we've been getting unpasteurized cow's milk from a local dairy farmer lately. i don't know how much sense it makes, ultimately, to drink the milk of another species, but we do. i believe that the raw milk contains a lot of good stuff which makes it easier for our bodies to process, and contributes to overall health. there's a lot of info out there about it. one (probably biased) source is this. in any case, i feel better about giving cosmo dairy that has come from a healthy, grass fed cow, nearby, than i do giving him the stuff that has been shipped from far away, and has lost some of its nutritional value. plus, it is cheaper than getting the organic milk in the store, and the milk is stored in glass jars, which get re-used.
since it is illegal to sell raw milk, we purchase a share of a cow, pay a monthly care-and-feeding fee, and the farmer "gives" us some milk every week. we receive more milk that we are used to consuming (none of us are big milk drinkers), so we have been finding other things to do with it. so far we have made yogurt, cream cheese, and mozzarella.
(cream cheese, hanging over a bowl, and fresh out of the cheese cloth)
all of them have been very easy, with the yogurt being the easiest of all. you just heat it a little, add some starter (existing yogurt) and then pour it into a thermos and let it sit undisturbed for 6-8 hours. the cream cheese was made from a batch of yogurt, and all you do there is pour it into a few layers of cheese cloth and hang it overnight. the mozzarella is a bit more involved, but still, pretty quick and doable. and for each of these products, the taste can't be beat.
(home made mozzarella, and insalata caprese with our own tomatoes, basil and cheese)
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in other news, cosmo will turn THREE in exactly one month. aaaccckkk! how can this be?
4 comments:
wow! that looks absolutely delicious!
Thank you for dropping by my blog!
I love this post: I love that you have doubts about drinking milk, admit that a source might be biased, support local, and, most of all, make your own cheeses!!
Abby has the neatest friends; hope she doesn't mind if I follow them. ;)
For what it's worth, I could probably have a cow move into my apartment, be its only shareholder, and still require more milk than it could produce. I go through a gallon in less than a week, all by myself -- even when I am *not* pregnant.
I buy organic. Although I don't want to be, I am a little skittish of raw milk, since my sister and her family got impossibly sick last year from it. I'm so glad it's working out well for you, though.
Hello! I hopped over here from Julie's blog, and I'd love to know where you get your milk locally. I'd also be very happy to know the mozzarella recipe. Thanks in advance!
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