Tillamook Redux

September 9, 2003

Dear Janice,

Sweet Cream Butter

Sweet Cream Butter is made by separating the cream from fresh, whole milk. The

cream is then pasteurized and cooled immediately. It is held in refrigerated

storage tanks for eight hours to stabilize the fat globules, then churned daily

for freshness. Tillamook sweet cream butter is available in salted and unsalted

varieties and is Kosher certified.

Tillamook Cheddar Cheese is made from " heat shocked " milk as opposed to

pasteurized milk. We use this process because natural enzymes in the milk,

essential for producing quality cheddar cheese, suffer during full

pasteurization. Milk intended for cheddaring is heated to 152°F and held for 30

seconds at that temperature. Because of this process, we are required to cure

our cheddar cheese for a minimum of 60 days prior to marketing.

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As stated before, raw butter is very hard to come by in this country and

usually costs $8-$10 per pound. Besides Organic Pastures and Claraville Farms

in CA, I can't think of any commercial brands that sell raw butter, or ANY kind

of raw dairy besides cheese, for that matter. Tillamook and Land-o-Lakes are

compromise products at best. Nowhere on the Tillamook site do they mention

" grassfed " --their farmers are part of a " cooperative " but you should contact

them directly to find out this all-important piece of info. Personally, I'd

rather have pasteurized, grassfed dairy products over raw grainfed products.

IMO, grainfed milk (raw or otherwise) and beef are NOT healthy foods and should

be avoided. The farmer I get my raw dairy from had the Omega 3: Omega 6 levels

in various milks tested recently and here are the results:

Raw, grassfed--16.6:16.6

Pasteurized, grassfed--16.6:16.6

Organic, nationally known brand, pasteurized--12.6:32.4

Commercial, non-organic--8.1:44.2

As you can see, once the cows are not grass fed, the O3:O6 ratio gets out of

whack.

HTH,

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