Raw Milk

[babylady4]

LOL I must have been tired when I posted that..... I meant my oldest DD NOT my oldest DH! Sheesh, how many husbands does a girl need anyway!

 

[Amyable]

One is more than enough!

 

[galanie]

LOL I must have been tired when I posted that..... I meant my oldest DD NOT my oldest DH! Sheesh, how many husbands does a girl need anyway!

LMAO and I didn't even notice! I guess I was tired too.

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:

Pasturizing milk eleminates pathogens only.

pasturizing also breaks down lactase ... the natural enzyme in raw milk that helps digest it - one of the reasons that people who are "lactose intolerant" can often drink raw milk but not processed milk.

we drink raw milk all the time - got a couple of gallons of jersey milk in the frige, milked out of the neighbor's cow yesterday. we keep milk goats, and my hubby drinks near a gallon of the stuff a day. we make cheese and butter (yes, you can get cream from goats milk without a cream separator) too.

equipment handling is important... clean and sterilize everything
animal health is important
we use mastitis test cards at least once a week on each animal (although mastitis in the milk won't harm you if you accidentially get some)

some things to know:
it's currently against federal law to sell raw milk across state lines - so DO NOT drive across state lines to buy, even for animal consumption. people DO get arrested for this and are sometimes "made examples of".
state laws vary widely, know your state laws. people DO get arrested and made examples of.

most goat milk is not goaty flavored - although commercial goat milk often is. if you think you don't like goat's milk, you may want to try some fresh raw before you decide - ours is excellent and not goaty.

people who can't drink even raw cow's milk may be able to drink raw goat milk without problems.

goat's milk is higher density nutrition, higher protien, less water than cow's milk.

sheep's milk is MUCH higer in nutrition, protien and somewhat more fat than either cow or goat milk. and it's *very* tasty.

regarding illnesses from raw milk:
read the news VERY carefully. the best known recent illnesses from raw milk were actually a case of a dairy that supplies *processed* milk actually allowing some *unprocessed* milk to be shipped. then the headlines said "KIDS SICK FROM RAW MILK". well, that was true, techincally, but the milk had not been handled with the intention of selling it raw. you can commit a lot of milk handling sins with milk that will be pasteurized because it will be processed before drinking. milk for raw consumption must be handled carefully. many commercial dairies are not handling the milk that carefully because they know they don't need to. what the headline should have said was "kids sick from IMPROPERLY HANDLED COMMERCIAL MILK" - that would have correctly described the situation.

so... if you intend to buy raw milk from someone else, make sure they ARE handling it properly for raw consumption. don't buy raw milk from a commercial dairy that's not set up for it.

Quote:

You can still make cheese and butter with it easily. I do all the time. Its when it homogenized (mixed togather with other milks, and the fat broken up into tiny pieces-like goat milk is naturally) that it is harder to cause the whey to seperate, thus making cheese making more difficult, but not impossible.

to refine this a bit -
there are no problems making cheese from goat's milk - we've never had any trouble with that. we make the same kinds of cheeses from raw cow and raw goat milk and I haven't noticed difference in the difficulty of getting curd or separation of the whey. commercial milk is a different issue - it may have carageenan (sp?) which is specifically intended to prevent separation. it may have traces of antibiotics, which will prevent your cheese culture from growing. commercial cream may be "ultra homogenized" which may prevent or greatly delay the appearance of butter in beaten or churned cream. I've only tried cheese a couple of times from commercially homogenized / pasteurized milk and the results were ok, but according to reports from other cheesemakers I know, results may vary.

goat's milk is naturally homogenized (the cream doesn't separate as compeletly as with cow's milk) so you don't get so *much* of the cream rising to the top when it sits. but some cream will rise in goat's milk, and it makes excellent butter with no more difficulty than cow's milk. same is true of sheep's milk - less cream separates, but the butter is exceptionally good. with a cream separator, you'd get good cream yields from either goat or sheep's milk.

there are *some* differences in making things from cow and goat milk - goat yogurt will be softer than you're used to (more like keifer) unless you add calcium or a small amount of renet. flavors of course vary depending on the milk... sometimes what we get is a little different than expected, but we've been pretty pleased with the results regardless.

if you are making cheese from raw milk, you may elect to pasturize first - it makes sure that the only bacteria in the milk are the ones you put there for your cheese type. we generally *don't* pasturize first, but it runs the risk of getting bad results from a cheese - especially disapointing after you've waited months and months for it to age. there are no food safety issues from eating cheeses aged over 4 months (can't get a bacterial infection from it) but in theory you can have trouble with fresh cheese if it's contaminated. if the milk is clean, and properly handled, there should be no problems (we've never had any.)

once in a while you hear of bouts of illness from "bathtub cheese" - a phenomenon of the southern border states where a typical mexican fresh cheese is made *in the tub* (!!!!) and it's contaminated. this usually gets blamed on it being made from raw milk, but my money's on the fact that it was prepared in the bathtub (!!!!) and that's not a proper environment for culturing food.

