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Raw Milk

Thanks @phoenix for that reply

Yes I can see I am looking at the past through rose tinted glasses. Back to reality, hey? :)
 
We all do that sometimes, when the raw milk distributor first arrived, it had an almost full sized model cow that went 'moo'. I was tempted to buy some at the time and we bought it a few times (TBH I didn't really notice a difference in taste and I had some concerns even then)
When I was looking for the photo I found avideo about the life of 3 generations of local farmers farming just down the road. I've several times spoken to the youngest of them and I know how hard they work. She is a potter and is trying to diversify by making pots and filling them with goat's cheese for the tourist trade.
The film shows that it's far from an idyll Although the cheesemaking facility is fairly modern, the rest of it is far from the scrubbed hygienic milking parlour shots you normally see http://www.ferme-de-la-roselle.com/
Maybe it's only interesting to me because I live there (it's unfortunately long and a bit hard to understand, the Mami and Pappi speak mainly in patois, the maman and papa speak very fast with strong accents, it's only the daughter who I know has been away to art college that speaks in recognisable French!)
 
Yes I see what you mean about the French. I didn't catch much of that at all! But it looks like home! Rose tinted specs again. I wish I was back on the farm right now, it was such hard work, but such worthwhile work too. Life was somehow 'richer' then.

Raw milk was fine then because it was under our own control to keep it as safe and clean as possible. I'm not sure I'd like it produced by someone else's farm though. OK - pasteurised is best. :)
 
When I delivered the milk it was with horse and cart but when I was thirteen vans had been aquired ... Bedford with a milk float style back.
Column change gears three forward one backuds and I started using them aged 13.
 
I drank raw milk on and off for ;last 26 years as we were dairy farmers. I only drank it as I knew its provenance as we were a TB free herd in low risk area with excellent herd health status. Just before we sold up last year , TB was found about 6 miles away in a clean area - sadly wildlife vectors and cattle from other areas don't respect arbitrary boundaries. And TB isn't only milk borne disease- salmonella, Crohn's disease and campylobacter can all be passed on or linked to unpasteurized milk.
 
JACKTHELAD said:
When I delivered the milk it was with horse and cart but when I was thirteen vans had been aquired ... Bedford with a milk float style back.
Column change gears three forward one backuds and I started using them aged 13.
Click to expand...
images
also nice easy doors
 
We've been using it since we found it at the farmer's market, so about 4 years and have seen little to no difference in terms of effect on bg to that of pasteurised milk.
 
izzzi said:
images
also nice easy doors
Click to expand...
Yeah one of them!
I used to drive around three miles every morning before school ... deliver to the police houses at the end of the lane one was a seargents house and it never crossed their minds to say anything about a school kid driving the van.
Much more laid back then but no motorways hardly any traffic on housing estates

I sometimes visit the street I grew up on and the street now and the street then has changed ... in ownership and rights.
Those streets belonged to the kids back then ... for bikes ball games etc ... if a car came by it had to slow down maybe even stop while the volley ball net was moved to one side or the box wickets but now .... those roads belong to the cars and their owners and they have all the rights.
You can't use a street that's lined with a million quids worth of shiny metal as a playground.
Shame.
 
I really can't see that people who are truly lactose intolerant would be able to tolerate raw milk. They are that way because. like most animals the gene that produces lactase is switched off after infancy. Those of us who can tolerate lactose are the descendants of those herders who acquired a mutation that kept the gene switched on.(lactase persistence) This ability conferred a distinct survival advantage since it provided another food source ie you could make immediate use of the milk without having to ferment it or process it into cheese to reduce the lactose content .
There are though many parts of the world where the mutation didn't arise and most people are still lactose intolerant
(Edited to correct Apparently only 35% of adults can digest milk but most people who have Northern European ancestry can (one of my favourite subjects since it combines genetics,archaeology and diet!) Nothing to do with raw milk per se but you might be interested. http://www.nature.com/news/archaeology-the-milk-revolution-1.13471
 
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A late comment; Not milk but buy my lovely unpasteurised Jersey cream at Farmers market, guess you all know that the protein casein is different in Jersey dairies (similar to goat and sheep)
 
nomistheman said:
Does anyone of the forum members consume it?

I remember Green Top milk - was that raw or just un-homogenised?

I'm quite intrigued by the health benefits. Anyone out there in forum land have any thoughts, observations or even better experience to share?

TIA
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For many years I worked as a herdswoman and milked 164 Jersey cows twice a day. Guess who had the pickings of the milk first thing in the morning ie thick Jersey cream as all the cream was at the top of the bulk tanks in the morning? I used to take my ration before the paddle started up once the morning milk went in warm from the cow.
All the rules and regulations have changed so much now though, that I suspect unless you have a licence you can not sell to the general public, it used to be the case I think at one point they tried to stop the farmers drinking their own milk from the tanks.
 
nomistheman said:
@phoenix

Interesting study thanks for that.

I can't help but wonder if they had no indications of improved lactose digestion as the raw milk was from grain fed cows rather than grass fed? The cow's diet Is not mentioned at all and being grass fed would make a difference?

Everything I've read about English raw milk indicates organic grass fed raw milk has a better nutritional content - including friendly bacteria - than pasteurised milk.

Also, English raw milk has more lactase (which breaks down lactose) as pasteurisation actually destroys lactase - this has to be a benefit for English raw milk?

I'm not lactose intolerant - well, I don't get stomach cramps nor diarrhoea when I consume it - but, I do tend to generate more mucus in my nasal cavities with milk. I was wondering if English raw milk might improve that?

I guess I should take the plunge and do my own n=1 experiment. :)
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Milking cows have to be fed concentrates in the winter months as not enough nutrients in the grass. Milking cows are also housed in the winter months so fed silage (pickled grass) plus other feed stuffs.
I used to love milk and cream but am very lactose intolerant now so have to use lactose free milk and cream. :(
 
The farm I worked on as a kid was the last in an industrial area surrounded by old cotton mills and growing housing estates.
The winter feed was mostly a barley and hops mash from Robinsons brewery ... yep Robinsons beer brewery.
We would collect a truck full once a week all hot and smelly.
There was a furnace fifteen foot tall that boiled the water for the bottle washing room and for cooking up two big tanks of pig swill made up of scraps the milk customers left out on the door steps which consisted of a lot of bread and chicken carcasses.
The fuel we shovelled into the furnace?
Not coal or wood but Smiths crisps.
Once a week we would drive to Smith crisps and a shute would fill the back of the truck with hot freshly made crisps!
Two or three of us kids would sit on this giant pile of hot fresh crisps for the journey back to the farm stuffing our faces.
It was a real privilege.
Seems so odd looking back to it now.
Who came up with the idea don't know but the heat off a shovel of crisps was furious and instant.
Bet it was dead cheap too.
 
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