I'm currently reading this and find it very fascinating. There's much more info here than just what happened to milk in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Parts of this are like an education in food science, some history and politics, quite a bit of info!
I'm not even half way done, but would love to have a discussion about this with anyone that has read it, or knows anything about raw milk. I'm going to post a link to this in the General Discussion forum and see how many people know about this.
For a link to the book: http://www.newtrendspublishing.com/USOMilk/
I joined the blogging bandwagon: http://some-thingscookin.blogspot.com/
Oh, I'll have to add this to my library list. I've looked over http://www.realmilk.org/? I think is the raw milk site. I love raw milk, but it's expensive, so we get non-homogenized low-temp-pasteurized.
We bought a cow so we could get it cheaper! The health food store in the next town sells raw cow milk for nearly $15/gallon! The $600 cost of a cow seemed like a better investment, especially since we want it from a pasture fed cow. Plus, we have 2 acres of just pasture for her!!
Yes, realmilk.org is the site-I'm thinking about joining the Weston Price Foundation. Have you read other raw milk books?
I've read that book. We, too, bought a cow. Her name is Blossom. She's a Jersey and gives the creamiest, sweetest milk around! She is pastured during the nice weather and given hay in the winter (we live in Western NY). I make my own cheeses, yogurt, butter, and ice cream. My kids won't drink store bought milk. My 8yo says it's "not good for you. It's a dead food." My younger children just think it's "yucky."
MSOmom, do you let her have any grain? I've been told that pastured doesn't mean no grain at all, but I can't find much on it either way. I have read one time that CLA production goes away with even a small amount of grain. Would like to know more...
Quoting Kelly913:MSOmom, do you let her have any grain? I've been told that pastured doesn't mean no grain at all, but I can't find much on it either way. I have read one time that CLA production goes away with even a small amount of grain. Would like to know more...
I read the same thing about the CLA, though I can't remember where I read it. Blossom doesn't get any grain at all.
You are correct about "pastured" not meaning no grain at all. If you buy "pastured" or "grass fed" beef you need to ask how the animal was finished. Most of the time the animal will be on grain for the last six weeks before slaughter.
Just as a side note, we are growing our herd of American Milking Devons. They are a heritage breed of bovine, similar to what the settlers would have had. They do well outside in winter, and they do well on just about any kind of grass/hay. (We will keep milking Blossom as long as possible, though. She's such a nice animal! We consider her a milk-giving pet.)
Our milk cow is 50% Jersey and 25% Angus/25% Charolais. I'm sure the lady we bought her from gave her grain, but we haven't given her any. Not sure if that makes any difference or if we'll need to raise on from birth w/o grain? There's a couple of local farmers selling pastured beef and I know one said it's all pasture, never any grain. I'm going to look into it again and try their meat before our little steer is ready to be butchered, to see what it tastes like.
What kind of grass/hay does Blossom get?
The way he keeps referncing other chapters it was hard not to go read something else, but I did manage to just read it from front to back. There were a few sections in the last chapters that I didn't read because it just felt like more of the same. The research on the Massai (sp?) tribe in Africa is something else!
Books
- Kelly913
on Feb. 22, 2010 at 3:58 PM