What Color is Your Milk?
If you are a grassfed dairy enthusiast as I am, Spring is probably one of your most favorite times of the year. The reason has everything to do with the rapidly growing spring grass in the unsprayed pastures where the old fashioned jersey or guernsey cows at your local dairy farm are contentedly roaming and grazing.
Rapidly growing spring grass has a magical quality about it. Cows that graze on this type of grass produce the most nutrient dense milk of the entire year – milk loaded with the critically important fat soluble vitamins A, D, and K (Activator X) that Dr. Weston A. Price wrote about in his groundbreaking book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
I’m not talking about the synthetic vitamins A and D artificially added to processed, store milk. Grassbased dairy contains vitamins A/D/K in their natural, nontoxic form. No need for synthetic fortification in grassbased dairy like what is necessary for the nutritionless store milk coming from confined holstein cows consuming unnatural, genetically modified feed and shot up with antibiotics, steroids, and hormones!
At my local dairy pickup last week, I immediately knew the spring grass with all its nutrient dense magic had returned to my farmer’s pastures as soon as he began to unload the crates of cream-loaded milk from his truck. The milk, which had been an off-white color for the past several months since the first frosts on winter eliminated any trace of green for the cows to graze upon, was suddenly beige!
I wasn’t the only one who noticed!
Within moments, one gal asked the farmer if there were any extra gallons to be had in addition to the 19 she was already picking up for herself and two other families. She got lucky and snagged 3 additional gallons.
Of course, the butter my farmer unloaded was a brilliant, deep yellow color so unlike the eggshell white store butter that is so pale that companies sometimes resort to using “all natural” annatto food coloring to make it yellow to fool the consumer.
The butter I’m talking about is Real Butter – butter loaded with the natural, fat soluble activators that supercharge mineral absorption for those fortunate enough to consume them. This is the same type of butter that those living in isolated, traditional Swiss villages prior to World War II placed on their Church alters as a grateful offering for the healthy, cheerful, and intelligent children that were born to the parents that consumed it.
I told my farmer to get ready for a butter making binge as orders for this deep yellow butter would shoot to the moon in the coming weeks. I myself stock up and freeze many pounds of this special Spring butter so that the most nutrition loaded butter is available for my family year round. That is not to say that grassbased butter the rest of the year isn’t fantastic. It’s just super fantastic in the spring!
Has the wonder of rapidly growing spring grass returned to your farmer’s pastures yet? Are you planning to load up on deep yellow butter too?
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
My children and I noticed the same change in the raw milk we get from our local farmer! We like to purchase extra cream so we can make up our own butter and freeze it to cut down on the cost. I love, love, love that my kids notice the difference, “Why is that milk so white?” (asked when we ran out of raw milk and had to buy from the grocery store). And “Why isn’t that butter yellow?” Such excellent teaching opportunities! Blessings!
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We are not so patiently waiting for our cow to calf. There is still snow on the ground here so it will be at least a month before the grass really starts growing but I can’t wait to make my own butter again. Today we are making pens for the goats(two does with their babies) that we are getting so I am hoping to make butter and cheese with all the spring cow milk and drink the goats milk.
Megan @ Purple Dancing Dahlias\’s last post: 8 Reasons to Eat Fermented Foods
How long is the window for stocking up on spring butter? Also, is it true that freezing destroys vitamin E? How long will butter stay fresh in the freezer?
Thanks! Love your blog, I’ve learned so much.
Down here in Florida, the window is about one month. Of course, weather changes affect this greatly but generally speaking, one month is about right. Not sure how long the window might be elsewhere.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: Monday Mania 3-14-2011
Not yet. We live in the north so it’s still schizophrenic weather. We’ll have snow one day, and 60+ degree sun the next. So the grass isn’t really growing well yet. It will in a month, though.
I keep waiting, wondering. How much longer?! I can’t wait. And I am CRAVING milk like crazy now because I am pregnant. I drink it almost everyday. (Or have yogurt made from it or something.) Hmm…stockpiling butter. Oh, I might have to! I don’t know if I can buy enough raw milk to skim the cream to make butter for any length of time. What would I do with the remaining milk?? It’s the cream I really want, lol.
What do you think about local, grass-fed, low-temp-pasteurized cream? I DO have access to half-gallons of that, just the cream. (Because silly people want skim milk!!) Worth it to make a lot of butter from that??
Hi Kate, yes I would say that the low temp grass fed cream is a wonderful alternative. I buy it myself sometimes when I need cream for cooking or baking purposes.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: Monday Mania 3-14-2011
really looking forward to the spring here in NYC. it’s been a very intense, dark winter with lots of snow and rain. the amazing thing is i was able to get my vitamin D levels up during that bleak time! thank you to Radiant Life for their D3 serum as well as my farmers for their beautiful lard. I sauteed all my leafy greens in lard this winter (4x a week), increased my raw egg yolk intake and implemented the D3. what a difference! We get our milk from farmers in Pennsylvania so the spring batch of butter will be starting in about 6 or 8 weeks. very exciting! thanks for getting me all lit up about what is only weeks away! enjoy your delicious milk and butter.
Spring has not yet come to Chicago, but I cannot wait till our cows will produce such yummy-colored milk!
