Raw Milk

I think I must live in my own universe. I am always the last to know anything. There is this massive food revolution going on and I knew nothing about it. People are turning back to natural foods grown as nature intended. They are eating meat from grass fed cattle and free range everything. And I was oblivious to it all.

But I had a rapid emersion course in organic foods when I first came to New Zealand. Dan and Yael were both very keen that their children (at that time child #1 was on the way) get the most they could out of their food.

Dan, a researcher at heart, had spent literally months familiarizing himself with food. When he got to NZ he began talking to anyone who had something to offer on the subject. This included owners of health food stores, farmers, butchers, etc.

Finally, he bought a farm and stocked it with sheep and steers for our eating pleasure. Then came the chickens and fresh eggs from the most spoiled chickens on the planet. Now, of course, we have branched out to include organically grown veggies. With little success so far!

So I thought I was pretty darned up to speed in the healthy eating department. And then Dan dropped the latest bomb. There is a product called 'raw milk'. I suppose I knew that at some stage milk was raw but I had never thought about it. I had not even connected the word pasteurization to Louis Pasteur. I am lactose intolerant and spent very little of my gray cells on the subject of milk.

But it seems that Dan has researched the raw milk thing up one side and down the other and come to the conclusion that we, as a family, should try it. This would include me. I tried to opt out citing my allergy to milk but he was persuasive. It seems that I might not be allergic to milk itself but to the pasteurization process that kills so much of the good bacteria. Since, as he pointed out, I have a severely inhibited immune system, I should try it.

I was very reluctant but cravenly hoped he would forget about it or not be able to find a raw milk supplier. How little I know my son. He showed up here with raw milk, gave me half a glass and watched me drink it down.

Believe me, I didn't want to. My stomach churned at the thought but it churned more when I looked at my son standing there proudly assured that he was improving my health. I couldn't let him down. Once at mother, always a mother. Anyway, I drank it. It didn't taste like any milk I had ever had. Normally I could have about half a glass of skim milk every other day. This tasted nothing like skim. In the picture you can see the cloudy stuff around the inside of the container. That, folks, is butter fat. And is it good! I mean really, really good.

The half glass didn't upset my digestive system. Neither did the full glass I had the next day. Or the glass I had the day after that. I am thinking of increasing to half a glass in the morning with cereal (my muesli suddenly doesn't taste like sawdust any more). Then I might have a whole glass with a cookie for afternoon tea. My food world has just expanded. I think I like this food revolution thing but I am standing firm with Dan on this one. I will NOT get a milk cow and start milking day and night. NO WAY!