Raw Milk - Is it good for you?

[Broomcroft]

I found this article about the drinking of raw milk having health benefits. You might be interested.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages....id=1774

[Rob R]

Hardly surprising, it's never done me any harm & I'm sure it's done some good.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

The desire for raw milk was what started us keeping Dexters. When pasteurising became compulsory in the mid 1980's we were contemplating getting a goat, and had actually been on a supply of goats milk as a trial and not enjoying it very much when we were on holiday in Worcestershire and decided to take a day a the Royal Show. That was the first time I had seen Dexters, despite having heard all sorts of stuff about them and bulldog calves in Animal Husbandry classes at Vet School. One sight of the Dexters at Stoneleigh and the idea of goats went out of the window. But it took two years to get one as they were much thinner on the ground then. We finally got Harron Erica in 1986. What was to be one house cow is now a herd of nearly 20.

Duncan

[Broomcroft]

I thought pasteurising was compulsory, but this is what the article says...

Sold as ‘green top’ bottled milk, it accounts for about one per cent of milk sales in England and Wales and is available only direct from farms, or through farmers’ markets. It is estimated that about 130 dairy farms sell raw milk. The Chartered Institute Of Environmental Health is pushing for a ban on sales of unpasteurised milk in England.
But John Barron, from Beaconhill Farm in Herefordshire, says demand is growing for raw milk produced by his 40-strong herd of Jersey cows.

[Sylvia]

There was a waiting list when I was a child in Surrey to get on the list of a farmer who supplied unpasteurised milk. It was like winning the pools when you were accepted. Lovely thick cream at the top and quality milk.

Later on we had pygmy goats and I milked one of those, Tessa, for 12 years. She gave us enough surplus milk to freeze some and fed her babes too. Pygmy goat milk is creamy and delicious. Admittedly Tess occasionally stuck a (cleanish) foot in it but it was only strained, cooled and put in the 'frig.

I have lived to tell the tale you will all be so pleased to hear.



:D

[redhill]

This topic sent me wandering down memory lane,... I used to run a tea shop on Lydney Park Estate ,one afternoon I ran out of milk ,(at this time Bill was milking the estates herd of black and whites)I dashed home and raided the fridge for milk, I didnt think the customers would notice any difference. All went well until a group of middle aged, Harley Davidson enthusiasts popped in for cream teas, they ate scones,cream,and jam,and asked for another jug of milk. When they came to pay,the"leader of the pack",a silver haired gentleman of 60ish whispered,that was real milk wasnt it ,I nodded, end of story, no my tea shop became the regular Sunday cream tea ,"with a little something extra" destination for the Birmingham Harley Davidson club, groups of leather clad, grey haired bikers would assemble each week,and "Yes your honour"I supplied them with their weekly fix of an illegal substance , REAL milk. We still drink our Dexter milk, and Kitty our farm cat would rather have water from a muddy puddle than drink "shop milk".:

[Woodmagic]

This topic took me down memory lane, too. In my early Land Army days I used to transport our milk to a local dairy to be pasteurised and the resulting product was brought home to be bottled. On one occasion curiosity prompted me to taste before and after treatment. I found it difficult to believe it was the same milk; the cream and body had completely disappeared. I think I can safely say drinking around a pint and half daily for the last fifty odd years of unpasteurised Dexter milk doesn’t seem to have cut my life short, to say nothing of many pints of cream over the years.

[stew]

we are the only animal to carry on drinking milk after we are weaned

i was given goats milk as a baby and fetched two lab pups up on it
we have hand milked one of my dexter cows for home home use

[Kathy Millar]

The sale of unpastuerized milk in Canada is illegal. You can't even give it away. And how many people die each year from prescription drugs?