I was hoping to get some feedback from my readers regarding a subject I know little about firsthand - raw dairy. I've never tasted raw milk but am curious enough to want to give it a go one of these days. My next door neighbor has traveled great distances in order to get some, which is an indication that it probably tastes really good. I'm more interested in raw cream and milk as ingredients for making my own butter and cheese. I wouldn't mind using organic pasteurized milk/cream for this purpose but I'm finding it rather difficult to source pasteurized milk that isn't also homogenized or ultra-homogenized. From what I've read, homogenization can be an impediment to making good cheese.
There seems to be a good amount of controversy and debate surrounding unpasteurized dairy - namely the food safety risks associated with consuming such products. Though I have no desire to contract listeria, I can't help but wonder whether the FDA's regulation of dairy in this country, at least when it applies to the small farmer or cheese maker, is a bit too rigid and bureaucratic. Of course, small dairies are not immune to food safety issues. And the recent E Coli outbreak in Germany raised some questions as to whether or not organic produce is in fact "safer". In any case, I wonder if consuming raw dairy is worth the added risks. (I'm guessing that will largely depend upon its taste and added nutritional value.)
On a side note, I was in the dairy aisle of my supermarket the other day when it hit me that the fluid contained within those paper cartoons and plastic jugs was in all likelihood a mixture of milk from literally THOUSANDS of nameless cows spanning great distances from one another and from me. The upside is that if one of those cows were sick, the potential harm would be diluted by a factor of several thousand. However, just the very notion of consuming a product derived from that many animals (including processed meats) makes my stomach turn a bit.
If you would like to know where you can find raw milk and other dairy products in your area, rawmilk.com is a great site.
I came across this a while ago (see link below) and thought it had some good info. There is a ton of info on this topic on line. I have not drank milk in years but still eat cheese and will only buy raw mike cheese.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thedietsolutionprogram.com/content/2010/05/is-milk-really-healthy/
I intend to begin drinking raw milk at some point. Many of my friends already do. Frankly it scares me a bit. But why do I let the powers that be scare me? I don't trust their advisements regarding what foods are safe (all kinds of nasty things but yet raw milk is unsafe?) , what chemicals are safe, what medicines are safe. Why should I trust an FDA, USDA, EPA that regularly acts in the best interest of big business at the expense of small business and the individual consumer and the world in general.
ReplyDeleteAnyone see this movie, Farmageddon? It looks interesting:
ReplyDeletehttp://reason.tv/video/show/farmagedon_interview
I really don't understand why raw milk is a public health concern. Raw milk cartons have warnings that are so scary, they may as well have a skull and crossbones on them. If consumers choose to drink it anyway, that’s a personal health decision. It’s like eating sushi or a rare burger -- you’re knowingly taking a risk. I don't know about the health benefits, but any foodie will tell you that raw milk makes the best cheese.
My local dairy farm sells raw milk from its grass-fed cows because it couldn’t afford processing equipment. A side benefit has been that people travel from great distances to purchase it (sometimes illegally, since group purchases are prohibited in MA). In MA, the consumer can only purchase raw milk on the farm that produces it.
Looking into raw milk, I also noticed this: “Big new regulations are coming down the pike on produce.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=90472#ixzz1Rs1F7oiL
I've been interested in raw milk for awhile now and thanks to this thread I'v located 3 farms very close to me that sell it. Thanks much!!
ReplyDeleteWhere I live (Brisbane, Australia) it's not legal to sell raw milk for drinking, but you are allowed to sell it for bathing. So we buy raw milk at the markets that is labelled "Cleopatra's Bath Milk".
ReplyDeleteIt's just silly when you think that smoking is legal.
Raw milk tastes Yum. WAY yum. I haven't tried bathing in it yet though.
People who are raw milk advocates seem to be fully committed to the commodity. I'm sure it's like everything that in some cases the risks are worth the experience.
ReplyDeleteI don't drink much milk, but I may want to try making cheese some day so have taken notice of the natural foods and farms in my area that do offer raw milk. Luckily, I have many to choose from. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but the link you provided had this note for Maine:
ReplyDelete“NOTE: Five Maine listings were removed on October 1st at the farmers' request because USDA officials are using this site to find farms that offer raw milk and are then harassing them and using scare tactics to get them to stop selling raw milk. Consumers should be outraged at this infringement of their rights. In Maine, raw milk sales are legal both on the farm and in retail stores!”
Yes there are possible risks to consuming raw milk. There are also risks to consuming other foods…I think the choice is up to the individual and it is ridiculous for the USDA to be “harassing” anyone.
Wow, there's a lot of great info here. Thanks for sharing everyone!
ReplyDeleteThomas, one of my friends Kurt Timmermeister, wrote a book "Growing a Farmer" where he addresses his time as a raw milk purveyor.
ReplyDeleteHe's now out of that biz and makes a wonderful pasteurized Camembert called Dinah's Cheese. More info: http://pnwcheese.typepad.com/cheese/2010/05/kurtwood-farms.html
TCF - What a coincidence. I'm ready that book as we speak!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I can't afford it now, (it's really expensive for a dairy share!) it IS on my list of things I want. I do have experience as I grew up drinking it along with goat's milk. The taste is divine, something like drinking melted ice cream. While maybe not for every day "glasses of milk" if that's a bit heavy for you, the benefits of making your own cream, butter, ice cream, cheeses, etc make it a really neat item to have. If you do it, check into it early because many of the dairy share programs have a waiting list.
