Raw Milk..the Controversy

Nothing like a good title to get to to read this! 😉  There seems to be a lot of controversy over this for some reason. You have your group of haters..you know USDA, FDA, and freaked out people that think only store products should be consumed.  Then you have people like me, raw milk all the way baby!!

I was scared when I first thought of going to raw milk.  I was scared first that the family would get sick. There are no regulations on raw milk. Raw milk around here comes from some questionable farms.  Second I worried that I wouldn’t be able to drink it. I’m allergic to dairy products.  Lastly, I worried the government would come to my house and seize my milk, then seize the farm where I got it!  It’s happened in California, why not here.

 

Raw milk has been one of those changes that our family has made and I’ve only seen good things come out of it.  The cow above is on grass. How many are on grass that you know of that supply milk to the store?  Um none.  I once went to Fair Oak Farms. I thought it would be good for my family to see where milk comes from. Boy did I get a rude awakening.  They supply milk for Prairie Farms.  We were not even allowed to touch the cow for fear of contamination.  Cows were born almost every hour there. They milked 3 times a day, 1000’s of cows.  There was no grass in site.   Commercial milk factory my friends.  That day I went pretty much made up my mind I did not want to drink milk from that cow.

 

This is what I wanted.. a pretty little calf raised on a big grass pasture, no hormones to make her grow fast, no hormones to make her produce more milk, not constantly bred to so she would give milk, and no antibiotics because of a “possible” contamination.  So I went on a search, and internet search for raw milk.  I live in a small town. I thought for sure I’d have to drive hours to find what I was looking for.  Turns out there was a farm that sold milk close by. I jumped on it.  Cows all grassfed, organic at that! I hopped in my car and went to see what they had.  What they had was super expensive organic grassfed milk. $6 a gallon! 😯

I just couldn’t justify $6 a gallon when I was used to paying $2.50 at the store, so my searched continued. A friend had found a Mennonite lady selling milk where she gets her eggs, but unfortunately her cow passed.  She asked her if she knew another person who sold raw milk and there birthed the compromise.  It is important to build a network of people. I can’t stress that enough.

You have to decide as a homesteader what compromises you want to make for your family.  For me paying $6 a gallon for milk was not what I was willing to pay.  The alternative I found was a half grain, half grass cow .  They pasture as much as they can. They don’t give antibiotics unless it’s necessary and they always tell me before I get milk.  The milk is from a wonderful Mennonite lady and she gives it to her family.  She charges less than the grocery store and I feel it is still better.

My fears were put to rest when I saw her feeding the milk to her own family. They had been for years. I found I could drink raw milk and I didn’t have any allergies.  I learned how to tell bad milk from good milk by smell and taste. (It’s not the same as the store.)  I learned how to tell when the cow had eaten more grass by the yellowing of the milk.  Plus I can always pasteurize the milk myself by heating it to 160 and then cooling it down again.

Do I care about the government, yes..but you know what?  They need a new hobby. There are other things to occupy their time with than to run around deciding for Americans what we can and cannot put into our body. Until I get my own cow, I will continue to drink to my health with a tall glass of Raw Milk!

Happy Raw Milk Drinking and Happy Homesteading!! 😀