Freidhof Family Farm

05/21/2026

Anyone else behind in getting their whole garden planted? Asking for a friend... 🫣

I still have some new spots to get ready for random things like the extra approximately 987 flowers Kait started in the greenhouse, the watermelon my youngest wants and a spot to plant all our extra seed to grow for pig food 🤣. This shouldn't take any longer than August... ⏳️

Milk fridge is full and we have an abundance of farm fresh eggs! Feel free to send me a message if you'd like to stop out.

📌I've typed this post 3x now but it never actually gets posted. Just so you know, when they all show up out of nowhere, I'm not crazy.

05/18/2026

Sharing the Azure link again as I have many new followers! We are lucky enough to have a drop location right in Floyd.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions (the only dumb question is the one not asked). I've been ordering from Azure for a few years and have been happy with them!

▶️ our next order cut off is June 3rd with a drop the week of June 7th!

For 30+ years, family-owned selling natural, non-GMO and organic foods and products. Bulk sizes, too. Orders delivered to your doorstep or to one of 3,000 community pickup locations across the USA.

05/12/2026

"Free Milk"

Get a milk cow and you can have free milk for life.

Minus the cost of the cow.
And the cost of feed.
And the cost of breeding.
And the cost of vet care.
And the cost of fencing.
And the cost of equipment.
And the cost of your sanity.

05/12/2026

Good morning from the barn!

Maeven was ready to get milked this morning, Sunday wasn't in a hurry.

You've probably seen me mention that our milk is "A2A2" and you are probably asking what exactly does that mean❓️

📌A2A2 milk is simply milk that contains only the A2 beta-casein protein, unlike standard store-bought milk which usually contains a mix of A1 and A2 proteins.

🟥The Protein Swap: Think of A1 and A2 like two different shapes of a building block (protein). Most cows today produce both. A2A2 milk comes from special cows that only have the "A2" genes, making their milk closer to what humans, goats, and sheep naturally produce.
🟥Tummy Troubles: When your body breaks down the "A1" protein in regular milk, it can create a tiny fragment that makes some people feel gassy or bloated. A2A2 milk skips that A1 protein entirely, which is why it often feels "lighter" on the stomach.
🟥Not Lactose-Free: It’s important to know that A2A2 milk still contains lactose (milk sugar). If you have a medically diagnosed lactose intolerance, this won't fix that, but if regular milk just makes you feel "meh," this might be the answer.
🟥Old-School Vibes: Thousands of years ago, all cows were A2A2. The A1 protein was actually a natural mutation that happened later. Drinking A2A2 is basically going back to the way milk used to be.

Ok, ok. If you read all of that, thank you! I'm done nerding out on milk protein now 😉

Milk fridge is full! Message me if you'd like to stop out!

1 gal and half gal milk ($10/$5), Vanilla or plain yogurt ($5), cream 1/2 pint $5, farm fresh eggs $3/dozen

05/10/2026

We've been a bit quiet this week. But dont fret! The fridge is full: raw whole a2a2 milk, yogurt, cream, and eggs!

I sure racked up the miles this week running the kids wherever they needed to be. Softball, track, piano, band, mowing jobs, rock picking jobs, you name it. These kids are busy!

The loggers started logging our woods this week. Our goal is to get a nice and healthy woods again. Since they were doing the woods, I did have them remove all the walnuts from my front yard too. It was heart wrenching to see all those trees come down, I just keep reminding myself of our long-term goal. Walnut trees produce a chemical called juglone which is toxic to many plants and other species of trees. We have tried to plant trees, flowers, black berries, to name a few things, over the last 14 years we've been here. Nothing grows. If it does grow, it struggles and just barely hangs on. Asparagus and weeds are the only thing that will grow by the mail box. You can even tell in our garden, the south 1/3 of the garden never does as well as the north 2/3. And don't get me started on all the walnuts that the squirrels spread in every direction and ultimately end up in my raised beds 🥴. We will slowly start replacing the trees next spring.

On milk cow news, we AI'ed Sunday this week so hopefully she is bred with a mid-February due date. We discussed a good time to breed our yearling Flora and should be able to do that in the next 6 weeks or so. Fingers crossed 🤞.

Monday we sent our milk samples in for both the cows that we are milking. Wednesday we got their tests results back and I'm proud to say they both passed with flying colors. We take pride in the health of our cows and the quality of the milk we sell, these tests are a good benchmark to show just how well our cows are doing under our care.

