Saturday, January 29, 2011

Got Raw Milk?

I've been getting a lot of inquiries about RAW milk at the farm lately, so I finally decided to do some investigating. Unfortunately we do NOT sell raw milk here at Heritage Prairie Farm and there are a couple of reasons why (which I'll get to later). There has also been a lot of interest on the subject of raw milk, both good press and bad press, and here is what I found out:


There are those out there that have heard the FDA's warnings about raw milk: that there is the possibility of campylobacter, salmonella and E. coli, that its not good to drink milk thats hasn't been pasteurized or homogenized.  And then there are those out there that dance to their own tune and prefer a more natural food lifestyle despite what they say.


First, lets overview the bad press.  ANY food risks contamination by bad bacteria like salmonella and E.coli, but it is often associated with how that food was produced, handled, and packaged.  The pasteurization process destroys the risks of these bad bacteria, but it also destroys all the good bacteria.  Pasteurization came about in the 1890's to control highly contagious bacterial diseases like bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis among others. Up until then, most families and individuals owned their own livestock and milked them on a daily basis, as far back as thousands of years.  It wasn't until after the Industrial Revolution, the spread of urban living and less than sanitary conditions in meat packing districts, that livestock was being cared for inhumanely, and disease control began to be regulated within the dairy industry.   

Pasteurization
Pasteurization is an end-of-process 'solution' designed to remedy the less than optimal sanitary practices of many dairies. Named for Louis Pasteur, the process involves heating milk to a temperature of about 155 degrees Fahrenheit to kill harmful bacteria. Ultra high temperature (UHT) pasteurization, introduced in 1948, may be thought of as extreme pasteurization. This process results in milk heated to a temperature of about 285 Fahrenheit, resulting in the complete sterilization of the milk and the death of its life enhancing properties.

Homogenization
Homogenization is a process designed to prevent the cream in a bottle of milk from separating from the milk. This is accomplished by breaking up the fat globules in the cream so that they stay suspended in the milk. The primary reason for homogenization seems to be to extend the shelf life of milk products.


So why choose a raw milk option? Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized or homogenized, it retains its natural enzymes and antibodies.  This milk contains powerful lactase that actually naturally protects itself from some dangerous bacterial diseases, but also aids the digestive system in breaking down milks natural sugar, lactose.  It is also rich in fat soluable Vitamin A and D. There are some claims that raw milk can ease symptoms for  auto-immune diseases that attack the digestive system, even Crohn's Disease. Today, raw milk is actually illegal in a few states, and heavily regulated in others.  In other parts of the world, pasteurized milk and cheese are actually considered low quality, and high quality gourmet dairy is always raw.  Very interesting. Here are the Illinois laws:

Illinois
Raw milk sales are legal on the farm if the farmer complies with the following conditions:
  1. No advertising the sale of raw milk.
  2. Customers must bring their own individual containers. If the farmer uses his own container to bottle the milk, he is operating a "milk plant" according to the Department of Health Regulations, and the milk must be pasteurized. The farmer can only collect the milk in the customer's container. The farmer cannot process the milk in any way. Sales of raw cream and raw butter are illegal.
  3. The farmer must produce the milk "in accordance with the Department (of Public Health) rules and regulations. "The Department does not apply these rules and regulations, including the permit requirement, to farmers with just a few cows who sell raw milk only on the farm.
see www.realmilk.com for more information about other state raw milk regulations/laws.  

I'll be the first to say, I am no expert. Everyone should do their own research, especially if you are interested for medical reasons. Like many of you out there, I am quite sensitive to milk. In my childhood, I was even called "lactose  intolerant." I was raised on ultra pasteurized, homogenized milk bought at your everyday grocer  When I would drink milk, I was always plagued by uncomfortable stomach cramps. That was until I started pursuing organic options.  

Here at Heritage Prairie Farm, we sell Crystal Ball Farms organic cream line milk.  It comes to us from Osceola, Wisconsin, delivered every week by our awesome milkman, Mike Watters. If you need to know anything about dairy, Mike is your expert, and very enthusiastic about the raw milk debate.  I recently asked him, unknowingly, if there was a way that we could get raw milk from him and the answer was an "absolutely not."   Apparently, among all the other regulations, its highly illegal to transport raw milk across state borders. The good news is that the Crystal Ball Farms milk is organic, low pasteurized, and non-homogenized.  Recent thirty year study by Dr. Kurt A. Oster, shows that homogenized milk may be linked to heart disease.  Homogenized milk breaks up fat molecules into tiny particles containing a xanthine oxidase enzyme that passes through the intestine walls and into the circulatory system.  This creates lesions in the artery walls and heart tissue, and your body naturally tries to heal these lesions by depositing fatty tissue and cholesterol on them.  Over time this leads to build up and blockage, and thus heart disease. On the other hand, in NON-homogenized milk, this xanthine oxidase enzyme passes through the digestive system normally because the fat molecules are far too large to pass through the intestine wall.  Homogenization began in 1932, and curiously before this time, heart disease was rare and now it is one of the 6 leading causes of death.  


Very interesting indeed.  My suspicion thinks that the reason that the FDA is so against raw milk, as far as to make it illegal in some states, suggests to me that the true conditions at some corporate dairy producing farms are less than sanitary, so they MUST enforce ultra-pasteurization so that the population won't get sick. The true question is how are those pathogens contaminating the milk in the first place? And they must homogenize milk because the milk is distributed far away, so it increases the shelf life of the milk, and thus they can make more money off of it.  


So if you're going to try to seek out raw milk, know the source of your raw milk and demand that it be from predominantly grass-fed animals. Preferably organic .Raw milk from cows fed diets heavy in grain, soybeans,and cottonseed meal, etc., apparently cannot effectively protect itself from pathogenic infection. Everyone agrees, it must be pasteurized.


I think what it all comes down to is knowing what you're putting in your body and where its coming from. 









Thursday, January 20, 2011

Pretty Sweet

We are now offering a Honey-of-the-Month-Club here at the farm!  By joining, you can give or receive a monthly shipment of your favorite gourmet honeys, specially crafted at the farm by Chef Jeremy Lycan.  Club members can choose a 6 or 12 month option (shipped or for farm pick-up) and receive a 10.5 oz pot of gourmet honey such as chocolate chile honey, sichuan, Caribbean jerk, blueberry, or creamed honey.  These infused flavors are exclusively available to club members only!  With your first shipment or pick-up, you'll also receive a free wooden honey dipper and honey recipe from Chef Jeremy.  Honey pick-up at the farm costs $75 or $145, or for shipped honey, $110 or $215.  Interested in registering for the honey of the month club, call our farm store today #630-443-8253.


Friday, January 7, 2011

A Place to Share

I am thrilled to announce the beginning of the very first blog for Heritage Prairie Farm! Our blog will be a great place to share the inside coming and goings of the staff, a place to share  inspiration, and a message place for our customers and CSA members.
My name is Katie Drum, and I am the Store Manager at the farm. Going on 4 months of  employment, I still pinch myself every day that this is my job. I love looking out the store window and seeing an expansion of  trees and fields, a charming old barn, and some of the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen. This is shopping the way it should be. There’s a wonderful time in the afternoon, as the sun is setting, that the light filters through the windows, refracting amber through all the jars of honey lined up on the sill.  

Honey, in my opinion, should always be in a state of illumination. 
As I get to know the farm better, I am also getting to know some of the restaurants we supply to and supplied to in the past.  I was thrilled to hear that two were some of  my favorite Chicago-land restaurants,  Lula CafĂ© and Prasino. My husband and I actually joined a couple of friends  at the new Prasino, located in downtown St. Charles, IL for New Years Eve.
Prasino, is Greek for "green." Which is perfectly appropriate since this restaurant specializes in everything green. The place oozes  eco-chic: table tops and floors incorporate reclaimed wood, light fixtures crafted out of recycled bottles and corrugated cardboard, and an energy efficient kitchen down to eco-friendly cleaning products. They also support and promote organic agriculture, local growers, and artisanal food producers, like us. Prasino has used both our honey and micro greens on their decadent menu. Here are some of the items we enjoyed off the unique, New Years Eve menu at Prasino, created by Chef Scott Halverson:

We started with toasted goat cheese,  sauteed forest mushrooms, persimmons, microgreens, and truffle honey.  My husband went crazy for this dish, and begged me to recreate it at home.


For our main course, I enjoyed a Hawaiian tuna tartare with wasabi tabiko, avocado, spicy mayo, sweet soy, and sesame cracker.
Jason tried something new, choosing the Niman Ranch beef carpaccio, radishes, arugula, and chive drizzled with Banyuls Vinaigrette.  


At my request, we ordered chocolate gooey butter cake topped with creme fraiche caramel, bananas foster, and vanilla gelato.  I still want more! 


It was a wonderful evening and a great way to ring in the new year.  I highly recommend eating at either their St. Charles or LaGrange location.  They are also opening a third location soon in Bucktown/Wicker Park sometime Spring 2011.


Prasino
51 S. 1st Street
St. Charles, IL 60174
630-908-5200


Prasino
93 S. LaGrange Avenue
LaGrange, IL 60525
708-469-7058