From the Blog
Featured Local Producer: Hansen's Dairy
The cult following for Hansen’s Dairy will be excited to hear about their new goods at the Co-op: Hansen’s Cheese Curds, Hard-pack Ice Cream, and now Soft Serve Vanilla Cones & Cups are in the house!
Switch to their butter and you’ll never go back.
Hansen’s butter, cream, and long-lasting non-homogenized milks are known for their flavor.
Try making shortbread with Hansen’s and with another similarly priced butter – theirs will be tastier from beginning to end (the dough wins the taste test too!).
The Co-op’s kitchen and bakery are proud to use Hansen’s local cream and milk in our baked goods and prepared foods.
Non-homogenized and minimally pasteurized (short-time, high-temp.) for a flavorful product, their cream mixes in easily with just a quick shake.
Their skim milk isn’t blue and has flavor and body, and their 1% is often mistaken for 2%. They’ve had customers drive out and buy twenty gallons to freeze because their kids won’t drink anything else!
Dairy farming since 1950, the farm’s been in their family since 1864 (the seventh generation is growing up on the farm now).
They grow all the alfalfa and non-GMO corn consumed by their cows, and they raise their own closed herd of 150 Holstein cows – meaning all their cows were born on the farm (not trucked in from elsewhere), and their milk is never blended with any other farms’.
They have records for every cow that’s ever been on the farm – and yes, they all have names!
Hansen’s Dairy cows live about twice as long as other non-organic Iowa dairy cows, which sadly tend to have very short lifespans because they’re pushed into such heavy over-production, often by feeding them growth hormones.
The Hansen’s don’t give their cows growth hormones – they’re rBST/rBGH free – and because they control all the factors of their production, they have ultimate traceability from start to delicious finish.
Let’s raise a glass of local milk to that!
Allison Gnade, Former New Pi Editor
Allie worked on organic farms in Italy and Sweden through WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms), received her BA in English at Grinnell College, and studied the arts in London and Florence, eating her way across Europe and Scandinavia. Returning home to Iowa, she loved working at Grinnell Heritage Farm with her now-husband as their first farm interns, then moved to Iowa City to work at your local, independent cooperative grocery! She helped coordinate New Pi events and edited the Co-op's local food magazine and blog for eight years. She bakes tarts for Iowa City’s Farmers’ Market, covers communications for the International Writing Program, and volunteers on the Board for Table to Table food rescue.