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Bookswithtea
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I keep reading about this. I think I'd feel ok about it if we had our own goat or cow to milk, but that won't be happening any time soon. My state does now allow the sale of raw milk, so it cannot be purchased at Whole Foods or any place like that.
I do know a few people, wink wink/nod nod, where I could get it sometimes. Both goat milk and cow's milk.
I'm a little squeamish though. Do you drink this regularly? Would you feed it to your children or drink it while pregnant, as Nina Planck and Sally Fallon recommend? Would you worry at all?
And are you convinced that pasteurized/homogenized milk is garbage, not worth drinking at all? What about pasteurized but not homogenized milk?
I'm feeling rather  about it all.
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Paula in MN
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I don't use this, but my next door dairy farm neighbor does. Most of the families in our homeschool co-op have either cows or goats and they all use it. I haven't noticed anything too odd about any of them....
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folklaur
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not hugely big milk drinkers in our family, but i can tell you that the non-homogenized we get at whole foods tastes better.
i know lots of people who DO drink raw milk - some whose children can only tolerate raw milk - and i have never personally heard of anyone having a problem on it.
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jdostalik
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In our area, you can purchase raw milk if you directly purchase it from the farmer and are a "part owner" in the dairy farm. This means buying a very, very small share in their farm (at the cost of $20) and then this supposedly circumvents the local laws.
I did purchase raw milk for about six months through a co-op. We did like it a lot. The taste is very good and all my kids drank it happily. We never heard of any problems through our co-op; everyone seemed very pleased with the milk. It just ended up being a logistical nightmare to get (over an hour once a week in travel), so we went back to organic from the grocery store. Now, that dh is working for Dean Foods (they own Horizon), I don't feel so guilty about spending the money! 
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SusanJ
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We've been drinking it for about four years, through two pregnancies. It sounds like you've been reading about it so I won't go on about the benefits. My son doesn't care for milk that much but my daughter guzzles it. We can't buy it legally in our state right now, either. We actually drive almost two hours every six weeks and get a freezerful along with grass fed meats and eggs.
From a culinary perspective it sours and naturally cultures so much better than pasteurized milk. If a gallon went "bad" for some reason I use it for cooking for a long time afterwards it doesn't get that putrid, rancid smell.
I would get it from a farm where you can meet the farmers and see the animals. These small farmers have a lot more on the line if they let bad milk into the supply than big, commercial dairies and they depend far more on personal relationships and good reputations.
Susan
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Booksnbabes
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We just started getting raw cow's milk this summer, and we love it! In our state it can be sold if the purchaser picks it up from the dairy, but cannot be sold in stores or transported by the seller. We had been buying organic from Whole Foods, and since we try to do our shopping every two weeks, we'd stock up. Well, by the end of that two weeks, the last gallons of homogenized, pasteurized milk were often spoiled, even though unopened and not yet to their expiration date. We felt we were dumping our money down the drain.
We tried non-homogenized from the store, but for some reason the cream just didn't mix well and the kids rebelled at having chunks of cream in their cups. We also had the spoiling issue.
We have yet to experience any change in flavor over time with our raw milk. It was explained to us that raw milk will sour, and is then still good for cooking if not drinking, but it doesn't spoil like processed milk. And we've not had any issues with the cream mixing--except once when the cream was really thick, and for some reason the kids did not object. And we made ice cream with it. 
Dh says the raw milk is the best tasting he's ever had (the farm from which we obtain our milk has Guernseys) and he's a milk devotee. I have never been much of a milk drinker (really despised it as a youth), but I actually find myself hankering for a cold glass of milk now!  We go through approximately 3 1/2 gallons a week. It is slightly less expensive than what we were paying for the organic at the store.
The friend who directed us to the dairy drank the milk while pregnant and while nursing. The only side effect she noticed was that it was the first pregnancy (of 8) that she wasn't anemic. She attributes it to the milk as it was the only thing she did differently.
I was hesitant, but apparently whatever bacteria we are getting from our milk is good, because we are all doing well. That being said, we also have a very trusted source for our milk (a Catholic homeschool family with a very small herd who started out getting one cow for their own use and growing from there) and that was a big factor in our deciding to give it a try.
For us it has been the right choice.
