Raw Milk

[greyfields]

The State of Washington has been very proactive about getting rules in place to do small raw goat milk dairies. I know there are several permitted now for goats milk. As far as I know, there are no cow milk ones (yet).

Selling "shares" in an animal for milk is outlawed in Washington.

As far as cheese making goes, it can be better but it's also likely you won't be able to tell a difference. Goat milk is naturally homogenized, meaning the cream doesn't rise to the top like it does in cows. Many people claim that the processing milk (homogenization and pasteurization) ruins the good qualities in it for cheese making. However, I think it's more the matter of getting whole milk so it has a proper fat content for the craft.

 

[MissPrissy]

Then I would have to say those people have never eaten good quality chevre. Wine, pate and cheese - I think the french know a little about those 3 things LOL

My goats milk makes excellent cheese. Never had a problem with it.

My yogurt/cheese/buttermilk is very popular.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9738

45 pages of cheese, yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream, cream cheese etc - and I only use goats milk.

 

[greyfields]

Most the chevre you have eaten (not made yourself) did come from pasteurized goats milk. It requires special labeling if it is unpasteurized, which I've never even seen... and let me tell you, I frequent the cheese mongers.

So I guess my point if anyone claims good goat cheese can only be made from raw milk, I think they're firmly incorrect.

 

[EweSheep]

Now I want to make some homemade butter for an reeanctment breakfast......hard to find some good paddle churner and wanted to know how to make homemade butter. Unsalted if I can get it made that way.

Now instructions please! We dont have raw milk in our stores so if I gotta improvise, so be it! Whole milk will do the job or buttermilk????

 

[MissPrissy]

Heavy whipping cream will work but you will only get a small pad of butter. Look through the yogurt link I posted and there is butter instructions in that thread.

 

[kstaven]

There are a number of cow/goat shares in washington that I know of, so obviously if it is law it is not being enforced. One in particular just outside Spokane has been operating since the early 80's. There is a raw milk cow dairy just in the final stages of registering outside of Kettle Falls.

You need cream to make butter ewesheep. Lehmans supply in the US has paddle churns for sale and paddles.

Pasteurized product will work for cheese. No doubts there, but the recipes have to be altered for raw milk. Bacterial cultures and rennet do not respond the same way in pasteurised milk.

 

[deborah]

I loved the article. Thank you for posting the link.

My family has been drinking raw milk for nearly 2 years now and we are very happy with it. I don't know how long it would take to go bad, because it's never lasted that long, but I have had some in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks!

Here in Michigan, it is illegal to buy raw milk. But you can drink raw milk from your own cow. So we belong to Richard Hebron's Family Farms Cooperative where we pay a yearly fee for a cow share. We then pay $6.25 per gallon, which I think is supposed to cover boarding, etc. The Michigan Department of Agriculture stopped Richard in 10/06 when he was making a delivery and confiscated everything in the truck. It all tested fine. (If you do a web search on Family Farms Cooperative and/or Richard Hebron, you can read all about it. ) We still get our raw milk, and other raw dairy and grass-fed meats through the cooperative, but things are not yet completely resolved with the State yet. The cooperative also offers fresh farm eggs, buy I don't need any of those!

I'm trying to do some the fermented dairy products on my own. I got an extra gallon last week and tried to make kefir, but I think I let it go a little too long. It did get some whey out of it.

I feel much better about what we are drinking. I trust the source. But I would probably feel different if it were coming from some big commercial dairy that had lots of workers with no stake in the company beyond their weekly paycheck. But under the current laws, I sometimes feel like we are outlaws.

 

[McGoo]

I believe that to make Goat Cheeses, i.e. Chevre, you can take the milk from the goat at about 80 degrees and continue to heat it for cheesemaking. And doesn't that automatically pasturize it?

Think it's the same for cow's raw milk.

ps. I've always been concerned about drinking raw milk since my own mother and all of her brothers and sisters, who grew up on a dairy farm and drank raw milk, had the mico-bacteria, which though never resulting in an obvious outbreak of tb, created many lung related issues in their later years. The good news is that now all cows are tested frequently. Not sure about goats.

 

[chickenannie]

Although I don't know all the details, I know that in PA raw milk sales are becoming a big deal, and as the business of raw milk and raw products grow, there are stories about confiscations and illegitimate investigations in the newspapers. It's a huge debate right now.

For that reason, I would feel uncomfortable identifying farms online who are selling raw milk without permits. Even though many farms get permits, not all farmers choose to go that route, for many good reasons which I will not name here. Some raw milk customers I've spoken with who really want to buy raw milk regularly and openly feel their supply could be "shut down" at any time and feel threatened by that.

 

[ams3651]

Quote:
My mom lives in your area and I am wondering where you get your raw milk. She grew up on it and doesnt like store bought milk, she is trying to stay as close to organics as possible because of health reasons and I would think raw milk would qualify. Correct me if Im wrong.