ReplyDeletep.s. I grew up in a farming community where we all drank it and NONE of us got "sick" LOL. Also, for those people that are allergic to milk, they find they can handle raw milk no problem.
I wouldn't know if it tastes better. The only raw milk I've had is goat's milk and that when I was growing up. I'm lactose intolerant, so its soy milk for me. And making soft cheeses isn't worth it either since they are not good for me to eat. I only eat hard cheeses in any quantity. I'm not sure I'm ready to start making hard cheese. Good luck figuring out what you want to do.
ReplyDeleteI've been drinking raw milk in Washington State for about five years. Thank goodness I'm in a free state. Tastes great. I haven't had a cold or flu for about 4.5 years now.
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ReplyDeleteI see now problem with Raw Milk. Gail and I went to a cheesmaking 101 workshop with the cheese queen Ricki Carroll and she is obviously very pro- raw milk. We also picked up some raw milk from a hobby farmer friend. We drank some, made cheese and butter!
ReplyDeleteI think it comes down to a matter of choice, and being robbed
I just skip the dairy all together! While I understand the reasoning behind going all natural and drinking it in an unpasteurized state, at it's core, it feels unnatural to me to consume the milk of a different animal when, as mammals, we stop requiring breastmilk after weaning off our mother. Therefor, I don't! And as soon as I can perfect growing soybeans in my garden I'll be able to milk them myself ;)
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting topic that I have just started to investigate since we got our own house cow (see http://eight-acres.blogspot.com/2011/07/raw-milk-and-cheese-making-course.html). We have been drinking the raw milk from our own cow for a couple of months now, and it does taste different, possibly because its fresh and cream is sitting on the top. I have read (and believe) that raw milk is easier to digest than pasteurised milk, as the heat treatment causes the protein in the milk to change shape and kills the natural enzymes in the milk that would normally aid digestion. For this reason, it is also better for cheese making as it will form a firmer curd (because the proteins haven't been damaged by heating). That said, I would be very careful about where you buy your raw milk. Try to see for yourself how clean they are, find out how popular they are, any long-term customers, how fresh is the milk etc this will help to make sure you don't get sick. And for that matter, what chemical treatments are they using on the cows, go for organic if you can. Raw milk itself is perfectly healthy, but if it becomes contaminated at any stage of the milking process, you could get food poisoning. The dairies that I have seen have been less than clean, with manure all over the floor and coating the milking equipment, but those farmers drink the milk raw and never get sick! At least with our own cow we know exactly where the milk came from and we keep everything meticulously clean!
ReplyDeleteForgot to say, as Ali commented above, raw milk is illegal to sell in Australia, so if it is legal where you live, you're very lucky and should support the farmers near you (if they are clean!) and take advantage of this opportunity to drink real milk!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments everyone! I think I might just go out and get a bottle to try. There are several farms in Massachusetts licensed to sell raw milk but none of them are within a convenient distance from us. We'll probably have to go to New Hampshire (we live near the border) as our options would be better I think.
ReplyDeleteKay – Actually, we’re unique among mammals in our ability to properly digest milk after weaning. New research shows that a mere 8,000 years ago, European adults couldn’t digest milk at all – through evolution, over 90% of some northern European populations can now digest milk. I like soy, but I’m also glad that I have the ice cream gene :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=neolithic-europeans-lactose-tolerance
We don't drink milk in our house unless it is raw. Mostly we just don't drink milk, but when my kids were younger we bought raw milk every few days from a local farm. It is delicious!
ReplyDeleteAfter being on anti-biotics I will drink raw milk to get my gut back in order. When you start drinking it makes your belly gurgle a bit, but none of us ever got an actual tummy ache, and I can drink lots of it without showing an of my usual lactose intolerance. I bought a cheese making kit but just never got around to executing.
Having said all that it is important to remember that drinking raw milk could kill you/make you sick, but so could consuming any other contaminated food product. I was willing to take that risk to give my kids a superior product when they were milk drinking toddlers.....if people offer them milk, they say they only drink "raw", and that pleases me so!
One of the main reasons for starting to pasteurize milk was to avoid spreading tuberculosis from cows to humans. It was common practice for vets to test the cows of all farmers selling to the public before pasteurization became mandatory.
ReplyDeleteIn a broken industrial food system like we have now, I personally wouldn't trust unpasteurized milk. However, if I had a farmer next door whose cow I could see was healthy, there'd be no question – I'd gladly pay triple for his raw milk, and help muck out the stables too!
No comment on raw mik, but MOO Milk is organic and pasteurized but not ultra. I'm pretty sure it's now available in Mass stores. We've used it to make yogurt, and, somehow, my boys can tell the difference from other milk.
ReplyDeleteBrookford farm in Rollinsford NH is a good source of raw milk. They sell phenomenal camembert as well that equals the best you can get in normandie. www.brookfordfarm.com
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