Here in Southern California, Whole Foods carries the Clover Dairy brand of heavy cream. It's pure cream and not "ultra"-pasteurized. There's also another brand that comes in a little glass bottle, but the name escapes me.

From what I understand, ultra-pasteurization thins the cream. Carrageenan is added to "re-thicken" it. Some people have issues with carrageenan (derived from seaweed), but I haven't experienced any adverse issues with the additive.

Heavy cream without carrageenan tastes better to me, IMHO.

Bottom line: it's possible to find minimally-processed heavy cream out there! :)

Natural by Nature and Trickling Springs Creamery are both grassfed pure cream, and only VAT pasteurized. I think they're both east coast only, though, and both are a bit difficult to find. NbN only says "pasteurized" on the carton, but on their website they say that it's low temp pasteurized. I'm severely lactose intolerant on regularly and UHT pasteurized milk, but I have no problems with either NbN or TSC, so I believe them.

My local natural foods store gets heavy cream from Natural by Nature. Pasturized (because-it-has-to-be) but not ULTRA-pasturized - no carrageenan, guar gum, or other additives, etc., and mostly grass-fed to boot (their cows get 10-15% grain supplementation in the winter). Seems to be a pretty widely available brand.

Natural by Nature

Great flavor and you can practically get it to whip just by shaking the carton - try THAT with the ultra-pasturized brands!

This is something that's irking me lately, too.

The half-pints of Organic Valley heavy cream sold by my local grocery store (Giant aka Stop 'n' Shop) have carrageenan added, but the FULL pints of Organic Valley heavy cream that I buy at Whole Foods (and which, incidentally, are much cheaper per oz. than the half prints from Giant) DO NOT have any carrageenan. GO FIGURE.

Hey Wjones, I got something for you. There's a brand that's been showing up a lot in Chicago, and they recently overhauled their product line. It's Kalona SuperNatural, and their cream (I've got some in front of me right now) is organic, grass-fed, non-homogenized, with no added hormones -- and "vat-pasteurized at 155 °F." Sounds good, right?

Kalona is located in Iowa, but if you look at their locations page you'll see that although they don't sell anywhere in Ohio, they do sell in plenty of places outside the Midwest, and they do sell at a lot of Whole Foods stores, so I'd bet that if you talked to your local Whole Foods about it you could get them to order some, since the company is used to doing business with Kalona.

Looks like it's actually a consortium of farms, but they say they know everyone who provides products for their label, and there's lots of good stuff on the site like this:

Our organic products are among the most supremely natural and nutritious dairy products on the market. That’s because we believe in doing less—not more—when it comes to our food. Our milk comes from small, sustainable farms with average herds of 35 cows. We process the milk at the lowest temperature possible, allowing us to deliver our products in their most natural state. That means Kalona SuperNatural™ products not only taste fresh, they are fresh.

Hope they're not pulling a fast one on us. Looks like it's for real.

[Update Edit:] This company now sells small-sized containers of their heavy cream. 8 oz, as opposed to a quart, which is the only size they had before. Probably better to buy the large size to save on money and packaging, but just in case you need a little to-go boost it's there ...

Organic Pastures is a raw milk cream I get (Pastured, no additives) they carry at Henry's or Sprouts markets. Not sure if you have that chain near you. Also have it at Jimbo's.

Trader Joe's heavy cream is pure cream with no additives, and it's cheaper than a regular chain-store brand. I live in MD, I am not sure if this cream is available everywhere... It's delicious :)

There are 4 brands in San Diego that I have been able to identify as "qualified", specifically that there is only one single ingredient: the CREAM, baby!

• Clover Farms Heavy Cream - Ingredients: Organic pasteurized cream.

  Available at Whole Foods for $3.39 per pint

  *Review: It tastes perfect, smooth, and very consistent. It's organic and not ultra-pasteurized. Like Travis with Organic Valley's pasture butter, I probably buy enough of this to put the owner's kids through college.

• Straus Creamery Heavy Cream - Ingredients: Organic pasteurized cream.

