Something Really Wonderful Developed In The "Gold Country"! by chef jem Blog entry

Blog: Raw Milk: The Whole Truth
by chef jem

Something Really Wonderful Developed In The "Gold Country"!

The real-life account of a private cow share from inception to its hopeful metamorphosis.

Date: 10/6/2014 6:25:19 AM ( 10 y ) ... viewed 1538 times

From 1997 to 2008 I lived in what is known as "the Gold Country" in Northern California. I originally came there somewhat suddenly while I was visiting my sister in Hawaii (who was preparing to close the chapter on her life here on Earth so she could be with her little daughter who had crossed-over a couple years earlier after an unsuccessful heart surgery). A close friend who had just moved to the Gold Country foothills informed me of a promising agricultural-based community arts initiative that sounded like it was "right up my alley"!

My friend and I had just returned from traveling the previous year in search of land-based communities and after one year we returned back to where we had started from (which was in the "Steiner" community that surrounded Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, California. I contacted the gentleman who was pursuing the community arts initiative and learned that it was wholly dependent upon negotiations with the land owner/s. Those negotiations did not bring the result the gentleman was hoping for and so the initiative apparently died in the water.

In moving forward - one of the first community connections I made in the "Gold Country" was the local food coop. I wrote some articles in the coop newsletter advocating new agricultural-based community initiatives. This impulse was a major part of what originally attracted me to Rudolf Steiner College being that the college included a Biodynamic garden (plus CSA).  

In 2000 I started a local chapter of The Weston A. Price Foundation (soon after returning home after having been a guest at Sally Fallon's in her home in Washington DC). Possibly the first function of a Chapter leader is to provide information for the public regarding local sources of nutrient-dense foods. Possibly tops on the list of nutrient-dense foods is genuine "farm milk" otherwise known as raw milk! That is milk that comes from well-bred, pasture-feeding animals that are humanely cared for.

If you were raised on pasteurized and homogenized milk (like I was) and only knew the existence of that "milk" for the first 26 and a half years of your life and then learned that this milk was causing you digestive distress and associated with certain health issues (including dry flaky skin, heavy dandruff and worse) that convinced you into eliminating dairy from your diet (except for ice cream and butter) for possibly twenty years then I think you could understand how utterly elated I was when real, genuine "farm milk" returned to the market as it did in the "Gold Country" in the early part of this century! That was a very happy day in my new life as a "chapter leader" and it fueled my passion for welcoming more nutrient-dense foods into our community! (I’ll add that goat milk sources sprang up in the "Gold Country" and it was actually the goat milk that filled my milk gap very well! ; ~ )

Then in 2007 a friend and supporter of the local chapter got inspired to start a private cow share. This is a real-life story that deserves a full-length documentary and it is something that I actually had mentioned to my friend. (I wish I had the funding to produce that documentary as I would pour my heart and soul into it!)

  I shared all the above as an intro to the following message that one of the cow share "members" expressed most recently:

  "I have been blessed with this milk also and wish for it to continue .......... blessed to have milk that is such a product of love ........... nothing compared to commercial milk ................. I have been blessed with it through JS who cares for and milks the cows and loves them .......... Thank you to all who have brought this miracle into my life.”

That is just one of numerous unsolicited statements freely expressed by individuals who have enjoyed what some consider to be the finest milk on the planet! It underscores what I knew (some days before these messages began appearing) that something really wonderful was developed in the "Gold Country" and it deserves to be known by more people!