We also have friends from whom I've debated getting goat milk, but our family hasn't really cared for the goat milk (or cheese) we've tried from Whole Foods. I know it isn't as "goaty" if the does are not with the billy, but I think we'll stick with cow milk for now.
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CrunchyMom
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SusanJ wrote:
We've been drinking it for about four years, through two pregnancies. It sounds like you've been reading about it so I won't go on about the benefits. My son doesn't care for milk that much but my daughter guzzles it. We can't buy it legally in our state right now, either. We actually drive almost two hours every six weeks and get a freezerful along with grass fed meats and eggs.
From a culinary perspective it sours and naturally cultures so much better than pasteurized milk. If a gallon went "bad" for some reason I use it for cooking for a long time afterwards it doesn't get that putrid, rancid smell.
I would get it from a farm where you can meet the farmers and see the animals. These small farmers have a lot more on the line if they let bad milk into the supply than big, commercial dairies and they depend far more on personal relationships and good reputations.
Susan |
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yes, this.
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cvbmom
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Bookswithtea wrote:
I'm a little squeamish though. Do you drink this regularly? Would you feed it to your children or drink it while pregnant, as Nina Planck and Sally Fallon recommend? Would you worry at all?
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We've been drinking raw milk for 4 years now (3 pregnancies). It has been NO trouble at all. In fact, I've seen health benefits from it in our family.
We are members of a herdshare in and drink 8 gallons per week in our house (and that's being skimpy milk drinkers ).
Please feel free to ask any specific questions you might have. My dh has researched this topic tremendously and would go on and on 
EatFoodForLife has some good info.
God bless,
Christine
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Bookswithtea
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Sigh...ok, so you are used to it, then? Were you squeamish in the beginning and then just kind of got over it? I don't know if herd shares are an option where I live. I live rurally and know lots of people with dairy goats (homeschool families). I know one homeschool family with an old fashioned jersey. So I don't really know anyone who is doing this for a family business, only people who do it for themselves and then sell the excess off to interested friends.
I've seen my 2 friend's set ups for their goats. How do I know what it should even look like?? One of my friends prefers to sell hers pasteurized, and honestly, I don't see the point of paying a premium for home pasteurized milk.
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SusanJ
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Hm. I guess I was never squeamish about this. Do you eat soft cheeses? Many of them aren't pasteurized. I will say that sometimes you can really taste the cow--that's probably a terrible way to put it but in the spring time grass-fed milk can have a pretty distinctive taste. I usually put a splash of maple syrup in the milk if it's too strong for me.
Is your friend basically clean? Would you eat other food prepared by her? Are her animals tested for disease regularly? Have they ever been sick from their own milk? Are other people buying from them? Have they ever been sick? I helped start a raw milk co-op in an old neighborhood and we had a farmer working solely for us. He had, something like 20 cows, maybe, and there were eventually close to 600 families participating in the co-op. Lots of them were pregnant moms or small children or immune-compromised individuals and not a single person ever got sick from the milk.
Susan
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donnalynn
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Another raw milk drinker here - I would always make a point to know the farmer and regularly visit the farm where the milk comes from.
I like that most of the milk we drink is fresh and raw but would not call pastuerized/homogenized milk "garbage" - we do drink it occasionally at friends' houses and when there is a longer season where our cows are dry.
I do avoid whenever possible "ultra" pastuerized dairy products. But I also must admit to breaking down for cream once in a while when needed (would you think less of me )
Generally we have a drier season during the winter months but I find it is good to cut back on dairy products in general then - especially if there are a lot of colds. We continue to get oganic yogurt and mostly just do without milk during those times.
I have not fed raw milk to infants because I've always nursed them until about two years of age but the children do start to drink raw milk around age one. I have also drank raw milk during pregnancy with no problems.
There's just so much great stuff you can make with it - cheese, yogurt, sour cream, butter, cultured buttermilk, ice cream..yum. I use milk that has gone slightly sour for pancakes and other baking.
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Bookswithtea
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Yeah, I've eaten at their homes. And no one has ever gotten sick off of their milk, but their herds are small (3-6 does). They don't test regularly for disease because thats just not something people do around here if they are producing for their own family's consumption. The mom with the cow has 1 cow. They've had her less than a year and had to cross state lines just to find an old fashioned jersey! I don't really even know if she would sell it to me, but she did offer me a 1/2 gallon for free to try it.  I'm looking forward to that.
