As I started on this adventure of having my family eat healthier, whole foods I started reading a little bit about raw milk. What is raw milk? Raw milk is full fat milk that is not pasteurized and not homogenized. This is still pretty new to me so I am not going to go into the whole debate of pasteurized versus unpasteurized milk, but from what I had learned, raw milk is said to have many health benefits that you don't get from pasteurized milk. I have also seen other mom's say that their non-milk drinking kids would drink raw milk, and that is what prompted me to buy some this weekend.
My 18 month old doesn't like milk. I am actually not all that concerned about it. One of our 4 year old twins doesn't drink milk either. I just make sure he gets enough calcium from yogurt, cheese and supplements. However, I at least wanted to give all options a try this time around. So when I was in my local natural food store this weekend and I saw the raw milk in the refrigerator case, I decided to give it a try. Despite the $5.69 prie tag for half a gallon. Ouch.
This milk is from Stone Wall Dairy Farm in Cornwall Bridge, CT and is sold in various stores around the state. I should mention that I feel lucky that Connecticut is a state where the retail sale of raw milk is legal. There are many states where it is only legal to be sold at farms and then even some states where it is flat out illegal to sell raw milk. Seems pretty ridiculous to me but whatever.
So I came home with my half gallon of raw milk anxious to give my baby boy a sip. I noticed that the fat separates to the top, so I gave it a good shake and poured a little into a straw cup for him. Yeah, he didn't like it. After he took a small sip, he shook his head and handed the cup back to me. We tried again later but with the same result. This was also his same reaction to commercial milk. So, operation raw milk was a fail in that respect. Such a bummer for me. Though I do plan to keep trying while I have it in the house.
Now here I am, left with pretty much a full half gallon of raw milk and not sure what the heck to do with it. For some reason, I was so hesitant to try it myself. Is it wrong that I made my toddler taste it before I did? I think most moms probably taste something themselves before handing it over to their child. Nope, not me. I just put the container back in the fridge while I built up the courage to taste it.
Many hours later, I poured some into a glass for myself and drank it. You know what it tasted like? Milk. After reading how much better raw milk tastes I just envisioned that raw milk was going to be completely different and that is why I was nervous. I did not want it to be gross and then I really just through nearly $6 in the trash. So I was pleasantly surprised when I found that it tastes like commercial milk. I mean it is slightly different I suppose, but not that much. At least not for me.
Have you ever given raw milk a try? Did you love it? Hate it?
Have you considered goats milk? It's supposed to taste much better than milk and have more health benefits than regular milk. At some point in the near future I'll be getting some goats, but they won't be ready for kids for at least a year or two. I won't be pasteurizing the milk either.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't find it in the stores, you may want to contact a local goat farmer. It would probably be much cheaper buying directly from them than at a store.
Also? I can't buy unpasteurized milk in stores here. I'm not even sure the health food stores sell it.
I grew up drinking unpasteurized milk as a kid because my uncle had a dairy farm and we got milk for free from him. I loved it! It definitely does taste different than commercial milk to me. When we did have to start switching over to store bought milk, I couldn't stand the way that it tasted! I would drink tons of my uncle's milk every day, but when we bought store milk, I pretty much quit drinking it unless it was on cereal or something.
ReplyDeleteI just found a place locally here that has raw milk as well and was thrilled to have access to it again! It does carry a hefty price-tag, but it is so much better for them and tastes a world (in my opinion) better! Did you get the full-fat content milk or the two percent? Here you can get both in raw milk? The full-content milk will usually taste creamier and richer than pasteurized milk.
I would also try goat's milk. I love it as well, but am very picky about who I get it from. I have had some goat milk that tastes terrible, and the reason behind that is how it is produced and what they feed their goats. I had friends that had goats and their milk never tasted the way that the goat milk that I had bought before, tasted. They were very clean about their production, and were careful to make sure that they gave their goats enough grain so that the milk is sweeter.
Good luck!
I have never tried raw milk! I am lactose intolerant and someone suggested it to me as an easier to digest option, but I have been too much of a chicken to try it!
ReplyDeleteI don't like milk, but I can tolerate it in cereal and cooking. I couldn't do the raw milk though, especially after seeing the price. Yikes!
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