 

[zzGypsy]

I will probably purchase a gallon from her and see how it goes. Anyone have any ideas on proper ways to store it raw goat milk? Plastic gallons of glass jars?

glass canning jars. you can get half-gallon size (that's what we use) but you may have to order them, most places don't stock them.
sterilize the jar (look up proper process for using bleach / amount per gallon / exposure time) or use the sterilize / steam setting on your dishwasher. we use a powder sterilizing product (ordered from a diary goat supplier I think). once sterilized, close the jar up with sterile canning lids and then it's ready to go...

we don't use plastic because cleaning the inside of the container can scratch the plastic and bacteria can hide in the scratches. milk protiens will build up on surfaces over time, so cleaning with a brush is needed periodically. you can also get a cleaner designed to break down milk protien.

FWIW, we have on occasion had a jar of milk get pushed to the back of the fridge - had one that still looked and smelled fresh when discovered 3 months later... we elected not to drink that one but the dogs thought it was delish.

 

[kuntrygirl]

 

I will probably purchase a gallon from her and see how it goes. Anyone have any ideas on proper ways to store it raw goat milk? Plastic gallons of glass jars?

glass canning jars.  you can get half-gallon size (that's what we use) but you may have to order them, most places don't stock them.
sterilize the jar (look up proper process for using bleach / amount per gallon / exposure time) or use the sterilize / steam setting on your dishwasher.  we use a powder sterilizing product (ordered from a diary goat supplier I think). once sterilized, close the jar up with sterile canning lids and then it's ready to go...

we don't use plastic because cleaning the inside of the container can scratch the plastic and bacteria can hide in the scratches.  milk protiens will build up on surfaces over time, so cleaning with a brush is needed periodically.  you can also get a cleaner designed to break down milk protien.

FWIW, we have on occasion had a jar of milk get pushed to the back of the fridge - had one that still looked and smelled fresh when discovered 3 months later... we elected not to drink that one but the dogs thought it was delish. 

 

Thanks for the information.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

some things to know:
it's currently against federal law to sell raw milk across state lines - so DO NOT drive across state lines to buy, even for animal consumption. people DO get arrested for this and are sometimes "made examples of".
state laws vary widely, know your state laws. people DO get arrested and made examples of.

Dont expect to stay safe inside the state. The SCOTUS has given the feds the power to force federal law on things that stay inside the state. Crossing state lines was the point that something became federal jurisdiction. Not any more.

 

[Amyable]

We use gallon glass jars when picking up our milk. You can either buy gallons of pickles, or ask a restaurant or deli if they could save some for you.

 

[zzGypsy]

Dont expect to stay safe inside the state. The SCOTUS has given the feds the power to force federal law on things that stay inside the state. Crossing state lines was the point that something became federal jurisdiction. Not any more.

I SOOOoooo wish I didn't have to agree with you.
I try to keep up with what's happening regarding raw milk nationally, and what I can says is that, so far, I'm not aware of any folks being made an example of where they didn't 1) violate state or local law, or 2) do something that could be vaugely interpereted as interstate commerce. however, be very careful how you read the laws... on the interstate commerce thing, the enforcement folks are taking an unbelievably broad interpretation of the concept. to the point where it stretches credulity.

 

[ChicksterJo]

I just read an article that made some ridiculous claims. I don't know if you ladies & guys have read it, too, but here it is: http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com/raw...-Milk-Law-To-Protect-Kids-From-Their-Parents/

The raw milk from Jersey cows that they sell at a local natural foods store here is apparently popular. There's a deposit on the glass bottles (1/2 gal) and it costs $5.99 for the milk itself. It's pricey but it tastes so good. The butter I make from it is also great on bread. Maybe they should outlaw anything that grows fertilized with manure or compost. Heck, maybe they should outlaw buying vegetables.