• Q: When will I receive my order?

  • Orders are shipped out on Mondays (with exception of a Monday being a Legal Holiday, in which case shipping occurs on Tuesday).​ In most cases orders are in transit 2-3 business days but USPS, nor UPS, do not guarantee this delivery timeframe. While Amazon and other larger companies have a money back guaranteed shipping policy, we are very small business and cannot afford it. Therefore, Gita Nagari Gita Nagari cannot take responsibility for any lost, damaged, or perished items. If guaranteed shipping is preferred, your order can be upgraded to expedited shipping. Feel free to contact us and we can provide quotes on expedited shipping costs.

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• Q: How much do you charge for shipping?

  • Please see Shipping tab

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• Q: What is the shelf life of your milk?

  • 7 days with the lid still sealed after the printed sell by date on the label. After opening the lid, 3-4 days.

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• Q: How can the shelf life of the milk be extended?

  • ​​Freezing. It can stay frozen for up to 5 months without a deterioration in quality.

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• Q: Can I refreeze the milk after receiving it in the mail?

  • Yes, most customers follow this practice with no deterioration in the quality of the milk. 

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• Q: What is the shelf life of your yogurt?

  • Two weeks. After that, it gets more sour with time as the acidity increases with continued fermentation of the bacteria contained in the starter culture.   

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• Q: What is the shelf life of your cheese?

  • Cheddar cheeses can be aged for several years and so they last for a long time. Other hard cheeses such as monterey and pepper jack can last for six months. Soft cheeses such as mozzarella and paneer are best kept frozen and can last for several months. In the fridge, they’ll last 5-7 days. After opening the vacuum seal packaging, wrap your cheese in a food wrap to limit the amount of air the surface of the cheese is exposed to. Better still is to re-seal them using a home vacuum sealer if you’re planning to store the remaining portion for longer than a week. It’s natural for spots of mold to form on the surface of hard cheese after storage in the fridge for longer than 7 days.  If you notice specks of blue or green surface mold on hard cheese, simply cut off at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) around and below those spots. 

    • The preferred method is to thaw it in your refrigerator over the course of 2 days to let it defrost slowly. This will give the cheese the opportunity to retain some of the moisture in its packaging, giving it a better texture and preserving its original flavors.

    • ​If cheese shipment arrives at room or warm temperature, refrigerate it overnight before consuming. It should be good to eat; the vacuum packaging ensures this.        

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• Do you sell ghee?

  • We currently do not have a license to sell ghee. We encourage you to purchase our milk and make it in the comfort of your own kitchen. 2.68gal of our high fat milk will produce 1 cup of ghee​

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• Q: Seeing that you’re a cruelty-free Farm, why do you keep bees?

  • We do not claim our honey to be ahimsa. We minimize the fatalities of worker bees as far as possible while tending to their hives. Secondly, we overwinter them, meaning that we do not buy new colonies every spring while letting the old hives die off. We put them in a position to survive the winter. That is, maintenance of pollinator habitats is a key component of our sustainability practices as the bees’ activity helps to grow feed for the cows and vegetables for our community of subscribers. 

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• Q: How can I become a milk subscriber?

  •   Click here

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• Q: When can I make my first milk pick up at my designated pick-up location?

  • CNJ - Sundays, 5:30pm | Coordinator: Srinivas - srikolise@gmail.com

  • DC - Saturdays & Sundays | Coordinator: Giri-Govardhana Dasa - giri@iskconofdc.org

  • Towaco - Sundays | Coordinator: Vinod Yadav - vinthink@gmail.com

  • Harrisburg - Coordinator: Ananda-Vilasa Dasa, avdrns@gmail.com

  • Philadelphia - Coordinator: Sita Devi, text only on (267) 968-6825

  • For unspecified collection times, please contact the corresponding milk pick-up coordinator.

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• Q: How do I cancel my milk subscription?

  • Please click on this link to a tutorial on making the cancellation.

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• Q: Can I pause my subscription due to being out of town?

  • ​It’s best to cancel it and activate a new subscription when you are ready to resume. Please click on this link to a tutorial on making the cancellation.

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• Q: How do you pasteurize your milk?

  • Low temperature vat processing. Click here for more details.  ​

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• Q: Is artificial insemination practiced with your herd?

  • No

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• Q: How do you get your cows to produce milk?

  • Continued lactation of cows is not entirely dependent on them having recently given birth. Some of our retired milking cows have given milk for 5+ years after giving birth to their last calf. Our formula is to provide them a good diet, sunshine and love. In general, the life cycle of all our cows and oxen in our various herds is as follows:     

    • A prospective foster parent for our cows, calves and oxen is identified through our Adopt-A-Cow program

    • For newly rescued milking cows and calves acquired from a commercial dairy, which are yet to be adopted, prospective parents are given the opportunity to name them and sponsor their care remotely

    • Commercial dairies separate the calf from the mother immediately after birth and so when rescuing a calf, along with a milking cow, even if the commercial farmer can demonstrate that the candidate milking cow is indeed the mother of the of the calf in-question, we still have to bottle-feed the calf due to the mother not being able to recognize the calf.

    • In this light, we pair a newly acquired calf with one of our older milking cows to become the foster mother. Our older milking cows, accustomed to life in our Sanctuary, are generally more accepting of calves than the traumatized newly arrived cows from a commercial dairy. It takes them some time to exhibit their natural behavior.

    • In 2013, when we expanded our milking herd from 4 to 28 cows, the 24 cows that were purchased were all pregnant and our practice was to milk the cows half-way and then reunite them with their calves. The financial income from this milk and derived products is then used to support the sanctuary. This model is similar to Social Security. In particular, a productive parent distributes his or her energy and time for working, taking care of their children and saving their earnings towards the family's financial future.