Ok, I have to ask......

[Mahonri]

I give my girls yogurt about once a week and I also mix a little milk into their layer mash or crumbles a couple of times a month. THEY ABSOLUTELY LOVE THAT!

 

[babyboy1_mom]

Do you think that maybe the cream on top formed a kind of "seal" that kept the milk beneath fresher longer? (I have NO basis for this theory, just outright guessing here!)

I was a young girl at that time, so I did not really think about why it "made" the milk bad, as mom had said. I just listened to what mom said and left the cream on the milk. I am now finding out that mom apparently wanted all the cream for herself....lol

I agree that the fresh milk tastes so much better than the store bought milk. Store bought milk is homogenized to make it uniform in consistancy. The cream is broken down and I guess that is why store bought doesn't taste as good as fresh.

Anyway, one weird thing about it, is that some thicker stuff "sticks" to the glass bottle wherever the top level of the milk is in the bottle--it's semi-solid, and I always assumed it was fat/cream.

Oh, you are making me want fresh milk....lol Sounds like a rich thick layer of cream is on top of your milk. Yes, that is the cream and it is so very good.

I also agree that the raw milk law is a joke. IMHO, that is just another way that allows the small business person to be controled. If the dairy could sell raw milk, then all of the procedes would go straight to the dairyman/woman. (Not trying to start a debate here, just my opinion.)

Dorothy

 

[PortageGirl]

Your milk from that dairy could be pasturized but not homoginized, or not homoginized very well.

LOL I have no idea if it was legal when we used to go down the road and get milk straight from the tank... I know we didn't pay them in the barn, we stopped up at the house and got some coffee and had a chat, leaving some money there, in two nearly unrelated exchanges! *shifty eyes*

Neither I nor any of the rest of us neighbors got sick, it wasn't pasturized or homoginized, (though they owned a small pasurizer, it sat in the kitchen, kinda dusty and forlorn, technically, they weren't even supposed to drink it themselves, CALL CHILD WELFARE!!!) hehe... but one thing, WE didn't go in and get the milk ourselves, it took extra time and work for the farmer to do it, but he took care not to have too many extra hands in his tank. Kids could go visit his cows, most were pretty nice girls, but they weren't allowed near the business end or the tank to spread or catch germs.

His barn was clean and dry, and his girls were only in the feedlot for a couple hours while waiting to get milked, then it was straight out to a nice green pasture. He's out of business now, he couldn't afford to keep at it.

[edit] I've heard of chickens loving buttermilk which is actually the very runny liquid left after making BUTTER, not just milk with the cream skimmed off, which is indeed, skimmed milk

 

[babyboy1_mom]

PortageGirl - The milk that I get comes straight from the tank, like you used to get. I have been to my friend's dairy many times and while I cannot "do the milking," I have learned alot and saw how his dairy is operated.

I remember my parents buying the milk straight out of the tank as well and none of us ever got sick from the milk. I have gotten milk, off and on, from my friend and no one in my family has gotten sick from it either.

My friend's dairy is clean and dry, when it isn't milkiing time. He cleans and disinfects after every milking.

There are alot of dairy farmers going out of business around here. My friend has talked about it, but has not done so yet. The price of feed has gone up and the money that they get paid for their milk has dropped dramatically. I know that it is hard on dairy farmers that have been in the business as long as my friend has been. This is the only work that he has experience doing and if he has to close down, then he doesn't know what he will do to support his family.

 

[PortageGirl]

Here's an old article from Mother Earth News, I got the CDs of all the back issues for an early Christmas present! It makes it much easier to look things up, Google is great, how DID we live without the internet??? but sometimes there's too much clutter!

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real...-a-separator-without-a-churn-and-without.aspx

There's probably other good sources, but those old Mother issues are interesting to look over.

 

[digitS']

Quote:
Dorothy, pasteurized milk tastes burnt to someone not used to it

.

The "tank" I got milk from was after sitting down on a 3-legged stool, pressing my cold forehead into the flank of a warm Guernsey, and squeezing teats on a frosty morning

. Did I ever tell you about the time that my dad and brother went on a hunting trip and left me with 3 cows to milk?!?

Steve

 

[babyboy1_mom]

PortageGirl - Thanks for the site. I am going to check it out in a moment. I did glance at it and it was interesting.

digitS - I would love to have a Guernsey tank to get fresh milk on a regular basis. I have never milk a cow before or any animal for that matter....lol I just love fresh milk.

I haven't ever had goat's milk, so I don't know if I like it or not. I have thought about getting a milk goat (less exspense, than a cow), but DH said that goat's milk is nasty to him. I would hate to spend money on a goat and then not like the taste of the milk. I am waiting on my sister to get a milk goat, so that I can taste the milk first....lol

Also, no Steve, you have not told me the story of time that you were left to milk 3 cows by your self...lol

Dorothy

 

[ninjapoodles]

I've never been able to sample raw cow's milk (like I said, illegal in my stupid state), but my daughter has a young enough palate to STRONGLY prefer fresh raw goat's milk over grocery-store cow's milk. That tells me a lot, right there!

If I ever can get back somewhere with good pasture, like my last place, I would love to have a Dexter heifer. Where I am now could support a couple of goats, and I'm trying to decide if I'm really up to the daily responsibility of keeping up with milking, or if I should try meat goats first and see how that goes.