Local Milk

Today was day six of local food. Today was also my first taste of local raw unpasturized milk. Glory Glory Hallelujah! This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for me. Yogurt! Creme Fresh! Cream sauces! Custards! Not to mention just plain drinking the yummiest milk I have ever tasted in my entire life! The flavor is so complex. Even with the cream skimmed off the top the milk tastes unbeliveably rich. Unpasturized milk is illegal in this state so in order to get it I had to go through a process that could be compared to a drug deal. I told a friend (who I knew was a raw milk drinker) that I was interested. She said she would tell her friend who knew somebody who could get it for me. I saw this friend of hers at a party over the weekend and we spoke about the possbilities. Then I went to the place he worked yesterday and got a phone number from him. I called the number making sure to mention his name when identifying myself. Then I was given directions to a house where I would be able to pick up the milk the following afternoon. There was a cooler on the front porch and I was to leave my money (cash) in an envelope with my name on it in a plastic bucket with the top cut out and I could take my milk out of the cooler. I triumphantly brought home my fresh milk from the next county over in big widemouth glass gallon jars. So why go with the unpasturized? Why not some legal local pasturized milk? My understanding is that most pasturized milk is actually really gross and that's why they have to cook it - to kill all the stuff that would probably kill me. People drank raw milk for eons and didn't get sick from it as long as their animals were healthy. Let's hope those animals in the next county over were healthy this morning when they were milked. I don't normally drink milk, I usually go with almond milk or soy. Unfortunately there aren't any local almonds - or soybeans for that matter. After a taste of this wonderful stuff I may never go back to the aseptic packages of milk substitute. I am at this very moment making yogurt which I will eat for breakfast with some local strawberries that I found while fishing around in my freezer for something I could eat. I froze them in the spring and had sort of forgotten about them. I can't even explain my excitement at finding them!