Milk mustaches in the area may start to look a little creamier, a little thicker and a little more full-bodied. Mary Fries owns Isle Farms in Ellicott and operates a cow share program for milk drinkers who want raw milk.Colorado law prohibits raw milk to be sold or given away, Fries said. However, it is legal to own a share of a cow. At Isle Farms, the one-time cost of $30 per share allows a shareholder about one gallon of milk per week. An additional monthly boarding fee of $28 per share is assessed for the cost of feeding and caring for the cows.Fries said the cows graze on 40 acres of fields and are indoors only about 10 days a year. It puts less stress on the cows and adds nutritional value to their milk, she said. “They are happy cows,” Fries said. “If they are happy, then they thrive.”Forty families currently own shares in Isle Farms four cows – three jersey cows and one brown Swiss.”Some people say it makes store-bought milk taste like chalk water,” Fries said. “Whole milk tastes like skim when compared to raw milk – no flavor. The raw milk is rich and full-bodied because it has a two-to-three-inch cream line.”The cows are not over-milked, she said, because the less milk they produce, the more nutritious the milk.The milk her cows produce is a clean and healthy product, Fries said. The cows are treated for illness with herbs and homeopathic measures, she said, unless antibiotics are needed for life-threatening illness.The conditions are sanitary and as natural as possible, she said, and the cows are fed grain, alfalfa, minerals and corn with molasses. They do not get soy or cottonseed oil, which have been linked to illnesses, Fries said.The milk does not contain hormones and has not been affected by pesticides. “We are as organic as we can possibly be out here,” she said. “The cows do not receive hormones, and pesticides are not used on the farm. Pesticides can soak into the cow’s skin and transfer into the milk.”We listen to what our shareholders want.”Isle Farms is a member of the Raw Milk Association of Colorado, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and Westin A. Price Foundation.
