If you are a pastured raw 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 vitamin 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 A1 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 deep yellow butter my farmer unloaded was 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. That is, butter loaded with the natural, fat soluble activators including the elusive K2 that supercharges mineral absorption. 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 grassfed 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, The Healthy Home Economist
how long does raw butter last in the fridge?
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.
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?
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
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.
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!
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! 🙂