Putting Dairy Back on the Menu for the Lactose-Sensitive

By Lorrie Baumann

Tim Millson is on a mission to put honest-to-goat dairy products into the hands of everyone who hasn’t had ice cream for years or can’t eat cheddar popcorn because they can’t or won’t tolerate cow milk. There are more than 50 million people in the U.S. who won’t buy dairy products made from cow milk – some of them because they can’t digest it and some of them because they’re concerned about environmental sustainability or animal welfare issues, according to the man who calls himself the Mayor of Epic Source Foods, the company behind the LaLoo’s Ice Cream Company and Funny Farm Foods. “That’s a title that I got years ago and it kind of stuck,” he says. “Because we are such a small company, when you’re not co-owning or CEOing, you’re cleaning the bathroom.”

When he’s not doing those things, he’s often taking calls from consumers who want to tell him their stories. “They’re there to tell me that they were watching the grocer stock the shelves, and they have a report to make about how the grocer was handling the product or that the store was out of stock,” he says. “They call me when they get to enjoy a food type that they haven’t had in – maybe forever, because of their allergies.” The ownership of Epic Source is shared between Millson, his wife and the employees, who make up the majority share. Milk comes from a Wisconsin goat dairy cooperative composed of small family farms and the goats who are the “Epic Source” reflected in the company’s name. “The majority of everything we do comes from goats,” Millson says. “We’ve always thought of the goat as the most perfect milk source on the planet… The goat is very similar to the human, even if you can’t see it. Goat milk is the closest thing to mother’s milk on the planet.”

He points out that goat kids are born at roughly the same weight as human babies and that they mature to a weight that’s similar to that of a healthy adult human. That makes goat milk a source of nourishment that’s appropriate to support that amount of growth, he says.

For those who are looking for a product that’s kinder to the environment or to the animals than cow milk, he points out that: “Goats produce more milk per ounce of grass eaten than any other animal. Goats will eat whatever you’ll allow them access to. The farms that we put together are some of the cleanest pastures you’ll ever see. They’re not let out to help the neighbors mow their lawn. We’re very picky about what we allow the goats access to — grass and alfalfa. We can control it. Because of that, you get a great-tasting milk that tastes just like cow milk.”

“We spend a lot of time at the farms working and talking and visiting with our farmers, and every time you get to the farm, you can’t help smiling,” he adds. “The goats just start yelling at you because they want to be petted.”

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Epic Source responded with Funny Farm, the company’s brand for those new products. “We said to ourselves, ‘You know, there are these basics that people can’t have – cheddar popcorn, mac and cheese, pizza,’” Millson says. “It just became a labor of love.”

Today, the company makes multiple flavors of LaLoo’s Ice Cream that are all made with 100 percent goat milk and a short list of other ingredient and four varieties of Funny Farm macaroni and cheese dinner: the original Macaroni & Cheese; Shapes, which has pasta shaped like pizza, ice cream and goats; Jalapeno White Cheddar and Brown Rice & Quinoa Shells Macaroni & Cheese, which is gluten free. “It tastes just like cow products, but a whole lot better. It is so creamy that it’ll just blow your mind,” Millson says.

Funny Farm also makes three kinds of pizzas: Goat Milk 3 Cheese Pizza, Sausage & Uncured Pepperoni Pizza Made with Goat Milk Cheese, and Veggie Pizza Made with Goat Milk Cheese. There are two varieties of cheesy popcorn: White Cheddar and Jalapeno White Cheddar. “All of our popcorn is non GMO, grown in the U.S.,” Millson says.

For those who like their cheese to be completely cheesy, Funny Farm offers four kinds, all sold in 6-ounce blocks: Cheddar, which is a white cheddar, a Mozzarella, Pepper Jack and Confuzed. They’re all made from 100 percent goat milk except Confuzed, which is a cheddar made from half cow milk and half goat milk. “That one has cow – it’s the only thing that does. But it’s clearly marked.,” Millson says. “That’s why we called it Confuzed.”

The new Funny Farm products launched nationwide last year in a blitz that still has Millson reeling a little bit. “We launched all the products and have been working night and day to get them out there because there has been so much demand for them,” Millson says. “We are up, and we are heading out just as many places as we can…. We continue to get a lot of good news, and we try to keep everything growing slowly until we can get a partner to help us take it to the next level.”