Let me say that I've been wanting a cow for years. Over a decade. Why? Because I want to have my own milk, not stuff in a plastic jug that has come from only God knows how many cows, pumped into a huge truck, hauled God knows how many miles, dumped into an even bigger vat, and then run through all the approved processing that makes the USDA declare it safe to drink.
Yes, I'm one of those loonies. A raw milk advocate. I have had first hand experience with drinking raw milk on occasion as a child (the occasion being when I would stay with my grandparents, who for a few years of their retirement lived next door to a dairy farm and got their milk direct from the farmer's bulk tank). I remember that milk as being sooooo different from the milk I drank at home, milk that was from the grocery store. It was different, and good. Really good. Thick. Tasty. And you know what? Despite what the fear mongers will tell you, that raw milk didn't make any of us sick when we drank it. Nope. Nobody got sick, nobody died. And the farmer's son, who drank it everyday was healthy too. (And pretty darn good looking, my 12 yr old self thought :0) )
So, I am all for freedom of choice on whether or not you want to drink your milk raw or pasteurized. Me, I'd like to be able to drink mine raw. Or, if I want it pasteurized, to take it from the cow, into the kitchen and pasteurize it myself. No mixing, no big truck, no highway or government involved.
Even being pro-raw milk, I don't have a cow. And I don't drink raw milk, I still get mine in plastic jugs from the store. Mainly because a) DH still hasn't come around to the idea of having a cow at home--he doesn't want to be tied down to daily milkings; and b) raw milk is illegal to sell in Michigan: and c) even though there is a herd share program (the only legal way of getting your hands on raw milk is to own a share of a cow in a herd share program) within an hour's drive of me, the cost and weekly commute for milk is prohibitively expensive.
And so I do the best I can with what I can afford; being choosy about the exact store I buy my milk from. All milk is not equal, some brands consistently have an 'off' taste to me and so I don't buy them (one store I have, trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, tried their milk about four different times in a 4-6 year period and it always tasted not-quite-right). I also only buy and drink whole milk. I'm not afraid of fat. Natural fat, animal fat, is much better for you than the filler stuff they put in the lowfat and non-fat versions of things. Plus, our bodies (brains and joints in particular) need natural fats.
Recently, however, I found out that my sister-in-law participates in a herd share. She and some of her co-workers who are also share owners take turns doing the weekly milk pick-up. A milk carpool, if you will. That helps cut the cost for her and makes it more affordable for her family. They are loving their raw milk.
Not only are they loving the milk, they are loving the cream that naturally forms on the top portion of the milk jugs. Sister-in-law told me that she draws off this cream with a turkey baster and makes butter out of it.
Weekend before last, DH made a trip over to sister-in-law's place to do a little landscaping work for her with our tractor. At the end of the afternoon, she sent him home with a baggie for me. A baggie of contraband, if you will. It contained butter that was made from the cream from the unpasteurized milk. Butter that is known as 'raw' butter because neither the milk nor the cream it came from were heated (cooked to pasteurization temperatures). Raw butter is contraband because, like raw milk, the USDA deems it unsafe to consume and therefore illegal to sell or trade or even give awa.
Know what I did with that unsafe, illegal butter? I cooked eggs in it for breakfast the next morning. I spread it on our toast. I even was so brash as to eat a bite of it all by itself!
Oh my goodness! Was it good! I couldn't believe how good! For many years I've cooked with real butter, bought from the store. No margarine allowed at this little place here. The box my store bought butter comes in lists cream and salt as the only ingredients in the butter. The same things that were in the raw butter, only the cream had been pasteurized in the store bought butter. They should have been exactly the same: cream and salt turned into butter.
But they weren't the same. The raw butter was deeper yellow, the store butter looked nearly white next to it. The raw butter felt creamier on the tongue. The raw butter tasted different. I can't quite describe how it was different, but it was not the same flavor. In a blind taste test, you would know they were not the same product.
The baggie that sister-in-law sent lasted maybe a week, and it was reserved just for eggs and toast, not for any cooking task that required a large quantity of it.
I need a cow. I so need a cow. I want raw butter every day. I think I'm addicted.
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