I was reminded of several phrases today: ‘Thanks for the memories’, ‘Where have the good times gone?’ and ‘Once upon a time’. This reverie was prompted by the fact that once upon a time, I drank milk that was raw, whole, was not homogenized and did not have the cream ’skimmed’ from the top. In light of today’s laws that make simple, pure and wholesome milk from grass-pastured cows illegal, have you ever asked yourself the question: Where did the cream go?
I spoke to an independent dairy man a few months ago, and he told me about the dairyman’s word ’skimming’. It all started when an enterprising man decided to ’skim’ the cream off the top of milk and save it for his own ice cream making business. To accomplish this feat of thievery, he told the public it was too much trouble to shake the cream into the milk, and so he would remove most of the cream: for their convenience. Soon, more and more cream was ’skimmed’ from the milk. Eventually people were told that the cream was bad for them. Now we have what dairy men call ‘blue milk’ and it has an eery blue tinge to it. I was informed that this ‘blue milk’ used to be poured into the ground by dairy men as it was known to be unhealthy and make their animals sick.
They would throw this blue milk away, rather than endanger their own or their animals health. Today, this is the milk that is sold as low-fat, or fat-free milk in dairy cases across the nation. Have you ever tasted raw milk that is not boiled (pasteurized), skimmed and homogenized? It is rich, flavorful, creamy and an absolute delight. Generations and generations…civilizations, countries, kingdoms, dominions and empires thrived on milk straight from the cow for thousands and thousands of years. Sunlight, grass, a cow and you have health-giving, delicious milk.
Now, we have feed lots; pesticides; growth hormones; GMO grain feed; weaning of calves from their mothers to blood, ground up animal parts and chicken litter. We have calves and cows that are so sick the pus in their milk needs to be strained out and they need injections of antibiotics to stay alive. We take their antibiotic-tainted milk, run it through pipes, skim the cream from it, homogenize it, and boil it. Now the FDA is approving that we clone it. Thanks for the memories. Once upon a time, we drank milk that was simple, healthy and delicious. Where is the uncomplicated pleasure of enjoying the bounty of nature, without man’s intervention? Where or where is the cream in our lives? It’s being skimmed away drop, by drop, by drop.