My next baby step on the Nourishing Traditions (NT) path was to start our household using raw milk. There is a lot of research out there (not just from NT) that suggests that a lot of important nutrients, beneficial bacteria and other "good" things are missing from our modern milk because of pasteurisation. NT really stressesNow, in the past, I think pasteurisation was vitally important and more importantly saved potentially millions of lives - we did not have a well regulated sanitary dairy industry, and diseases such as brucellosis and tuberculosis were rife. Now, however, is a different story. Australia has been declared free of brucellosis (since 1989) and bovine TB (since 2002) as has Canada. Thus, there is no real risk of getting these illnesses from unpasteurised milk.
Despite this, it is illegal to sell raw milk for human consumption here in Australia. However, there are a number of producers who have circumvented this by selling their organic raw milk as "bath milk" for cosmetic purposes. You can find brands such as Cleopatra's Bath milk at local organic food stores, and this is what I was using until recently.
I have been happy with the Cleopatra's Bath Milk, produced from pasture fed jersey cows in Queensland, but really wanted to find a local source. Last week, I finally found Perth Organics who make local raw milk deliveries weekly. The milk comes in 5 litre plastic delivery containers, so it needs to be re bottled into easier to use containers. The pic at the top of the post is my beautiful milk re bottled into glass bottles. It is just wonderful to drink milk the old fashioned way - in glass bottles with the cream floating on top!
Do any of you drink raw milk? Do you think it makes you feel better?
Labels: food, nourishing traditions