Category Archives: raw milk

farms, NOFA, organic, raw milk

Raw Milk Detour

Sometimes, life just takes you to wonderful places.

We left the NOFA Conference and segued into our summer vacation: visiting friends and enjoying some down time in the great state of VT. I decided to pick up some raw milk at a farm along the way–well, slightly off the beaten path. This required us to move our driving plans off of a major interstate and on to a local “highway.” (It has a number, so it’s a highway…other than that, it’s a back road.) Good move–the scenic route was the better way.

Chase Hill Farm is in Warwick, MA (Google map) and has organic raw milk, farmstead cheeses, grass-fed beef and veal, and whey-fed pork. They are members of NOFA MA (that’s how I found them–in the NOFA guide!). The milk has an excellent creamline and tastes great. For more information, see the dairy page of the NOFA MA site (scroll down to the bottom of the page) .

raw milk, recipes

Raw Milk Yogurt

I finally made a decent raw milk yogurt! I had the flavor I wanted, but couldn’t get the consistency. I kept getting something that would properly be called a yogurt shake. The problem was that I wasn’t heating the milk enough. Heat destroys the enzymes and natural good bacteria in the milk and I wanted to keep those. Otherwise, why not just use pasteurized milk? But it turns out that the milk’s bacteria was competing with the starter culture! So, do you lose the benefits of using raw milk if you heat it to 180 degrees (as many yogurt recipes suggest)?

According to Linda Joyce Forristal (care of the Weston Price site):

Whatever temperature the milk will be heated to, in my opinion it is best to begin with raw milk. It is not homogenized so you get a wonderful cream on top. It has not had milk solids added to it, so it won’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Most important, raw milk has not been pasteurized, which is a violent, rapid-heating process that has a very detrimental effect on the proteins in the milk. A slow, gentle heating on your stove top will more effectively preserve the integrity of fragile milk proteins, especially if you remove the milk from the stove as soon as the desired temperature has been reached.

Here’s my recipe:
1 quart of raw milk
1/4 cup of good commercial organic yogurt as a starter (I used Seven Stars)

Measure out the starter and allow to come to room temperature while heating the milk. In a saucepan, slowly bring the milk up to 180 degrees, stirring periodically (it took me one hour). Allow the milk to cool back down to 110 degrees, again stirring periodically. Put the milk and starter into jars, twist on a lid, and place in a dehydrator at 115° for 8 to 10 hours. (I did 10.) Refrigerate the jars. Since the milk had not been homogenized, there is a lovely cream line.

farms, foraging, locavore, raw milk

Saturday’s Forage (6/14)

We’re back on the road in search of food.

First stop was Stuart’s in Bridgewater for some beef stuffs for the family Father’s Day BBQ. We got a bunch of burgers and a couple of huge top sirloin for the event and a bunch of other goodies to round out the freezer stock.

Then on to Maple Bank Farm in Roxbury for some fresh veggies. We got spinach, radishes, garlic scapes, bok choy, and greenhouse tomatoes (for those burgers)? By the way, they also carry goat cheese from Beltane.

Serendipitously, we found Earth Tones (Woodbury) on our Saturday circuit. (This is my favorite part of Locavoring: new discoveries.) Earth Tones a native plants nursery and a lovely place to visit just for the joy of it.

Then off to New Morning in Woodbury for a number of things, especially raw milk. A sign from Stone Wall Dairy announced that the cows were back on grass. I picked up the latest issue of Edible Nutmeg. As usual, their cover art is stunning.

I think (hope) my CSA starts next week…

Connecticut, locavore, raw milk

Back

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted and I do apologize. My calendar got taken over by aliens and I’ve just wrested it back.

Yes, I’m still eating local. My milk, eggs, and beef are exclusively local and my cheese and other meats mostly are. My grains never were. (Yes, I’m still on that.) My vegetables are not–we’ve exhausted our put-by freezer supply. We joined a CSA this year, which will be starting soon, so fresh veggies are on the way. Hallelujah!

Among other things, we’ve been planting and tending our gardens. I’ll be posting on that soon (with pictures, even).

While I was out, I attended a reteat at Trinity Conference Center, in West Cornwall, CT. The space is lovely and the weekend was good, but the food was fabulous. Chef Corey prepares exquisite items and several selections at each meal. I had an opportunity to meet him and we ended up having a long discussion about raw milk. (No, they don’t serve or have raw milk at the Conference Center because it is against the law to serve it. In the nearby vicinity there are at least three dairy farms selling raw milk, which is perfectly legal.) Anyway, the best news is that several of these dishes were made using local, in-season ingredients. We had fiddleheads and ramps! Chef Corey showed me his map with a 120 mile circle radiating from West Cornwall. His goal is to source as much as possible from this foodshed.

If you ever have an opportunity to attend an event at the Trinity Conference Center, take it–at least for the food.