Wine Me Dine Me: I drink it raw

[Guest guest]

I always have milk chilling in my fridge. No skim, 1 percent or 2 percent for me, I take my fat and calories in the stuff I love — cold, creamy full fat milk.

Organic even. With my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. With Nestle's Quik in it for dipping my hot buttery toast into. In glasses peppered all over the house from when Teen Avalon has her chocolate chip cookies.

Or just plain as I stand at the kitchen window, chugging my milk from a tall cold glass. Ahhhhh.

But nothing prepared me for my next foray into milk appreciation.

I got some raw milk from Brookford Farm and life as I know it, has changed. At least in my milk consumption habits.

It comes in a jar and is so creamy and rich I have to ration it out to make it last. On Brookford Farm in Rollinsford, the milk comes from Jersey cows rather than the usual Holsteins because they say the milk produced has higher butterfat (4 percent) and is creamier and healthier. The cows are grass fed, just as nature intended, which produces a healthier milk containing "conjugated linoleic acid" (CLA) which might help reduce body fat, increase lean muscle mass and may protect against heart disease and certain cancers.

OK, great. But won't I get sick from drinking raw milk? What about pasteurization? Doesn't that protect me from germs and stuff?

Dairy farms and milk producers use pasteurization to kill bad micro-organisms through heating then cooling. It's still perishable and has to be refrigerated and it might even be further treated for longer shelf life. Homogenization is the process that makes it so the milk doesn't separate the cream out of the milk. The process has to do with breaking up fat globules via pressure.

So, raw milk is neither pasteurized nor homogenized. Sure, pasteurization kills micro-organisms, but it also destroys proteins, enzymes, those good omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins and lots of flavors that are naturally in milk. And get this, lactose intolerant crowd — there's no altering of the proteins so there's still lactase in the milk. If you're allergic to cow's milk or intolerant, you might be able to drink raw milk with no issues.

Back to the big question. Is it safe? At licensed dairies, all milk goes though periodic testing by the health department. So, from my point of view, just keep it cold and drink it before it goes sour. You know, just like you do your regular milk. But I do have to say that the FDA does regulate sales of raw milk. Milk can't be sold between state lines unless it is pasteurized. In New Hampshire and many other states (about half), it's legal to sell raw milk on the farm and via home delivery. Apparently there is a state statute that permits the sale of raw milk in retail shops but the Department of Health and Human Services bans it via a regulation that food service establishments and retail food stores to sell only pasteurized fluid milk and fluid milk products.

And Sheehan, director of dairy-food safety at the FDA, says drinking raw milk is like "playing Russian roulette with your health." He also said that from 1998 to 2005 there were 45 outbreaks of disease traced to unpasteurized milk or cheese, noting that raw milk makes up about half of 1 percent of milk sales in the United States, but brought about twice as many disease outbreaks as pasteurized milk. In Maine, there's a mandate that the raw milk has to meet the same standards in terms of bacteria count as pasteurized milk does. So there is risk. But there's risk in lots of things I eat. There are plenty of stats out there for or against but for now, I'm going to continue to drink my milk just how I like it. Raw.

For information and to find sources of raw milk go to www.realmilk.com

Go to www.brookfordfarm.com to learn about one local farm.

The Dish

There's going to be a great wine class on March 12 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the new Maine-ly New Hampshire store in downtown Portsmouth. It's Wine Essentials 101 hosted by Rich , featuring wines by Winery and Jewell Towne Vineyards. Only $30 per person and space is limited. Intimidated by wine hype and hoopla? Dizzied by long and rambling restaurant wine lists? Confused about when to spit, swirl or swallow? This class is the perfect solution! Join Maine-ly New Hampshire's in-house wine guru Rich as he dispels the snobbery of wine and presents a primer in wine and wine tasting in simple terms, keeping it fun along the way. A must for any budding wine lover, so leave the pretense at the door! Go to www.maine-lynewhampshire.com to register.

Forrest is a former restaurant owner who lives in Portsmouth. Her restaurant review column, Dining Out, appears Thursdays in Spotlight magazine. Hear her on Wine Me Dine Me-the radio version alternate Wednesdays at noon. She can be reached by e-mail at rachelforrest1@....

By Forrest