of your products we have nothing out here that is even slightly yellow like my Grannies used to churn!!
Kind Regard,
Cheryl McWhorter
Hi Cheryl,
Thanks for your interest in our butter, unfortunately we are not set up to be able to ship outside of our current wholesale network.
You can check with to see if they will ship to California.
Thanks again, I wish you success.
Joe
Hello.
Is your milk grass fed?
Thank You
Jessica
Hi Jessica,
Our cows are grass-fed and on pasture all of the time during the grass-growing season. We do allow form minimal supplementation of grain in their diet to aid in keeping the cows’ body condition healthy. During the winter our cows are fed a variety of stored forages & grasses but no corn silage.
Thanks for checking!
Joe
What rules do you have regarding giving the cows antibiotics?
Great question you asked there, our Organic dairy farmers use NO antibiotics and are all required to use herbal or other remedies to heal the cows. Our natural brand milk farmers are allowed to use antibiotics only when the cows are sick to bring them back to full health but are required to pull the cow’s milk from usage for a period of time beyond the minimum required by the FDA.
Can you tell me what happens to the cows when they are no longer producing milk? Also, I understand that traditionally, cows are kept pregnant until they can no longer maintain a pregnancy. Is that true on the farms you use as well, or is it more of a natural process?
I wloud like to know what kind of milke can i use to make mozzarrella chese, i tried homogenized milk but doesn`t worke can i use 2% ? or skim milk,
I would recomend using our Whole Creamline Milk. This milk has been minimally pastuerized (as all of our milk is) and has not gone through the process of breaking up the fat molocules so that they stay suspended in the milk. In the Creamline Milk the fat will rise to the top and you’ll need to shake it to mix the fat back in. We have heard of many successful attempts at making cheese with this milk.
Good Luck!
Joe
Good Day, I’ve been purchasing your WHOLE MILK, CREAM LINE , & CHOCOLATE MILK products from the Dutch Market in Annapolis, Md. This weekend I asked the merchant if these milk products were A. ORGANIC & B from GRASS FED COWS. The merchant assured me that the milk products sold were Grassfed. I explained to the Merchant that right down the street at Whole Foods, there’s separate pricing for the Organic Grassfed product, vs the product that just sates Whole Milk on the jar. The bottles at Whole Foods clearly say Organic & Grassfed & are sold at a higher price for the grassed product.
Please advise, if the milk sold @ the Annapolis Dutch market is or is not produced by grassed cows.
Regards,
Kieanna
Hi Kienna,
Thanks for your question! I’m happy to tell you our Trickling Springs milk is certified Organic and from Grass-fed cows!
Joe
Our farmers follow a natural life style for the cows where the cows do get pregnant yearly. Once the cows are no longer able to have calves the farmers take the cows to a local butcher where they are butchered and the farmer sells the meat. The big difference between our farms and most conventional farms is that our farmers will give the cows a three month “vacation” where they’re not being milked before they calf. This contrasts to as short as two weeks for some farms.
Thanks for your question, Joe
i purchase your milk at the whole foods in plymouth meeting. is this milk organic? it says grass fed, but not organic. i have never seen any of the bottles say organic on them.
Yes, if the milk bottle says “Trickling Springs Creamery” it is certified Organic! In the past it was only differentiated by the wording on the cap but in February 2012 we lauched FarmFriend Natural milk instead of Trickling Springs Natural. We will soon be introducing a bottle that says Trickling Springs Organic and displaying the USDA Organic symbol.
Joe
I’m interested in trying some of your organic butter products and was excited to be able to find both the salted and unsalted varieties at a MOM’s Organic Market in Maryland. However, I was surprised to see that on the nutritional facts label, there is .5g of trans fat listed per serving. Can you explain why this is? I’m not sure how the butter could contain trans fats if the only ingredient used is cream and I have never seen any other organic/grass-fed brands of butter (Organic Valley, Kerrygold, Natural By Nature, etc.) that contained any trans fat.
Thank you in advance for any information you can provide.
Hi Kyle,
I’m not sure of the answer but will see if I can find anything out. Here is what I can currently tell you.
1. The ONLY ingredient in our butter is cream (and Celtic Sea Salt if salted)
2. Our butter is a 91 – 93% butterfat butter making it much richer and creamier than lowerfat butters (typically 81 – 85%).
3. Instead of using conventional butter nutritional information available through the FDA, we sent our butter off for independant lab testing to give us the nutritional information you see on the label.
Why it would have trans fat when non of the others do, I don’t know. All I can say currently is that this is pure old-fashioned butter. We will check into why this may be and appreciate you raising the point so we can check it out. Hope you’re enjoying the products!
Joe
There is a small amount of trans fat normally present in all milk (see: http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/dataandstats/reports/Documents/CaliforniaFoodGuide/6Fats.pdf & http://publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/phlc-policy-trans-fat.pdf). Trans fats that are produced by healthy organic cows is different than trans fats from processed foods. And although I apologize for not having the time to reference all the sources, there is evidence to suggest it may NOT have the harmful effects that are caused by the trans fats contained in processed foods. In fact there is evidence that some of the trans fats in dairy (e.g. conjugated linoleic acid) may actually be healty and help to prevent some types of cancer. Nothing in nutrition science is as simple as the media tries to make it appear these days!!
Also, U.S. law (unlike many other countries) allows companies to LIST the trans fat content as “zero” if there is less than 0.5 gm trans fat *per serving*. As you can imagine, this creates all sorts of ways to ‘game the system’. If other dairy companies use a less precise method of measurement, it is possible that they show only 0.499999 gm of trans fat per serving which, by law, they can list as zero. This makes the label misleading. But if, as seems likely, the NATURAL trans fats are actually good for you, then the whole issue is completely ridiculous.
I switched to Trickling Springs from Organic Valley for a number of reasons including the fact that Organic Valley makes powdered milk which, *by definition*, contains oxidized cholesterol which is, I believe, even worse for you than the trans fats in processed foods. As far as I can tell, Trickling Springs is an honest and healthy business and I am happy to have their products available to me. If they are honest enough to list the normal trans fat that is present in all milk … it only makes me feel better about their products!