Thursday, March 12, 2009

Raw Milk... YUM


Pre-Raw Milk

I never drank much milk growing up, only in the occasional bowl of cold cereal.  Even when eating cereal, milk was only a medium to help advance raisin bran down the trap.  Milk didn't seem to be a big part of life... or food.  I remember drinking milk out of the cardboard containers at school, but as soon as they had apple juice as a choice, milk lost.  My intake was probably around a cup a day or less.  I bet Mom would know.  If a cup a day is accurate, then it took 16 days to drink one gallon.

Raw Milk Begins 

As soon as I came to Polyface, raw milk was on the radar.  I had never learned about the difference between raw and pasteurized until I moved out here.  I don't even think I knew that people drank raw milk.  (one more example of how far my generation has disconnected from our food and its sources.)  Anyway, Matt was very informative of the "Real Milk" movement with the Weston A. Price Foundation.  I was able to get my hands on some (not telling how... sorry crazy food police bureaucrats) and began to drink it everyday.  The taste was incredible and I started craving milk.  I have NEVER craved milk.  

Closer to Addiction?

Now I drink at least a quart of grass-fed raw milk a day.  Usually I drink it with breakfast, but here lately I have been drinking a glass before bed.  So, now that I love milk (because its raw) and I drink a quart a day, it only takes four days to go through a gallon.  On Sunday mornings I make homemade pancakes so all-in-all I go through about 2 gallons a week... all by myself.  I have almost stopped drinking Mountain Dew (now only 12 ounces, once a week) and I only crave it when I'm in town and see a convenient store.  I never crave it on the farm and I think the raw milk plays a big role in curbing of soda addiction.

Pancake Recipe

I mentioned pancakes above... here is my recipe.  The cakes are dense and filling.  They stick with you longer than most pancakes and go great with natural maple syrup.  

Ingredients:

3 cups grass-fed raw milk (I bet normal milk will do but...)
2 cups whole flour (don't use bleached or enriched... not good)
2 large eggs (from pastured hens if possible)
1 teaspoon baking powder (Not Soda... Powder)
1 table spoons lard  (self rendered from hog fat) 

Instructions:

1.  Mix milk and whole flour.
2.  Beat in eggs and stir in baking powder and let set.
3.  Heat skillet to medium and add lard to coat pan.
4.  Pour 1/2 cup of batter into skillet and cook till bubbles raise in pancake.
5.  Flip.
6.  Finish cooking... add butter... add maple syrup... 
7.  Add fork in hand and smile on face. 

Makes enough for 2 hungry apprentices.

7 comments:

Country Girl said...

I have been looking for a source of raw milk to make butter, cheese etc. Many of the farmers around here do not sell it. At polyface to they grain anything? Are the chickens, pigs, cows exclusively on pasture?
~Kim

Throwback at Trapper Creek said...

Raw milk is the best! Great recipe.

Tracy said...

Hey Grady! Good to see post updates!

So when is your time at Polyface over, and what are some of your goals/plans for yourself as soon as you leave there?

Grady Phelan said...

Country Girl... the next blog is for you.

Tracy... I'm not 100% sure. I have many ideas and dreams, but I'm not sure where I'll head from here just yet. I'm sure my goals will evolve right up until I leave.

Anonymous said...

hey i just googled "raw milk craving" because i have been craving it so much. my experience is the same as yours, never really liked the store stuff but crave the good stuff. isn't that so weird? why do you think our bodies crave it?

Grady Phelan said...

I think we crave raw milk because its something we have been missing for years. Even though I never drank it till now (age 23) I think my body has been missing it because of some sort of instinctual craving. People have been drinking milk for as long as they have been domesticating animals (VERY LONG TIME), so it makes since that by changing a food you take away from its natural craving-killing power.

Our Farm said...

I love raw milk. I don't crave it tho. I was a big milk drinker as a kid. What I do crave is beef; at least I did when I got my first taste of grass fed Dexter. I had just about given up eating meat, just because I didn't like it & my daughter was a little farther down that path than I was. I had some pastered Dexter beef, the first from my farm & I started craving beef. I was eating it 3 meals a day for a while. My daughter was the same. She went from being a Vegitarian to being a Meatitarian in one bite. We're calmed down now & are over the craving. But, it was exactly the same as your experience w/ milk.
I'm still looking for a farming partner, if you know anyone who wants to do it. I figure anyone who has done things Joel's way will be just fine. It'll mean there's nothing for me to teach them. I get tired of training people & then having the pulled away by life!