My family is really going through the raw dairy these days. I got the idea for this post when we – yet again – ran out of any and all raw dairy a full 24 hours before the next farm delivery. I even added a whole extra gallon to our order at last pickup and here we are out once more!
Do I run to the store and pick up a half gallon of ultrapasteurized organic milk to tide us over?
No way! Organic Valley or Horizon organic milk from the store is horrible, health-robbing stuff. I would never buy it. It is way better to go without until you are able to get more milk fresh from the farm.
We haven’t always consumed as much as we are now. It’s just that my oldest is starting puberty and drinking about a quart a day – maybe even more?
My other two kids have all of a sudden gotten into drinking it as well. I’ve always had to pretty much force them to drink their milk in the past (you know the drill – drink your milk or no bike ride after dinner or whatever).
Now they are gulping it down and asking for more.
I know this seems like a lot, but at the moment, our family of five is easily going through 4 gallons of grassfed cow milk and 2 gallons of foraging goat milk.
Per week!
Oh, I almost forgot. Add a half gallon of raw milk yogurt to that.
And 1-3 quarts of raw cream (for raw ice cream of course). Who can live without ice cream? We do a lot of milkshakes at our house.
Plus one pound of raw butter.
That’s a lot of full fat dairy for a family of five. But then again, we don’t buy any sodas, boxed breakfast cereal, and other processed foods so even though the fresh dairy is expensive, it fits within the budget.
Just my opinion, but I would go from two cars to one or move to a smaller house if necessary to afford our raw dairy. You can’t put a price on health. It is more important than any possession.
“Health is the first wealth” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
In light of how much saturated fat my family is consuming, some of you might be thinking that we surely must be a family of large people.
As it turns out, none of us has a weight problem. It’s really true – eat your whole, unprocessed fats and don’t skimp! It really does help keep you trim!
How much raw dairy does your family consume? I want to know and I’m sure others would too!
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
We live in TN. 2 adults and 1 child. 3 gallons of milk ($7 each), quart of yogurt ($4 each) , 1 lb of butter ($7 each) and 4 dozen eggs ($3 each) is our usual order. They also do mozz. chz and yogurt chz. We are so thrilled to have found this farmer. The milk is the best I have ever had. He feeds them absolutely no grain, even while milking. Great sanitary practices. Puts in glass jars. Will plant fast growing grasses even in the winter to keep up the high nutrition content. We used to live in a 2000 sq ft house in the “in”/yuppie are of town. Now, we live in a 900 sq foot apartment on the unpopular side of town. We have reduced our vitamin/supplement budget and are putting the money in to quality food. We have also joined CSAs and buy our meat, tallow and lard from farmers with great practices who are local. It is worth it to reduce one’s life style to have a longer, healthier life. We reduced our living space but increased our food quality.
We go through 8 gallons a week for our family of six and when we get a second fridge we will probably get 10 or more. A gallon is made into kefir and a gallon for clabber/sour cream, and one gallon for farmer’s cheese. I’m on GAPS so we also get 8 dozen farm fresh eggs too. The farm we buy from has Holsteins, but they are pastured and not grain fed and he said that he never has mastitis or any other health issues. We get it for $2 a gallon and eggs a $1 a dozen. I’m quickly realizing how spoiled we are.
… thinking about my earlier post: It occurs to me that putting milk in my coffee, or making my hot oatmeal with a certain percentage of milk, kinda cooks or pasturizes it to begin with. Thing is, I haven’t been able to drink milk straight up since entering college (where they kept confusing that horrid skim milk, which also turns rancid rapidly) with the whole milk).
Perhaps, if no suggestions are forthcoming, I’ll start with making home made cheese, a venture I’ve been planning on trying anyway.
I’m still having to deal with the “skeeve” factor about drinking raw milk but that’s a personal mental headsnake. Being, though, as I would like to try it, do raw milk producers sell in small quanitities? I can’t even find local milk producers who produce less than gallon quantities of pasturized to sell at a time.
My primary milk use is in coffee, with the occasional recipe on the side. Does raw milk freeze and remain healthy?
I use all the raw milk I can get for kefir and lots of other things such as raw cheese, Ice cream, buttermilk. I love raw milk I purchase mine locally.
I use about a quart of raw milk a day, and love it.
I don’t even know how much we go through as week. The 5 of us often go through a gallon a day. LOTS of raw butter. LOTS of raw milk cheese. LOTS of ice cream. 🙂 But we have Jerseys, one is dry now, one we’re still milking and one heifer that is due to calve in the spring. So next year we’ll be milking three Jersey girls. When the two are at peak, we get around 10 gallons of milk a day so there’s plenty to drink and make anything. We also do cow shares (in TN.)