Sammy the Milk Maid

05/10/2026

05/09/2026

Omelets sound pretty good this morning! Don’t you think? We are overrun with eggs!!!! Please help me out!!!! The kids and I can only eat so many eggs in a day 🤪.
$4 per dozen

05/08/2026

Fancy Baby says good morning!!!

I know there are a lot of new followers here, if you are maybe looking for raw milk but aren’t sure how to get ahold of it…. Here we go!

In Nebraska raw milk is only legal for on-farm pick up. We are located just on the east side of Whitman and have milk available for pick up most days. Just send a text or message to make sure we are around!

Also in Mullen, Arthur, Hyannis, and north of Hyannis we have pick-up groups. In these groups people take turns picking up milk for the group and taking it to a specific location so that everyone else can grab their milk when convenient. If you would like to join a group let me know!

Milk is available in half gallon increments. We also have a subscription program that saves a couple dollars per gallon, pre paid monthly and picked up weekly. The subscription guarantees your milk is available every week and it helps save you time!

If there are any questions just ask! As many know I’m always ready to chat about milk!!!

As a reminder all milk is fresh, raw, A2A2, and handled with the greatest care possible to ensure it’s low risk and always yummy!!! We also have fresh eggs available and limited quantities of fresh cream!

05/07/2026

I had a good chuckle at this one! While the sale of raw milk and cream is legal in Nebraska (for on-farm pick up only) it is not legal in many states, or the regulations make it very difficult to obtain.

Are there risks to drinking raw milk? Yes, there are. There are also risks to eating sushi, pre packaged salad mixes, gas station hot dogs, and fast food. I strongly believe we should all have the ability to choose what foods we buy and what we put in our body. There are so many benefits to drinking raw milk also!

For me and my family I know that we have seen so many benefits from drinking raw milk. My kids eczema and tummy troubles went away after I bought Maze for them. When I dried Maze off that first year my kids issues all came back. The twins had always been in single digit percentile for weight and height, they were labeled “failure to thrive” for the first two years of their lives and were prescribed Pediasure 🤢 for weight gain. It did not take long after switching to raw milk for both girls to start actually growing and jumping in percentiles!

For me, I don’t feel bloated and icky anymore. I feel I’m better able to listen to my body and have had a significant reduction in inflammation, which helps me to continue to function while living with a chronic health condition that would typically make daily life very difficult.

As for the risks of raw milk, there is always a risk of contamination. But in following Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) guidelines for cleanliness, testing, and handling of raw milk these risks can be greatly reduced. People who have watched my milk routine from beginning to end have said “😳 you do this twice a day? That’s a lot of work!”. Yes it’s a lot of work to collect milk to the high standards that I hold myself to. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. There are too many people counting on the constant cleanliness, my own children and your family as well. Just the other day I threw out an entire batch of milk (🫣 8 gallons) because my chilling tank was giving me trouble and the milk took too long to cool down. If in doubt…. It goes to the chickens!

Just this morning RAWMI put out a great email about pathogen testing and zoonotic diseases. It was LONG! I need to read it again and then will try to share it here when I have understood it well enough to have a good discussion about all of the things. I’m still working to be RAWMI certified, it’s just so much paperwork to do and it’s been difficult to find the time to finish it, but I’m getting there!

Without getting political I was going to make comment about the regulations and who is actually making these rules for us. But…. I think if you are here you are already aware of of what is going on and have already made choices for your family without blindly following “expert” advice.

So, instead, I have a question! If you have seen benefits to drinking raw milk can you please let me know what you have noticed? I love hearing stories about people who have truly found benefits from drinking milk in its most basic form, just the way God intended it!

05/01/2026

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Listen up!!!!!! Sammy The Milk Maid turns ONE YEAR OLD today!!!!! Can y’all believe it??? I sure can’t!!!!

I know Sammy did not happen by accident! I feel like God gave me the tools and said “go do it!”. This has been such a blessing for my family at just the right time! The incredible people who have become friends in this past year is something I never could have imagined!

Remember this started out with 1 cow because my kids could not tolerate store bought milk. Within a few weeks of buying Maze ALL of their symptoms went away!!! They have all been growing like crazy! Then Maze started producing so much more milk than we could use and it took a few months to get up the courage but 1 year ago on May 1st I made the huge leap to start sharing milk with others. This past year has been full of learning, challenges, ups, downs, growing, and trusting in His plan! But here we are!!!! One full year!!!!

