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Dearest homogeneous (but not homogenized) reader,
We are loving our cowshare!
We purchased part of a cow for a one-time fee, and every month pay a "boarding fee" for that cow. In return, we received a weekly supply of milk. A group of us that all live close to each other and all purchase milk from the same farm take turns once a week going out to pick up the milk - one person will pick up about 23 gallons, each personal jar labeled with the recipients' last name, as well as any eggs or meat that others in the group ordered that week.
Then, the day milk is picked up, we all go from our homes to the house of our group coordinator and pick up the milk from her, where it is kept buried in ice in chest freezers.
The milk is rich and creamy, with three to four inches of thick yellow cream on top of each half-gallon jar when we pick it up. Sometimes we skim it off and use the cream for butter, whipped cream, ice-cream, or other applications. Other times, we just shake it into the milk and enjoy the foamy, fatty goodness.
If you are wondering why we've chosen not to drink pasteurized milk, you can read more about raw milk in this (biased, but nonetheless interesting) book.
With our raw milk, we make yogurt, kefir, cheeses, and other cultured treats that cannot be made with dead, cooked milk, which lacks the necessary enzymes to make all that healthy probiotic yummy culture that nutritionists are always telling you to get more of.
Not to mention raw tastes eighteen-hundred-thousand times better than pasteurized (based on a scientific assessment by myself)!
We also get eggs with our milk supply, and these eggs - being pasture-raised, organic, local and fresh - can be used to make tiramisu, eggnog, and other raw-egg treats that would not be safe to eat with factory-raised eggs.
The milk is devilishly good when mixed with Trader Joe's Organic Midnight Moo syrup, to make the thickest chocolate milk you'll ever enjoy. Mr H can easily put away a quart of this with his dinner, and go back for more!
I know exactly what is in our milk. I know how much bacteria is allowed, where the cows are raised, how they are treated. I know who is milking them, I've talked with them, I've shaken their hand, I've enjoyed their farm. I know what my dollars are supporting, and who they are buying dinner for. I know the nutritional properties of the fats and enzymes in the milk. I know exactly how many miles the milk traveled to get to my house (forty-seven, if you're wondering).
What's in your milk?
Mrs H
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Find milk near you!
Ice cream isn't deadly when it's made with real, fresh cream, milk, and eggs!
101 uses for soured milk - that's right, when raw milk turns sour, it hasn't gone bad - it has just changed into a new product!