  Available at Whole Foods for $3.99 per pint (plus $1.50 refundable deposit for glass bottle)

  Review: A very good cream and their website has a lot of great info and claims that their cows' diet is about 80% grass fed. It's organic and not ultra-pasteurized. But I'm not big on the glass bottle deposit. It's kinda a hassle to have to wash em out and bring em back in. Plus even without the deposit, it's more expensive than Clover Farms.

• Trader Joe's Organic Heavy Cream - Ingredients: Organic pasteurized cream.

  Available at Trader Joe's for $3.29 per pint

  Review: Good clean taste, but very thick and gluey. It's so thick that we usually transfer it to a glass jar from the carton because if not the mouth opening of the cardboard carton gets all messy from the cream sticking to it. Overall, I will buy this in a pinch or when there's not a Whole Foods nearby.

• Organic Pastures Cream - Ingredients: Raw cream from 100% grass pastured cows

  Available at Henry's and Sprouts for $11.99 per pint

  Review: Well, I wish I could say I buy this cream. I just cannot justify the price. Weird thing is... I remember seeing it for $6.99 per pint in late summer and thought that was pricey, but then literally overnight, the price tag changed to $10.99, and now $11.99. Maybe it's seasonal? Anyway the only time I've tried this is in homemade ice cream that my sister made. She used 2 pints of this and a quart of their raw milk. It was, quite literally, the very best ice cream I have ever tasted. This is the 'cream of the crop' folks <-- yes, I know.

So there you have it. If anyone knows of another brand, I'd love to know too. One request I have for the creameries... how come they are not available to purchase in larger sizes than by the pint? Also, a personal goal next time I go to the East coast... hunt down some Tricking Springs pasture butter and heavy cream!

Here in Toronto, (and Eastern Canada) we have Organic Meadow, they sell 35% whipping cream (Ingredients: organic cream). Some of their other milk/cream products appear to contain at most, added vitamins. link text

I know this is an old question - but since it seemed like you hadn't found a solution, I had to plug Ohio's local Snowville Creamery! Available in fairly widespread distribution across Ohio. Their products are all delicious and grassfed; their cream does not have any additives, and they are working on getting yogurt into stores soon, too.

Snowville Creamery website

As stated, carrageenan comes with ultra pasteurization, and the slow or normal pasteurized stuff is carrageenan free. and better. imho.

Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream has no additives and it is pasteurized but not ultra-pasteurized. I bought a carton today.

If you read the customer comments in the link below their product used to contain "carrageenan" It looks like they changed that recently.

Hopefully they will keep selling this additive free version for awhile.

http://www.organicvalley.coop/products/cream/heavy-whipping-cream/

In California, there's Clover Organics and Strauss. They are both grass fed from what I know, or mostly grass fed, and not pasteurized on low heat.

We have researched carrageenan and found it is another name for MSG [from seaweed]. This is why some people have problems. If you do not have any reaction to MSG, check out DR. Blaylock's EXCITOTOXINS THE TASTE THAT KILLS. YOU MAY NOT HAVE ANY EFFECTS UNTIL IT IS TO LATE.

I have referenced this post before for ideas. Since then I have found Straus Heavy Whipping Cream in the glass bottle, 16 ounce, in my area in a health food store. It is the best, has nothing added to it. I have also tried Kalona Heavy Whipping cream in a quart size plastic bottle. It also has nothing added to it, but it tasted funny to me. It wasn't very sweet, just kind of oily. No it wasn't past expiration, and I tasted it just after opening for the first time. The cream from Trader Joe's that I have found has carrageenan and is super thick and it is NOT ultrapasteurized, not so great. Carrageenan is not only in ultrapasteurized products. I am not able to get raw cream within 75 miles of where I live. I use the cream for home made baby formula mostly. I freeze it in ice cubes while it is fresh and toss a cube in (which is the exact measurement I need) when warming. Carrageenan is very hard for baby's to digest, plus apparently is MSG from above comments, so it is important to me to find a product that is as pure as possible.