I want to first say THANK YOU!!!!!! Thank you to everyone!!!! Thank you to all of our friends (some people call them customers, I prefer friends) who have placed their trust and the health of their families in Sammy! My focus will always be on providing safe, clean, healthy, yummy raw milk for your family! The stories keep me going! Stories like “I haven’t been able to drink milk since I was a kid but I can drink your milk” and “my kids had so many issues, I felt like maybe they weren’t tolerating store milk well and since we switched they are so much healthier” and “your milk doesn’t mess with my gut!”. My favorite though is “your milk is the best we have ever tasted, we love it!!!”.

And THANK YOU to all of the friends who have helped support Sammy in so many other ways! Drop point coordinators, friends taking turns picking up milk, those who have offered advice, guidance, support, and a helping hand! None of this would be possible without each and every one of you! I am so grateful for the love and support!!!

As Sammy moves into year two I have so many big ideas! But I’ve also learned it’s difficult to focus on more than one thing at a time. My focus will always be safe yummy milk and cream!

I had hoped to plan a birthday party for Sammy but with the chaos of the last month that hasn’t happened yet. It’s still in the works! Stay tuned and hopefully later this month we can all get together and celebrate with some yummy ice cream!!!!

Once again, thank you so much to EVERYONE who has been a part of Sammy this past year!!!!!! I am so grateful for everyone of you!!!!!! Happy birthday Sammy!!!!!

04/29/2026

After a cow calves there is a waiting period before her milk is usable. She is milked last into a separate bucket until she passes all of the tests for clean, safe, yummy milk.

First the cow is making colostrum for her calf and this can take 3-5 days to clear before she is making yummy milk. Also the udder is going through many rapid changes and she can have a high somatic cell count (SCC) in these early days. High SCC can be an indicator mastitis but in the early days of lactation high SCC is expected and monitored. Also the cows udder develops edema as a result of all of the rapid changes. Edema in an udder can feel similar to mastitis so this is monitored closely to make sure there is no heat or tenderness along with the swelling. The udder is massaged with Dynamint every milking to help remove the edema and as long as the edema is becoming softer, not harder, then this is not a concern for milk quality and is something that should be cleared up inside of 2 weeks. Then in a case like Maze where she needed to be treated for complications from calving (milk fever and ketosis) some time medications must be given to help support the cow in recovering. In this case medications are carefully selected that will both be effective and have the shortest milk discard time. I triple check the discard time and normally add an extra day of discard just to be safe.

So…. Maze has been done making colostrum for a few days now. I monitor SSC using a California Mastitis Test (CMT) and hers has indicated very low SCC for several days in a row, meaning no signs of mastitis! And Maze was past her milk discard time as of Monday evening. Yesterday, Tuesday, morning I bottled Maze’s milk for the first time and took a sample to incubate for standard plate count (SPC) and coliform count (CC). I can read the CC today and SPC tomorrow. I’ll use the Tuesday milk to taste test monitor shelf life. I will not be sending any of Maze’s milk out the door until I’m certain that everything passes all of the tests, which will hopefully be Thursday!

If there is anything along the way that is questionable I stop, mark the jars to be discarded, and pursue further testing. If the CMT test is positive I can run a mastitis plate here at the house. Also if I’m not happy with the results of any of the at home testing I take a sterile sample to be sent to a lab so they can run a culture and do a more accurate SCC test.

I hope all of this makes sense. This is just a little insight into how I manage fresh cows and monitor the milk to make sure it lives up to everyone’s expectations. If there are any questions I’m always happy to chat further!

