Day three's post was written by Julia Graef.

Today we went to Arethusa Dairy, Nodines Smokehouse and Milk House Chocolates. 

We first went to Arethusa Dairy in Bantam, Connecticut. When we got there, a lady, Sam, came down to show us the production rooms for the ice cream and cheese. We weren't allowed in the actual production room because of possible contamination so we looked through the window. She explained the process of how the raw milk gets to the store, then after it's all done, where it is send to be stored. Once they get the milk they can send it to where it needs to go. For example, they can send to where the cheese is made, some where ice cream is made, and wherever else it's needed. We walked upstairs to where the cheese production room was and one of the workers talked a little about how cheese is made. We learned that they make nine different types of cheeses at Arethusa. After the tour was over, we bought some ice cream. At Arethusa, their most popular flavor is sweet cream with dark chocolate chips. They also mentioned that in the winter, business slows down but people still come in. Pints are also more commonly bought in the winter.

We came back to school for lunch and after we took a quick stop at Nodine's Smokehouse. Nodnie's in Torrington, Connecticut, has been a family smokehouse since 1969. They sell foods like maple syrup, beef, bacon, cookies, cheese etc. Something we learned is that they get their pigs all they way from Canada. Mr. Bender went and bought beef jerky for all of us to try. Some people didn't try it but the ones who did and liked it, took the people's beef jerky that didn't like it so much.

Our last stop was to Thorncrest Farms & Milk House Chocolates in Goshen, Connecticut. The first thing we saw were the cows. We walked into the barn and all you see are these enormous cows who are just eating and eating. One of the Owners, came out and talked to us a bit about the cows. Some of the things he said were that a cow's life span at Thorncrest is about 13.2 years and weighs around 1,200. One of the cows there weights about 2,220 pounds. They eat about 114 pounds a day! The cows are separated into flavor groups. The one cow, Daydream, is only responsible for caramel. Four other cows are responsible for milk chocolate, some are responsible for different types of milk, etc. One cow has 7.8 butter fat, breaking the world record. Something that was also really interesting is that they keep the animals at a no stress level and if any type of stress occurs, it can show up in acidic flavor in the milk. He told a story about how after they moved a cow next to a different cow, they received the cow's milk, and felt something was wrong. So they watched the animals go outside and the two cows started ramming into each other. It turns out that the milk was bad because the cow didn't like its new neighbor so it caused stress. Another fact is that they also don't use fly spray on the cows because it can sink into the skin and then when the cow gets milked, in about five hours, you can taste it in the milk. What they also said is that you can buy milk the same say that cow was milked but with others places, you would have to wait days for it. The lady who is married to the man that talked to us, came out and brought a plate of chocolates. She explained each chocolate to us; which we then tried, shared her some things about her including that she is self taught and has been working with chocolate officially for 20 years and answered some of our questions. After, we all went to the tiny store where we all managed it squeeze ourselves in. People bought chocolate, caramels, milk, t-shirts, and or just sampled the chocolates. There were a lot more fascinating facts and things we learned today so overall, this was a packed day of learning and of course eating.