The first time I tried raw milk

I grew up in California, in a suburb of San Jose. We didn't have access to raw milk, and the only time I ever experienced it was when I was 5 years old and my family went across the country to visit relatives in Pennsylvania. There, we got to see goats being milked, cows being milked, and a myriad of other things that I can' tseem to recall. I remember being squirted with milk as someone was milking a goat, I believe. I did not think that was funny at all.

But now that I know what happens on commercial dairy farms when they produce milk. I cannot get myself to drink store bought milk anymore. The blood and the pus that gets into the milk is "fine" for us to drink because it is going to be pasteurized. If they didn't pasteurize, the dairies would never be licensed because of all the crud and germs, bacteria and such that are in the not so clean dairy production centers... "but it is ok because pasteurization will kill them all". No, thank you. I gag now when I think of drinking milk from the store. Not to mention the hormones and antibiotics that will be lurking in your milk, or that the cows are fed genetically modified soy and corn. Yuck. Gross. Disgusting.

So, I found a co-op in my area that I could join and become a "member". As a result, I would have access to raw milk from an organic farm. One of the HUGE differences between an organic dairy farm and a commercial farm is the cleanliness and the gentle way of treating the animals vs. shoving them to be milked from a metal machine that makes their teats swollen, infected and inflamed. The safety and cleanliness requirements are way above and beyond what is required of a commercial dairy.

The first time I tried raw milk, I have to be honest, I couldn't drink it straight. I had to make chocolate milk. So I was drinking chocolate milk for about 2 weeks!! YUM! And I used it for cooking, and then for cereal. Pretty soon I became familiar with it, the wholesome goodness of fresh milk, from a bottle that I had to shake to distribute the cream on top!

Then I was hooked.

I recently went through the same process with kefir. I had been making homemade yogurt, which was very time consuming. I was told that kefir was so much easier, but when I thought of drinking fermented milk, it just grossed me out (even though yogurt is a type of fermented milk and I ate that all the time!). So, I slowly tried, started making it with some raw milk kefir grains a local farmer gave me. I started out by making fruit smoothies with it, and then just flavoring it with vanilla extracts... and now I barely sweeten it at all.

New processes and new foods take time to be comfortable with, but I am so glad I did. They don't seem strange to me anymore, but 5 years ago they did.

I am thankful I have my delicious, healthy, wholesome milk, and raw milk kefir now. I am getting REAL nutrition, an abundance of vitamins and minerals and other nutrients, and tons of healthy probiotics for my insides :) Oh, and tons of enzymes that my body needs, as well.

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