Garden news, I have been checking the 10 day forcast as often as my son checks the mailbox when waiting for a letter (thats a lot btw). All (well most) of our cold hardy veggies are in the ground but we have been holding off on everything else. I'm going to put a few plants in the ground today and then get the rest in this week. Lows look to be staying in the middle 40s and up after tonight. I'm looking forward to cleaning out the greenhouse!

05/06/2026

Remember this 8gal of milk getting turned into cheese? After letting it air dry, to create a rind, I'm now bagging it to age in the fridge. I just weighed it. Any guesses how much it weighed?

Good (late) morning from the farm house!

(Milk fridge is full!)

8 gallons of raw whole milk is getting turned into butterkaeser today! We easily have 50lbs of cheese made in April (not including this batch) and we still have a few days left of the month! We have some cheese that we will age 6 weeks before cutting into, some need closer to 12 weeks while my Asiago Parm will be left in the cooler for 12 months minimum. 🤯 The moral of my story? Cheese takes time. Most cheese doesn't just happen (mozzarella I'm looking at you!) It takes time to make, dry, and age. My absolute favorite is a cheddar aged 15+ years.

Other news, garden season has OFFICIALLY begun, the big garden is tilled, 400 (not a typo) onions are in the ground, potatoes and cabbage planted, raspberries are weeded and mulched. Now to see what today brings (after the cheese of course).

Happy and blessed Sunday everyone!

05/04/2026

Happy Sunday.

All critters are fed and ready for the night. (Including the 9 piglets we picked up today, I know you are mentally singing "Old Mcdonald". I'm not mad, we live on a funny farm 🫣)

The kids are ready for the night too. They worked hard this weekend. My youngest hasn't slept inside since we bought this wagon (pictured). I just hope someday they realise just how great they had it.❤️

This next week will be a busy one. Ben is out of town for a few days, youngest kiddo turns 12❗️ on Tuesday, band concerts, softball and tracks practices, piano and band lessons, with school, farming and a road trip one of the days this week.

📌Farm pickup will be available this week like usual but you will want to get ahold of me to make sure someone will be here.

05/03/2026

As I'm making my 2nd batch of yogurt for the day to stock the milk fridge (fresh batches of both plain and vanilla will be available tomorrow!) , I'm reminded of a question I get often "What is in your yogurt?"

⭐️Our plain yogurt is made simply with📌 our raw milk and📌 live active yogurt cultures.

⭐️Our vanilla yogurt is simply made with our 📌Raw milk, 📌live active yogurt cultures, and 📌vanilla beans.

No added sugars.
No added preservatives.
No added thickener.

How long does yogurt keep? I don't have a hard and fast answer for that. Back when we only had one milk cow, before we dried her off before she calved, I made several gallons of yogurt. (My kids eat a ton of yogurt so I didn't want to go without while we weren't milking for several weeks) It was almost 3 months before we used up the last of the yogurt and it was still delicious! So if kept in the refrigerator at a nice cold temp, you have several weeks to consume the yogurt!

04/30/2026

You may have noticed, that in the past week, our milk has started getting yellower.
Remember a bit ago when I posted about putting the cows out on pasture? Their diet changed from dry hay that we baled last summer to fresh green grass.

⭐️Dietary Shift: Unlike winter hay, fresh spring grass is packed with beta-carotene. This pigment is fat-soluble and gets stored in the cows’ fat, transferring to the milk fat. Spring grass is the most nutrient-dense, leading to the richest, most golden-yellow color.

⭐️Color Concentration: Because the yellow pigment stays with the fat, it is most apparent in the cream, often giving the whole jug a golden tint.

⭐️Seasonality: Milk and butter are yellowest in the spring, as cows graze on high-pigment, nutritious pasture.

⭐️Health Benefits: This color shift is an indicator of higher nutritional content, including increased omega-3s and antioxidants.

04/29/2026

We started more tomatoes than we can use! Figured I'd offer them here before I list other places. 👍

These are healthy small batch grown right here on our farm. Most of these seeds were sourced from Seed Savers in Decorah.

$4 each ($3 each for a few of the smaller ones).

04/29/2026

Milk fridge is full! 2 days worth of milk is roughly 20 gallons of milk!