Thank you all for placing your trust in me and for supporting my crazy little milk business 🥰. Keep an eye out for yummy Maze milk heading to a fridge near you 😂

04/27/2026

I haven’t posted here for a while and I’m sorry, life got busy! But I’ll make up for it here. The last few days has been….. eventful 😵‍💫. Maze was due to calve May 1st but she sure did start bagging up early so I started checking on her over night. I can calve hundreds of cows at a time and keep my cool better than watching and waiting for just one cow. Well Wednesday morning at 4 when I went to check and she had her baby! A HEIFER!!!! Yippie!!! The first thing I said to her was “well you sure are a fancy little thing!” And so her name is Fancy! Maze had Fancy all cleaned off and it looked like Fancy had already gotten a drink of milk so thinking all was well I went in the house to grab some coffee. I went back out a bit latter and started questioning if Fancy had gotten a full belly yet, she didn’t look like it and was starting to get droopy. Uh-oh! She wouldn’t take a bottle or suck my finger and she wasn’t full so I ended up tubing her.

Knowing Maze might have forgotten her job while on a two month vacation I milked Honey and Zennie, chilled the milk and went back out to milk Maze. Maze indeed forgot her job and kicked the claw off into a pile of manure that she had just pooped 5 seconds prior. Back to the house to wash the milk machine and then go back out to try again. Finally got a bucket full of colostrum! Fancy was still not up so I tubed her again. Back to the house to wash the bucket, again, and that’s when things got crazy.

I thought I heard thunder and the kids said they saw lightening. I checked the radar map and sure enough, 3 strikes real close by. I went outside and saw smoke to the north. Grabbed the kids and jumped in the car and ran up the hill to the tower. THREE PLUMES OF SMOKE!!! 1 to the south, 1 east, and 1 north. And the wind was coming from the south! My scanner radio started going crazy and my phone started going nuts. The fire to the south was just over the hill from us and it was moving north 🫣. Back to the house to try to asses the situation. Radio chatter non stop, my phone wouldn’t stop ringing and dinging long enough for me to think. Two people insisted on coming to help, Tammi Eberle and Nikki Monahan! I wanted to tell them I was ok, don’t worry about me, but they insisted they would be right there. The kids were starting to get worried so I took them to stay with Kari Mills, in the opposite direction of the fire where I knew they would be safe for a bit.

Help arrived! So many questions, what can I do, what needs to be done, what needs to go, where do we start? “I don’t know” became my standard answer. Luckily these two ladies are amazing and they just started doing all of the things! Hook up trailers, unload feed, catch horses, load cows, load horses, load dogs and cats. Do you need this? Can I load that? Where are the kids favorite stuffies? Do you have clothes packed? Do you have your wallet? Do you want to take the milk from the fridge with us? Just put Fancy in the front floor of the pickup (remember this later)! Such a blur of activity! Somewhere in there the evacuation order went out and I felt a little less crazy about possibly packing up for nothing. Several times we stopped and looked at the growing plume of smoke and debated because it looked like it was coming closer, then farther away, then much closer! I said I want to stay here and fight it! My helpers did not give me the option, I was leaving, there was no choice, we are going NOW. But…. Can I at least move the sprinkler between the fire and the house before we go?

We headed down the road Tammi in the lead with no tail lights and me following. Almost there and she starts swerving all over and then pulls off the road at a driveway. What the heck? Then she jumps out of the pickup and runs around the other side and slams the passenger door shut 😳. Slams the door…. Shut???? Fancy had been trying to crawl all over, was riding on the center console, sitting in the seat, and then OPENED THE DOOR!!!! Who forgot to tie up the calves feet???? 😂 there we are on the side of the road tying down a calf in the ditch 😂. Apparently Fancy is not a good passenger to have in the pickup.

We finally made it to our destination, Ben and Tammi’s house, and there were more friends there to help unload! Got the cows sorted, horses settled, hay for everyone, water for the small critters, and trailer unhooked. I realized I failed to grab food of any sort for any of the critters. I headed back to go get the kids and run back to the house to grab food for all of the things. I looked around one last time wondering if things would be here the next time I came back or would it all be gone?

In the craziness I sort of remembered my mom was coming to visit that day and managed to tell her where to find us. She took charge of the kids so I could go take care of cows. Somehow Tammi managed to get tasked with helping me hand milk all 3 cows, because remember I didn’t get to finish washing my milk bucket that morning. The evacuation order was lifted but we were already here so let’s just get through the night and load up in the morning. Then the lightening and the rain started up. Another round of fires everywhere. The radio chatter was impossible to follow. Eventually things calmed down, the kids were asleep on the couch, I laid down but couldn’t sleep.

