Unpasteurized milk

[taraann81]

We recently got goats and when they are older my hubby is sooo excited about milking them and drinking their milk and making cheese and goat milk fudge, and I'll just say he talks about it a lot. Anyways I feel leary about drinking it.

Help me too feel better about it, or shouldn't we drink it?

Thanks

 

[Chirpy]

I LOVE our raw goats milk... fresh every morning and night. Raw milk that has been properly handled is very good for you. Our whole family has been drinking it for almost a year.

Here's a great site with super information: http://www.rawmilkcolorado.org/about_Raw_Milk.php

 

[taraann81]

Thanks chirpy. I will look at that link! BUT I do feel better about it all ready.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

We have cows and drink the milk raw. As long as your animals are healthy, your equipment clean, and you cool the milk right away raw milk is good for you.

I would recommend that if, you have a compromised immune system to consult your doctor first but, even then it should be fine.

 

[Rence]

Before I will drink unpasteurized, I always have the animal tested for TB and Brucellosis. You'll need to have a vet do this. Otherwise, I pasteurize - always.

My animals are healthy and are negative for TB and brucellosis, but sometimes I wonder what kind of stuff I can bring it from the field, especially when it's mucky out. So I often pasteurize, because it's in the processing that makes it unsafe, and sometimes I don't always trust myself to get them clean enough. Certainly, I think the goats are easier to get clean than the cows.

But there's NOTHING like fresh raw milk. It's sooo good! I guess I have it both ways. The best of both worlds

 

[freemotion]

There are some very scholarly articles on www.westonaprice.org and some good info on www.realmilk.com.

Milk contains many antibacterial properties that are also destroyed by pasteurization....the good and the bad are killed. Cows and goats are designed to sleep on the ground and then have newborns suckle without dying left and right.

So keep your barn clean, your pastures not overcrowded, your animals healthy, your milking and filtering and storing procedures hyper-clean and you will be just fine.

If you get to read ALL the articles on the first link above, you will feel so confident with unpasteurized milk you will be practically drinking it right from the goat!

 

[Rence]

Freemotion, I know you are so right. I just can't get the previous germ-phobia teachings out of me. But I've come a long way because I actually do drink it raw often. I just am afraid to offer it to my family raw. If they got sick because of anything I didn't do correctly, I'd feel real bad.

For a while there, I was only using raw goat milk for everything because all my Jersey milk was going to two bottle babies

And actually, I prefer goat milk in my coffee. It gives just the right color

 

[Roll farms]

We stove-top pasteurize simply b/c since I share our fudge, cheese, ice cream, etc. w/ family I feel better knowing it's been done.
I do it for the kids I'm raising CAE prevention, so why not for us?
Just how we do it...I say do whatever you're comfortable with.

 

[Scout]

Well, I've yet to have goat's milk (my two are just babies still, but hopefully in Feb/March they'll have some kids down LOL) but I've pretty much drunk milk straight from the cow my whole life and I aint dead yet. That store milk's about as nasty as anything I've ever put in my face, raw's so much better in my humble opinion (usually it aint so humble LOL.) So, as long as ya take care of your critter's and there healthy, your equipment's clean, and ya keep it cool, you'll be fine. I only know one person my entire life who got sick from that, but she was kinda... nuts anyway. Her animals were always in horrible condition and WORMY to the extreme, she never cleaned her equipment I swear, and she'd let the milk set out on the porch for several hours before fridgin it. Course then she'd also butcher somethin in the dead of summer and let the meat set out all day and usually overnight before she got around to puttin it in the fridge, it'd always have flies ALL over it, it's amazin that poor thing aint dead yet... What dont kill ya makes ya stronger I guess LOL.

 

[freemotion]

More cases of food-borne illness come from fruits and veggies than from raw milk! So do we stop eating raw veggies? No, we wash them thoroughly if they come from the store and we eat them right off the plant if they come from our own gardens.....am I right?