Maureen–do get grandma’s glass butter churn–I am going to buy one eventually, which is a bummer because now their expensive, but I don’t want to have to rely on electricity if I don’t have to.

Do let me know how y’all’s experiments go, though. I want to hear!

I have never tried Amul butter–I have seen it, but not bought it, probably because I can get (and now make) such good grass-fed butter and ghee that is local I never picked it up. But I will taste it–now I’m curious to see what it’s like.

Ah, Jan, raw milk.

I am of the opinion that it should be legally available, but carefully monitored.

There is a reason we have pasteurization today–and that reason was tuberculosis. It spread through cow’s milk that hadn’t been handled well. Other disease causing bacteria can live and thrive in milk that make pasteurization not a bad thing in my opinion.

Ultra pasteurization is another thing entirely–it changes the flavor and structure of milk and in many scientists’ opinions it kills much of the nutritive value as well. (Whipping ultra pasteurized cream by hand is a test of endurance–whipping the cream I get from Snowville which is minimally pasteurized at a lower temp by hand is a breeze.)

I do think that the dairy regulations that were put into place to protect consumers are now being used as bludgeons to intimidate small producers and farmers in favor of the dairy industry, which in my opinion is producing milk and dairy products that are filled with unhealthy unnecessary hormones and antibiotics, and which are different structurally from milk produced by grass-grazed cows–different enough to render it less healthy for humans to consume.

So, my feeling about raw milk is this–it should be available, it should be legal, but it should be monitored and regulated just as any consumer food product is–with minimal regulations to ensure that only healthy products make it to market.

In other words, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.