I didn't realize that you can still use the milk after it sours? I once got sick off of bad dairy when I was in college...violently sick (past dated yogurt).  I never forgot it, which is why I may be hesitant.
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SusanJ
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Past-date pasteurized milk is quite bad but the naturally-occurring enzymes and stuff that haven't been killed-off in the raw milk allow it to sour much differently. I don't like any hint of sour in my milk so I've never pushed it but I've heard that you can drink raw milk without worry until your taste buds tell you to stop. And then you can cook with it. I appreciate our raw milk more every time I find a long-lost sippy cup and have to clean it out. It was a truly awful experience when we've used pasteurized milk but with old raw milk it's just sour. Kind of gross but bearable.
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Bookswithtea
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Well, that's neat. I have had the unfortunate experience of finding a sippy cup with old milk in it. It is nasty.
What do you mean by unpasteurized soft cheeses? You mean like blue cheese or feta? I never even looked at the container. Are they not pasteurized?
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SusanJ
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Well, I was just consulting Nina Planck and she says that in the US all cheese has either been pasteurized or aged for sixty days. So, never mind about cheese. Also, she says, "Eat foods that spoil, but eat them before they do." But, again, if the raw milk tastes sour, don't drink it. I think it will taste bad long before it gets to the "bad for you" stage.
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Bookswithtea
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Logically, I am sure God didn't intend for humans to have to heat milk before drinking it. It seems to me that this would be perfectly healthy, given healthy animals. I talked with a mom at a 4h meeting once who had a small herd of nubians for years. She told me that the way goat manuals read, you would think that if you don't get the milk cooled within a certain amount of time, have a room designated for milking-only that you bleach out daily, etc, you are doomed to get sick. But then she reminded me that the world over, most people drink goat's milk under conditions that are far worse than American standards on a home dairy. It makes sense that God would make the milk taste bad before it got dangerous, too.
Its just so frustrating the way our whole food chain in handled in this country. The food police are successful in scaring most people, I think.
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jenk
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We've been on raw milk for a little over 2 years. My ds got canker sores with store milk but has no problems with raw. I'm currently pregnant and have no worries about drinking it. Our state allows farmers to sell raw milk labeled for "pet use" - wink, wink.
I do admit to being a little skeeved at first- I think I drank it for a week or so before I'd give it to my kids... we now make ice cream with raw milk and I have made kefir (another thing I wouldn't give my kids until I had "tested" it)
We have had raw milk turn into clabbered milk in the fridge and I've used it in place of buttermilk in baking but have been nervous to drink it... though the health benefits are supposed to be tremendous.
I have also recently read an article about certain proteins/additives that have been added to milk since 1994... I can't find the link and didn't commit much of it to memory- I just read it and thought "yuck".
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Bookswithtea
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jenk wrote:
We've been on raw milk for a little over 2 years. My ds got canker sores with store milk but has no problems with raw. I'm currently pregnant and have no worries about drinking it. Our state allows farmers to sell raw milk labeled for "pet use" - wink, wink.
I do admit to being a little skeeved at first- I think I drank it for a week or so before I'd give it to my kids... we now make ice cream with raw milk and I have made kefir (another thing I wouldn't give my kids until I had "tested" it)
We have had raw milk turn into clabbered milk in the fridge and I've used it in place of buttermilk in baking but have been nervous to drink it... though the health benefits are supposed to be tremendous.
I have also recently read an article about certain proteins/additives that have been added to milk since 1994... I can't find the link and didn't commit much of it to memory- I just read it and thought "yuck". |
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Well, that makes me feel better to know that you felt weird about it at first.  I've been reading Keeping A Family Cow, and re reading Nina Planck. Very thoughtful stuff. Now I'm suspicious about regular ole milk, but also worried about the cost of quality milk. Maybe we'll just have to drink less???
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donnalynn
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And you have chickens, right Books? If I had a jar that went really sour we would let it clabber and feed it to the chickens - they love it!
I figured we get at least some of the value back in rich, tasty eggs!!
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Bookswithtea
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Yeah, we have chickens. They are so fun! OK, since its come up twice now, please tell me what clabbered milk is?
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Raw Milk
