In the evening, just before the pigs dinner I let them out into the field for a run and a grass munch. There is not a lot of grass yet so there is still a danger of them rooting. So their grass break is not very long. But they eat the whole time.Pigs! Then they are called in for their dinner washing it down with a drink of raw milk.
Are you pregnant Poppy? (there has been no sign of her coming back into heat but you know I won’t believe it until I see the udder). See how she is losing hair on her back? It may just be seasonal shedding but today I am going to rub all the pigs all over with DE (Diatomaceous earth). If it is an external parasite that should clear it up.
I spent a lot of time yesterday afternoon with the small wire cutters trimming Tima’s nails. They are very tough and I find the wire cutters the best thing for the job. It is important with the kunekune to handle their feet often so this job goes easily. Tima has terrible hooves. They drink a little raw milk too. 
Naomi says hullo. She is seven days old today. She drinks a lot of raw milk.
Lady Astor washing her baby. She provides us with the raw milk made with good clean green grass.
When I am working with the cows and calves Boo has to stay outside the gate.
Boo hates to be out of the action especially when Naomi pulls faces and laughs at him. (Boo and Ton get raw milk for breakfast too)
And now I have raw milk in the fridge and soon it will be in my coffee. This is from yesterday’s milking – so you can see the thick cream. It takes a good 12 hours to separate up.
Today, I will skim that cream out- later today I will start a yoghurt with the milk and by tomorrow afternoon I will make raw cultured butter and by the weekend I will be making a fresh rosemary and chilli cheese. (Yes, I have rosemary and chillis growing in the glasshouse). I love the fresh cheese. Oh the joy of it. This lovely life. I will make more muesli today too, that is the best with cream!
And on Friday we drink White Russians!
I drink the milk raw of course. This is grass fed raw milk. The best of the best. I cannot stomach pasteurised milk but raw – I can drink as much as I like.(Raw milk is not for everyone of course and that is fine, I am not trying to start an argument, people get so heated (joke) over the raw milk discussion but for me it is a simple and powerful medicine.) I don’t sell it, I milk my cow for myself, my husband and my animals. But once I am back with raw milk in my diet all my aches and pains disappear. The soles of my feet no longer throb, the broken cracked skin on my hands clears up, my joints ease (and I am not old – just old injuries). My hay-fever goes away. My tiredness lifts. It is my magic! That and the summer of course, this beach girl LOVES the sun. I am a lucky girl.
Here is an interesting article I read the other day looking at the links between raw milk and alleviating arthritis. And if you can find raw milk it is a case of Know your Farmer. Only ever buy from the source, at the farm and inspect her set up first. Milk is a live food, it must be handled correctly. And also ask what the cows are eating – good green pasture is king!
Have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
79 responses to “Raw Milk”
I always say – the closer we can get to God’s created food as it was intended – the healthier we will all be. Nothing against modern refrigeration and storage methods – – – especially since they can keep those natural foods longer for our consumption.
Have a lovely day!!!
Naomi is looking so glossy and well, she is so sweet ! I wish I could get hold of raw milk, sounds just the thing I need! x
I have just been looking on the internet, and I can get raw milk from a farm in Buckinghamshire, quite a way away though. But there are farms scattered around the uk that do sell raw milk. They are not allowed to sell in shops though.
I love the photo of Lady A grooming Naomi. I have never had raw milk. I do not like pasteurized milk – I never have been able to stomach the taste. So, it would take a lot of courage for me to try raw milk… but gee, all of those health benefits you talk about make it mighty tempting for me to try it. Maybe when I come to visit I can try… at the very least I KNOW I love butter and cheese!!! Ha ha!
I am a great fan of raw milk myself, and it’s legal to buy it in SC. There is one local dairy just down the road (Milky Way Dairy) that sells raw jersey milk, which is ABSOLUTE HEAVEN. Goes for a bout $8/gallon, and believe it or not, you can even get it in the local grocery in a plastic jug (though I am no fan of plastic) just like any other old milk. I’m still not used to it after seven years in NC, where raw milk was highly prized but completely illegal. (People got around it through cowshares and the like, of course.) There are so many things I wish SC regulated a little more, but I’m glad they leave the milk alone!
It is illegal to sell raw milk here in Texas. However, folks get around it. They sell something else (ie:carrots) and you get a gallon of milk for free. 😉
A gallon of carrots please!
I remember the nudge-nudge-wink-wink transactions of raw milk in the US. It’s a shame. In France, they have raw milk vending machines! buck a litre!
WOW! In Chicago there is a black market, though it is not actually illegal to sell it here, but they love a black market up in chicago.. there are cafes where they meet to do the exchanges!
You are udderly fixated. 😉
Get mine from a local farmer, and arrive early on Monday mornings just as he is finishing the milking of his small Jersey herd, so I know it is as fresh as can be! had friends visit and put cream in a little jug for their coffee – that couldn’t say enough on how great my coffee was and was surprised when I told them it was cream off the top of my milk! They use that dreadful artificial cream ‘delight’ !!
artificial cream, that is an anachronism if ever I heard one!
I was at an ecological center yesterday with it’s farm and I saw a calf nursing and noted just how thick and white that raw milk was! It must be good stuff 🙂
I remember the big cans of milk being transported to the creamery at our farm in Germany. For a while we had a small creamery in the village. What I liked the best was the wonderful butter our milk produced.
I will concentrate on the healthy sheen on those cows avoiding the stuff in the fridge. We did have raw milk delivered to our house when I was young, but a TB scare meant the herd had to be put down and our family at that stage moved to the bottled kind. Raw or doctored, my body could not tolerate it.
I just read somewhere, someone said something like…some, some, some…It’s absolutely absurd that we live in a culture that thinks twinkies, cocoa puffs and mountain dew are good foods and raw milk is not! The best milk I ever had was raw goat’s milk and can’t get that either, for many of the same absurd reasons. I’ve never had raw cow’s milk but I’m sure it is just as wonderful and good for you as the goats!
I love Naomi’s sweet, little face!
I have never had raw milk. I can’t digest milk fats very efficiently due to a hereditary condition, but it sounds like magic! I’m glad you’ve got the milk flowing on the farmy now!
You are so lucky to be having the raw milk and making cheese. We pick our goat up next week and I certainly can’t wait to make cheese! You mentioned rubbing DE on for external parasites, would you give it internally to any of your animals?
YUP. it goes in their feed, esp for the chickens. Though the pigs hate it when I add it, the cows don’t seem to mind. However when it comes to internal parasites in pigs, i bring out the big guns, I lost a pig once to round worm.. do not want that to happen again.. c
Poor Boo – the cows are a bit big to be dog babies 😉