More about my cow... | Hilary Baumann

** This page is fairly out of date **

Raw Milk Resource: http://www.realmilk.com/where2.html

The recent article in the Huffington Post that does a good job of summarizing raw milk.

Most people that have a problem with milk is related to the way most milk is produced. Sick hormone and antibiotic filled cows that are milked to the point that they get sores on their udders and then the milk is pasteurized and homogenized.

Milk USED to make me sniffle.

I have tried going without milk and dairy completely before and I wasn’t really any better than I had been when I was having generic dairy a few times a week. But too much milk and I was super sniffly. 3-5 week trials is what I do when I try testing something that might be affecting my allergies. My mother has numerous allergies so I’ve been through the obsessive label reading because of her growing up.

I went from regular milk to organic milk and saw some improvements in my allergies. Then I went from mass produced organic milk to a locally produced organic milk that was low-heat pasteurized but not homogenized. Again, less reaction to the milk. Then my sister told me she had a cow share and I tried her milk – no allergic mucousy reaction to the milk. I bought a cow share.

Buying or selling raw milk in many states is illegal but it is not illegal to own a cow and drink the raw milk from it. Thus I plopped down $70 for the share and then $20 for 6 glass bottles from the farmer (prices vary from farm to farm and prices may change with inflation as well.) I then pay a $30 a month for cow maintenance.

I now get a gallon of raw organic non-homogenized milk from my farmer once a week. It is SO much better tasting! And in a weird way it’s also more versatile. I can let it sit for a couple of days and skim off the cream to make butter or whipped cream or ice cream if I want. I can warm it to about 110 degrees and make lemon cheese or vinegar cheese or yogurt. It did not cure me of all of my allergies but for some people it can have healing effects.

Again, I will say that it may not be for everyone. Some people actually are allergic to the milk protien … but some people who thought that they were allergic to milk or were lactose intolerant have no problems with raw dairy.

Raw milk is however delicious and much more nutritious than the homogenized crap I drank growing up.

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IF you can’t get raw milk, not all organic milk is created equal: http://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html

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Raw milk has been used as a therapy in folk medicine and even in the Mayo Clinic for centuries. It has been used in the pre-insulin days to treat diabetes (I’ve tried it, it works), as well as eczema, intestinal worms, allergies, and arthritis, all for reasons which can be understood when we realize just what is in milk such as the cortisone-like factor for allergies and eczema. Tom Cowan, MD realmilk.com

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Health and business journalist David E. Gumpert, author of the newly released Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights:

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Updates on my raw milk story:

Update Mid-April 2008: My farmer’s milking machine blew up in January and I have been without milk. We do have the option to sell our share back to them but I feel like they are providing me with something I couldn’t do on my own so I do still have my share (there’s no way I could keep a cow in the backyard here.) There were extenuating circumstances but as a result the cows went unmilked and as such have to calve again before we’ll begin receiving milk.My sinus allergies are back again. I had little to no fall allergies when I was drinking the raw milk (and this last fall was the first time in 16 years I did not get bronchitis and pneumonia) but right now I’m going through the kleenex like I used to before the raw milk. Before this week I would have just said my other allergies were not helped by the raw milk but now I’m beginning to think it was actually maybe helping my allergies more than I realized.I wonder at this point if local raw dairy is somewhat akin to the claim that local raw honey helps allergies to be honest.I did change my eating and exercise habits in the fall but I have kept that up this spring so the only difference is the dairy this spring (and usually my spring allergies are not as bad as my fall allergies.)

I’m looking forward to getting my raw milk again soon here!

Update Mid-July 2008: I got my milk back towards the end of May. Allergies have been level since then but I need to seriously get into walking more again. Bought a lawnmower and mowed the lawn for the first time in ages myself … and for the first time ever it didn’t make me miserable allergy-wise the next day. Yay!

Update Sept 27 2010:

First the Progress: Low Temp Pasturization for the masses

My response to:
http://savoringkentucky.com/wordpress/2010/08/30/116milk/

Unpasteurized milk is safe IF given proper care and handling (of the cows and the milk.) I would not drink unpasteurized milk from a factory farm or source I could not trace and trust. However I regularly drink raw milk because I own a cow share (I pay a farmer maintenance on a portion of a cow for me in order to get raw dairy because of state laws.)

We have made technological advances in milking equipment and practices and pasteurization is mainly necessary because of the lack of care and handling in a factory farming scenario.

I do however believe that the low temp pasteurization without homogenization is a good step in the right direction for the general public. Not everyone has the time or are willing to take the time to get to know a farmer, and deal with picking their milk up from one source on a scheduled basis. It’s a good intermediary step in getting back to healthier foods.

As for homogenization – shaking a milk jug now to recombine the cream and milk before pouring is really not that hard or time consuming folks. 123 pour.

Healthier animals equal healthier people when it comes to meat and dairy even if you disagree with me on the pasteurization or homogenization.

Raw dairy helped my sinus allergies so I’m a big fan and I know other people who have resolved or greatly improved other health issues by switching to raw dairy.

Another link on raw dairy: http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/raw-milk.html

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This might seem like conspiracy theory but sadly it’s real: