Here is a link you can check out

http://www.nofamass.org/programs/ofg/dairy.php

I'm not a milk drinker but does it taste better then the milk you get in the stores?

Well, organic, hormone-free milk tastes better than the stuff that isn't certified organic and hormone-free, and the raw milk tastes better than that. There's a certain sweetness to it and there is more flavor with raw milk. If you compare a raw milk cheese to the pasteurized milk version, you'll find the same is true for the raw milk cheese. Lots more flavor! Also, from everything I've been reading, raw milk keeps longer for some reason, and even when it goes off, it's buttermilk, so you can bake with it and get better baked goods! I only put non-skim milk in coffee, but there has been a real difference this week in the taste. I did take a few sips just plain, but usually too much milk, especially non-skim, upsets my stomach, and I wasn't willing to chance it. I'm not sure of the fat content of raw milk; I've been using it like I use 2% normally. I put my normal organic skim in my cereal.

As a blind taste test proof, when my little brother was in school, my mom used to get phone calls from his friends' moms asking which milk she was buying because their kids said that the milk tasted better at her house. It was organic and hormone free.

The place in Millbury doesn't do raw milk, but he says a farmer down in Mendon, Peter Hawkes, used to. He doesn't know if he still does, so I'm trying to find this guy... none of these farmers nearby have websites! If I had the skills, I'd offer to do them for free just to get their names out there! Also, I'm thinking that the benefits of getting dairy from 4 miles away probably outweigh the deliciousness of raw milk from 20 miles away with these gas prices.

Typed the above before seeing Stacy's post, and so am adding this in response: The US is kinda weird about raw milk, as well as raw eggs and meat, but other countries aren't. The dairy I bought from, Sidehill Farm, has all its certifications in line and sells yogurt and butter and eggs to retailers. Also, when I was up there, I saw a Mt Holyoke Dining Services vehicle, so I don't know what that means, but it implied some sort of connection in my mind. They can't sell their raw milk in stores because of our weird regulations, but it is the same milk that comes from their certified, healthy, regulated cows. Generally, people buying raw milk aren't the gonna-sue-everyone types, and I think that the dairies that offer it know that and trust their customers the same way their customers trust them. I honestly don't think the risks are any greater than eating anything else, especially with the recent Ohio food processing plant issues.

Hi Emily:

I am part of a raw milk collective that you would be welcome to join if you are interested. You can send me a private message and I will give you the contact information. There are around a dozen people in the collective; the milk gets dropped off at a house in Shrewsbury, so once a week (Friday afternoon or Saturday) you just drive over there and pick up your milk from their garage fridge. The milk costs $7 a gallon, and you are billed monthly for it.

The regulations for raw milk vary from state to state. Here in MA you can drink raw milk from your own cow. So, basically, people get around this by forming collectives that sort of buy a share in a cow, and now we are drinking milk from our own cows. It's ridiculous, but of course the big dairy industry wants to ensure that raw milk is not put on the market, so that's the way it goes . . .

Raw milk is like yogurt--it has the good bacteria that helps your digestive system. Pasteurization kills harmful bacteria, but it also kills all of that good bacteria as well.

Raw milk advocates argue that the pasteurization process was needed earlier in this century, when sanitation standards were not what they are today. Now that dairies are so regulated in terms of sanitation and hygeine--the argument goes--pasteurization does nothing but kill the best and most healthy part of the milk. So government warnings will tell you that raw milk could have very harmful bacteria--but any dairy that is producing raw milk takes care to ensure that nothing contaminates it, and so they are able to keep all of the healthful properties of the milk.

I am addicted to the stuff--I drink a big glass of it every day, and put it in coffee as well. It's awesome.

As long as people are interested, the one other point I'll make about it is that by buying your milk from these dairy farmers, you are helping to preserve open space in Massachusetts, and of course helping to ensure that farming remains in New England.

I should note as well the downside that some people find the taste of the milk too thick or rich. None of my kids will drink it, for example--although I think they are just freaked out by the warning label that they have to put on there (about the fact that it is unpasteurized). So I'm the only one in my house that drinks it.

Isn't raw milk illegal?

Buying milk from other local small farms (Cooper's, etc) that pasteurize/homogenize also supports local farming....

Milk stout is made with lactose sugar, not actual milk. :)

Behind-the-scenes Cooper's is all sorts of not awesome. Cows are fucking dirty, stupid, and wasteful. (I did my share of shovelling, etc)

I wouldn't even eat at my own house...I know exactly where the dishes, etc have been.....:O