Raw Milk, Unpasteurized and Unhomogenized

About a 18 months ago, we were getting milk delivered to our house twice per week to satisfy the insatiable milk habit of my kids. I swear, these kids were going through gallons of the white stuff on a weekly basis. As a result, my wife and I ensured we were getting the best milk around, delivered twice weekly to our door and guaranteed to be free of growth hormones by the Dairy.

This was a double edge sword for me as it seems that while I was in the Navy, I somehow lost the ability to drink milk. Who knows if it was the Anthrax shots (dont get me started on that) or the rotgut milk they have onboard ship but as soon as I returned from a six month deployment to the the Gulf, a glass of milk was the last thing I could drink. This was a real bummer because I grew up having milk at practically every meal. The weird thing was that it took a really long time to figure this out as I just couldnt figure out what was causing my health problems. Finally, I tried some lactaid and the symptoms I was experiencing were relieved. I couldn't get through life without drinking Milk! What the heck is one supposed to put on their morning cereal if it isnt for milk. So, with my kids going through a ton of milk every week, I was either buying lactaid milk separately or drinking the delivered milk along with a handful of Lactaid pills.

One day that summer, I was getting dinner ready and realized I had left our milk on the porch all day. I figured it would probably be fine to drink for dinner and possibly for another day or two as milk sours over time right? Wrong! After doing a bit of research on the Internet, I found that pasteurized milk does not sour, it rots! That milk smelled awful and about 3 gallons promptly went down the drain, what a waste. While doing a bit more research, I stumbled across the realmilk.org website which had a ton of information on the health benefits of drinking raw milk and the awfulness of pasteurized milk. They recommended a book called "The Milk Book: The Milk of Human Kindness is not Pastuerized" which I promptly ordered from Amazon.com.

Later that week, I was discussing my milk woes with a co-worker whom told me that she has been picking up raw, unpasteurized and un-homogenized milk from a local dairy. The next day, she brought a jar in to let me try it. I have to say, it was very strange to be holding a jar of raw milk, somehow it just felt illegal or something. In fact, I have since come to find out that it was. Apparently, Colorado is rather liberal when it comes to raw milk. In Colorado, you can legally drink raw milk from cows that you own but you cannot sell it or give it away. However, Colorado had just recently passed a law that allowed people to buy "Shares" of a dairy herd in order to purchase raw milk.

So I headed home with my contraband milk and prepared to offer it to the family. It was a strange experience, that 2 quart Ball jar sat on the kitchen counter and everyone just stared at it as we tried to overcome a lifetime of fear of all things unpasteurized. Just check out what the FDA has to say about it and you will know what I mean. Eventually, I poured a glass and down the hatch it went. After feeling no ill effects, I poured some for my kids who thoroughly enjoyed it. It was delicious, it was creamy and it was gone in no time. I brought the empty jar back to my friend shortly thereafter and was dying to find out how I could get more.

Over the next couple of weeks, I had gotten in touch with Julie from Ebert Farms about signing up for a Share or two in their dairy herd. However, before we committed to this, I had to see the farm for myself as I still had the FDA warnings whispering in my ear despite all I had read to the contrary. So I had dragged the entire family out to the farm where Julie gave us a very thorough tour. We met the cows by name, we toured the milking facility and learned the whole twice-per-day process of getting the milk from the cows into those 2-quart Ball jars, and we left there feeling extremely impressed. It was small, it was clean and the folks running it had a real and profound interest in producing the best quality milk you can find.

It has now been well over a year since we started getting fresh raw milk from the farm and our family drinks 5 gallons a week with no ill effects, myself included. I have long since tossed out those Lactaid pills and I don't think I could ever go back to store bought milk. We get weekly updates from Julie about what's happening on the farm and we always know which cow is pregnant, who has calved, what the new calves names are; I continue to be impressed with Julie and the Barnyard Crew.