For those of you on Twitter and Facebook you will no doubt have come across the whole ‘raw milk’ debate. By raw milk, they mean unpasteurised. The Irish government plan to ban the sale of raw milk.
Darina Allen wrote a letter to our Minister for Agriculture in April this year which outlines very clearly why we should at least have a choice in the matter. I am not going to go into the debate here, but I thought I’d share where we get our milk from!
We are so lucky to have raw milk available to us. We swap with Anne-Marie & PJ….. their milk for our eggs! Pretty straight forward really.
Anne-Marie and PJ are away on holiday at the moment, so Alfie is doing their milking for them. I took the opportunity to go and do some photographing!
The milk is so delicious…. and why wouldn’t it be…. look at where these ladies hang out. If you were a complete philistine you would be considering building a house here to admire that view! That is the Shannon basin that is below them.
These ladies don’t rush themselves on the way into milking…. just a nice gentle stroll. And it is all very lady-like in the parlour too!
Alfie going about his business…… but this lady thought she ought to keep an eye on him! Just in case he wasn’t doing it right! 🙂 I’m sure PJ will be glad that someone is keeping watch!
And here is the end product…. delicious and creamy!
So when you come visit us…. this is where our milk comes from and will continue to be so.
If you want to at least have a choice about your milk…. join the campaign here or check out the many discussions on line.
A Year In Redwood 
Just last week I was over at David Tiernan’s beautiful farm to buy some of his raw milk directly from him. Such a shame to think that in a few months I’ll be breaking the law if I do that.
It is ridiculous that we can’t/aren’t allowed to be adults and make our own decisions! At least we are ‘bartering/swapping’ so we can continue, I hope!
Lovely post. Such a shame if choice is removed as to whether to consume raw milk, or not.
I should have said that when we were growing up in a ‘suburb’ of Limerick we used to have ‘raw’ milk too…. just left on our doorstep in a billy can by a neighbour farmer! 🙂
Douglas Bader said..”Rules are for the guidance of wise men and for the obeyance of by fools.The choice is always yours at the end of the day….aint it.
If there’s no TB in Ireland you’ll be OK – with so many visitors it may only be a matter of time, I guess that may be the reasoning behind the decisions. In England this happened in the fifties, we live with it – the quality of milk is more dependent on market value of cream skimmed off than any fngled pasteurisation methods.
Joy, we haven’t had TB in Ireland for quite a long time. And the number of deaths from drinking raw milk have been so so tiny… I think 1 or 2 in 40 years. It is a shame that they don’t allow people make up their own minds. Dairy farms are inspected so religiously and regulated to such a level…..