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Conventional dairies are where most of us get our milk. Usually, the animals are confined in a building their whole lives. It requires heavy equipment to move around feed which may come from around the country. These cows are sometimes fed really strange feed. They are fairly stressed animals and have a very short drug filled life. The milk is collected from many dairies and bulk loaded into large tanker trunks and shipped to a regional processing plant. The milk is skimmed of cream which is later pasteurized. A set amount of cream is homogenized into the milk and then it is pasteurized. I’m not sure when, but a number of additives are put into the milk at some point. There is a whole range of substances now routinely added to milk.

A raw dairy is based on pasturing cows. The cows are on pasture all their lives. They live a more natural life and thus are less likely to become sick. The cows have over twice the life expectancy of a convention dairy cow. The cows come into the milking room twice a day. The milk is collected and processed on site. Processing involves removing some of the cream to a given percentage and bottling. The milk is not pasteurized or homogenized. There are no additives to the milk. These raw dairies are required by law to test for bacteria in each load of milk. Then the milk is bottled. Claravale Farms uses glass and Organic Pastures uses plastic containers. As the milk sits for awhile the cream comes to the top. How much cream on the top used to be the way our grandmothers assessed the quality of milk.

When I milk Patty, my Jersey cow, I get her into the milking shed and feed her some grain. As she is eating, I clean her bag and udders with warm soapy water. I do not use any antiseptic, though some farmers do. I milk her by hand into a pail. When I am finished I strain the milk into a large one gallon glass container. I put this glass container into my cooler with a bag of ice. After I get home, I put the raw milk into the fridge and wait for the cream to come to the top. I will skim cream if I am wanting to make butter or need cream for some other reason. Otherwise, I decant the whole raw milk into small containers that my children can pour with ease. Very few people of my generation have drunk whole raw milk. It is wonderful.