In the morning I was trying to figure out where I was and how I got there when Ben told me I better go check on my black cow, she is down and doesn’t look right. As soon as I saw Maze laying in a heap and feeling cold and clammy I knew she had milk fever. I had nothing here to treat her with and had to run to the vet clinic to get supplies. We treated her but nothing changed. My mom took the kids back to the house. We hand milked cows again. Maze was still down. Another round of treatments. No change. We decided to start loading up the other critters to take them home and keep an eye on Maze. But she needed to be rolled over to prevent nerve damage. Somehow while figuring out just how in the world we were going to get all 1100 lbs of her rolled over Ben lifted her tail and she stood up!!!!! Ben is so strong!!! He picked up 1100 pound Maze by her tail one handed!!! Maze definitely needed more time to become more stable. So we loaded up everything else and I took them home. Went back for Maze that evening and she was looking so much better, I figured she would be more comfortable at home. This time we tied Fancy’s legs BEFORE loading her up 😂.

Hand milked cows again that evening because…. I didn’t get to clean my bucket yesterday. Everyone tucked in at home like nothing had ever happened. Then Friday morning Maze looked horrible. She had been eating and drinking in the evening and overnight but now not so much. I could smell it on her, she now had ketosis. I treated her for that and for milk fever again just in case. Finally Friday afternoon I was able to wash my milk bucket and actually milk cows properly! Saturday Maze was still crummy feeling so another round of treatments but this time she fought it so I figured we were moving in the right direction. Saturday evening I thought would go well but no, Honey kicked the claw off while milking so I had to dump 4 gallons of milk, hers and Zennie’s milk was both in the big bucket. I just want things to cooperate!!!

Sunday morning Maze was up eating and acting like her normal sassy opinionated self! She ate all of her breakfast and actually had a good volume of milk!!! Sunday evening she was acting totally normal!!! Today she is still acting normal! Hopefully she is past the milk fever, and crawling her way out of ketosis. It could still take a few more days to recover from ketosis but having her eating is going to help greatly.

I took a very guarded sigh of relief today, finally. The fires are out, we got some rain, Maze is heading in the right direction. Phew!!!! So if I’m a tad frazzled this week it’s because I feel like a ran a marathon, got run over by a truck, and practiced sleep deprivation for a week!

I do want to say the biggest hugest shoutout to absolutely everyone who has helped during this craziness!!!! The fire fighters (volunteer and ranch rigs) who fought that nasty thing over there so it didn’t come over here!!! Tammi and Ben for hosting my circus and acting like things were absolutely normal! Nikki for running the first leg of the marathon with me! Kari Mills and Sharron Conneally for keeping my little people safe! Brian and Sarah Brenneman and kids for opening their corrals for us! Amanda Russel and kids for helping get critters unloaded. Hyannis Vet Service for everything they did to help Maze! My mom Sue Graham for being Semper-Gumby. And thank you for everyone who called and texted to check on us!!!! I hope I got back to everyone 😵‍💫.

I hope and pray that this week is a lot more calm. Oh yeah….. if Maze keeps going in the right direction she will be past her milk discard period tomorrow, TUESDAY!!!! So watch out, more milking coming!!! And with more milk comes CREAM!!!!!! Starting 1 May I’ll have more subscription spots open up! Make sure to tell your friends!!! Refer a friend and get a free pint of cream! If someone is not sure if raw milk is right for them they can try a half gallon for free and find out for themselves what all of the fuss is about!!!

03/12/2026

I know I’m 500% happier! Would you like to be 500% happier too? Buy some honey and find out if this is true! 😂

02/20/2026

EGGS!!!! So many eggs!!!! The chickens have woken up from their winter slumber and are laying yummy omelet makers faster than I can keep up with. $4 per dozen for right now because some of the younger girls are still laying eggs on the smaller side.

02/19/2026

I am so excited to announce I have been certified by the Farmer Veteran Coalition as a Homegrown By Heroes producer!

Farmer Veteran Coalition is a great organization that helps veterans who are or want to become farmers or ranchers. They have so many neat things going on!

The Homegrown By Heroes label helps to inform consumers that the products were produced by a veteran owned business and brings awareness to your local veteran owned businesses.

Please check out both of these great programs at their pages or at https://farmvetco.org

02/02/2026

I don’t normally share things that are going on in other places but here lately the attacks on raw milk have been ramped up! Between legislation and unfounded lawsuits against producers, it’s getting bad. I haven’t had time to follow all of them but I know of cases in FL, TX, and CA. There has been rumblings about cracking down in NE.

I believe that our food should come from as local as possible, be it your backyard garden, a neighbor, or a small local producer. We should have the freedom to choose where our food comes from. I hope you all know that each and everyone of you are so appreciated for supporting me and I consider each and everyone of you friends. It’s my mission to provide you with the same delicious, clean, low risk, raw milk that I give my children every day. The health improvements I’ve seen in them since switching to raw milk is amazing and I hope you have come to see the same improvements in your families health as well.

Just know that your voice can have an impact. Your vote does matter. If we want to continue to have the freedom to make the choices that are best for our families we need to pay attention! Right now I will continue to do what I do, within the bounds of Nebraska law regarding the sale of raw milk, and hopefully non of this nonsense comes knocking around here.

💔The downsizing has begun. 💔

We sent 3 girls back to our friends in Currie, NC.

We’ve recently heard the comment… on a couple of occasions, “Raw milk wasn’t banned so you didn’t lose anything”.

But that’s not true. When the ban dropped we were in the process of scaling our business to meet demand— to fill a need for fresh, nutrient dense, unadulterated milk in Northeastern, NC.

We were well into that process with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, when Troxler and Co. graced us with the ban on raw milk.

We fought long and hard from early May to late July when eventually, (after thousands of calls and emails by people like YOU) all mention of raw milk was removed from the 2025 Farm Act.

Then, just a few weeks later, an email was leaked from Cameron Dawson, Legislative Affairs Director for the NCDA, explicitly stating that Troxler asked for the email to be sent out, furthering the fear mongering campaign against raw milk.

Knowing Troxler was not finished. We decided not to dig our hole any deeper and halted expansion.

At our current capacity, without upgrading our parlor, cooling equiptment, and fencing more acreage. We’ve decided to stay where we were, shrinking our herd to a more sustainable number and shouldering the debt we took on which wipes out any income.

For now we hold with a tight grip, to the dream we started.

Frankly, enraged that our “Republican” Commissioner of Agriculture, the to***co farmer himself has declared himself more capable than YOU to determine what’s healthy. (This is not an inditement of to***co itself, just pointing toward the hypocrisy)

Nevermind that North Carolina has risen to 2nd in the nation in loss of productive farm land and while farm profitability plummets, under his 20+ year reign. He’s leading the charge to crush small farms— like us, free enterprise, and individual liberty.

Elections have consequences. It’s been said that we deserve the government we elect. I now intimately understand that to be true.

To this point, our family has fought tooth and nail against tyrannical, overreaching government.

In the process we’ve been party to back room conversations that very much benefit multi-billion dollar foreign owned corporations and Big business at the expense of every day, hard working North Carolinians, and small producers like us.

Cole is running for a political office because the direction of our government at every level grieves us. It is against its own people, and for personal gain of the politicians in charge.

We built this farm from nothing because after 8 years of his service in the Marine Corps, I was tired of essentially being a single mom (I know many military spouses will read this and understand), we wanted to make a living together, and homeschool our children.

Everyone told us we were crazy, “farmers don’t make money” , “you have to inherit land to make anything”…

But we were doing it, It was working! Until the government….

So Cole stepped into the race to fight that same tyranny. Not just for us, not just for NC Fisheries, for everyone. Win or lose we’re committed to that cause.

So what does this mean for Yesteryear Farm?

We’re downsizing. If you’re a current member, YOU’RE IN! And if you’re on the waiting list, we unfortunately, have no plans to add any additional spaces. I’m so sorry for that.

Elections have consequences and unfortunately, many of us in northeast NC learned that the HARD way this year.

So PLEASE, engage with the process. Voice your concerns even if you feel outnumbered.

Have a safe and warm weekend. 💖

-Sarah Johnson
Yesteryear Farm




All of these words are my opinions, based on my real life experience in this legislative battle. I’ve logged screenshots ans recordings for our records.
Image borrowed from Rocky Mount Telegram.