Raw milk does have a whole different (and better) taste than pasteurized! But this stuff is pretty pricey...

Sounds like a great, "back-to-nature" notion. Now if I just could stand the taste of milk...:)

I don' t drink any cow's milk or any meat from a cow. Caseine which is in all milk, it is a milk protein is a fertilizer for cancer. Read the book, The China Study by Dr Cambell or Campbell. I always forget which way to spell his name. This is the best book I have ever read on the subject of health. HE was commissioned by our government to study why the rates of cancer are so low among the Chinese who lived outside of cities. What he found would then be hidden from the public as it would destroy the dairy industry. We use rice milk.

But I agree, nothing that is pasteurized is good for you. The process kills all the good enzymes you need. It is better even to just eat fruit whole instead of in a juice, unless you juice it yourself. We don't have anything pasteurized in our home.

I just bought a half gallon of this unpasteurized milk for the first time. Took it up to my doctor Dad, because he's always lamented that you can't get unpasteurized milk like he used to have from his grandparents' farm. I had a glass with him, even though I don't like drinking milk. It tasted quite different from the pasteurized, homogenized stuff you get at the supermarket. Sweeter... (maybe that's because the cream was still part of it?) Anyway, tasted great and didn't make me sick!

Living and working in a farming community, it is very common here to drink raw milk, as they say, right from the bulk tank. But then they know how their cows have been raised. Clean and healthy cows give safe milk. Unlike factory cow farms, where they pump antibiotics and BGH Bovine grown hormones into them.

Mary, I agree. I felt fine about this local raw milk because it is coming from a local source that is not just a "single-herd dairy," but is actually a "single-cow dairy" (their other milk is goat's milk from their three dairy goats!)

I grew up drinking raw milk as a child on a dairy farm.  The taste is completely different from what is sold in the stores.  I remember being given pasteurized milk in school for the first time; I was shocked and refused to drink it because it tasted so bad. When my parents stopped dairying, I pretty much stopped consuming cow's milk.

Nowadays, my family does not drink cow's milk as a rule.  My husband gets a hankering for it occasionally and we go through a half gallon of organic or local stuff once every three or four months.  I would not hesistate to give the kids or hubby some raw milk for the experience is I knew the farm conditions.  It is just like the beef we eat - we want to know our cow, so to speak.

I wish I could get it here. I've only had it a few times. I does taste different....really good and sweet.

It does absolutely taste different. I got to like it one summer when I worked on a farm and was able to get mine "fresh from the cow."

Only real downside to this new little raw milk dairy is that the milk's pretty expensive.

So, I've got a question. I always thought it was not legal to sell unpasteurized milk. I've heard of folks who sell small (like 1%) "shares" of a dairy cow, so that all the "owners" can legally drink the unpasteurized milk from "their" cow. Is it possible to sell unpasteurized milk in other states, too? Or is this just a "New Mexico" thing? Anybody out there in Activerain-land know the answer?

Colorado is also seeing an emerging raw milk industry.

Apparently, raw milk is legal as long as it does not cross state lines.

Colorado is also seeing an emerging raw milk industry.

Apparently, raw milk is legal as long as it does not cross state lines.

It's a trend I'm happy to see. Wonder if it extends beyond our Rocky Mountain STates. Do the dairy capital states like Wisconsin have the same trend?

Laura,

Thank you for writing this post.  I have been searching on how to get real, raw milk for my family.  I was reading about it in this great book called Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.  I have 5 kids whom I have diligently fed store bought milk to for all of their young lives, plus I grew up drinking my share.  It is disappointing that this great drink isn't more readily available. I'd love to be able to purchase it for all of us, but we don't live close enough to this farm nor do we have the funds to purchase it.  Hopefully more people will provide this wonderful stuff for us non-cow-owning city-folks.  And thanks for spreading the word that this drink really is healthy.

Laura, I am not surprised you found a "lost art" in New Mexico. Everything is here- the old and the new, and the Bosque Farms/ Los Lunas area is so interesting in what I consider to be their transitional stage. With respect to raw milk however, I was of the opinion that we drink it at our peril of getting really sick, legally or not.

Eloise, it's certainly ture that in buying milk from huge commercial concerns you'd want to have it pasteurized; they mix the milk from thousands of cows from many huge dairies. If even one cow is sick, or the santary procedures broke down in the milking of one cow, the tainted milk could infect the whole batch, I suppose.

But if the cow is healthy, and the proper sanitary precautions are being followed, the raw milk is actually healthier. Or so says my doctor dad...

Emily, you're right, the higher price is a drawback, especially if you're needing quantities enough for 5 kids.

I've heard of groups that let you "buy" a small portion of a cow, and get the milk regularly. If there's anyone doing that near you it might be a more cost-effective way of getting raw milk for your kids.