Hi Sarah – here’s something I was alerted to by one of the farmers who currently sells the raw milk that we buy. The state department of agriculture had contacted her about something, and while they were on the phone, the man was saying to her, “I still don’t get how everyone believes grass-fed is so much better. Our soils are so depleted, it really doesn’t matter because those cows are not getting much more nutrition than the feedlot cows (and I disagreed here with him about that due to the fact that those cows are not in confinement and are out in the sunshine getting Vitamin D and beta carotene). But still, he has a point – our soils are so depleted. The farm where we used to get our raw milk (who are now having financial problems are currently not dispensing milk) which is certified organic does vastly things than the one we’re currently getting our milk from, such as they supplement their cattle with organic kelp and apple cider vinegar, and they enrich their soil where the grass grows and cows graze with organic nutrients. Our current farmer does not do this because she doesn’t have the means and is not, obviously, certified organic. Sure, it’s better than the alternative..but of course, since I’m an over-analyzer and worrier, this naturally has me concerned. I only want the best for my family, as do most people. What are your thoughts about that? I know the milk we’re getting now is inferior to what we were getting, but that’s all that’s available right now.
Hi Raine, I think the color says it all! The color of milk, cream of feedlot cows is white (as in paper towel white like in my picture in this blog) whereas grassfed milk is offwhite to deep beige indicating the superior nutrition.
This is not to say that our soils are not in terrible shape – of this there is no doubt. But, we have to start somewhere and rebuild and grassbased farms are where the soil rebuilding is happening. I know my farmer is actively working on his soil – these are the farms to give your business dollars to as they are the ones producing the most nutrient dense food for your family.
Well, I guess that confirms what I was saying about the soil and proper supplementation with foods like kelp – the milk and cream from our organic, grass-fed farm definitely has that golden color, whereas the milk and cream from the non-organic, not supplemented farm does not. The attention farmers give to their soil and the supplements they use DO make a huge difference. I long for the day the organic farm starts dispersing milk to us again!
I’m just wondering. If the cows are grazing fields that have been used for dairy cows for many years, and the cows are pooping as they graze, how badly depleted would the soil be? It seems like it would be in fairly good shape.
Hi Megan, I freeze my butter for 6-9 months with no problem at all.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: Monday Mania 3-14-2011
Is there a smart way to skim off the lovely cream on the top of the fresh milk, or do you shake it up at all? I hate to use the best creamy stuff in baking, but can’t figure out how to get it out of the jug first?
You can use a fat skimmer .. those big plastic eyedropper things that folks use to skim the fat off the top of soups. They work great for removing cream off the top of milk.
mmm… I wish it were spring here! We’re still have zero degree weather in the mornings…. not exactly conducive to rapidly growing grass. This will be my first spring drinking raw milk, so I’m excited to see the change!
The Amish farm where I get my fresh milk and butter (and sometimes other goodies- their cottage cheese tastes like mild cheddar!) freezes their butter and sells it that way with the date marked on the lid. I think it’s wonderful, because I only found them in late autumn, but I still have a decently steady supply of gorgeous dark yellow butter.
They also have a table in the shop that displays flyers from the Weston A Price Foundation and a (beat up) copy of Nourishing Traditions. There’s a self pubbed cookbook written by two Amish families that has recipes such as sourdough pasta, and they sell their own kefir, sauerkraut (made with the NT recipe), beet kvass, and so on.
This will be my first spring drinking raw milk, and I’m so excited!
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I’m so jealous of all of you! In Iowa, it’s still illegal to sell raw milk. I do get milk that’s vat pasturized, grass-fed cows, non-homogenized but I would LOVE to be able to get raw milk! Sigh! I know the subject was supposed to be debated here recently but it got pushed aside. I’d also LOVE to live close to some Amish folks. Maybe someday!! Love your webiste!
We are eagerly awaiting for our grass to grow a bit more. The cattle are finding something out here, but I haven’t noticed it yet in our milk. Last year’s butter was a crazy deep yellow color. People were amazed by it. So can’t wait for the warmer weather and grass growing season.
Hi Sarah,
I do not have access to raw (the law prohibits it here), grassfed butter. Only organic, cultured. Is it still good and should I eat a lot of it or should I not bother?
Thank you
Alina
I recently found a source for raw jersey milk
I was questioning the farmer about their feeding practices and was surprised by the answer. The cows are on pasture (except winter) and are predominantly grass fed, however the cows do get some grains during milking as apparently the protein improves the milk quality and the cream is richer. The farmer also said that when the grass starts to grow in spring, because of it’s high water content, it decreases the milk quality or yield. This seems to be the opposite of what wapf teach. So I’m a bit confused. Any insight??
I will be getting some more milk in a couple of weeks so I look forward to seeing the difference
Also, I can’t get raw butter but do get cream. I don’t really have time to be making butter but would eating the cream give the same benefits, just in less concentrated amounts?
Do you know of any farmers who would ship their butter from grass-fed cows? I’d love to stock up!
Thank you!
Hi Karen, contact the Weston Price Foundation (westonaprice.org) and have them send you a copy of their 2011 Shopping Guide. There are MANY small farms that would love to mail order you some fantastic, dark yellow grassfed butter! Alternatively, if you join the Weston A. Price Foundation as a member, you will get a quarterly copy of Wise Traditions Journal which also lists small farms that mail order in the back section.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: Video- How to Make Ghee Butter Oil
how long does raw butter last in the fridge?