Help Legalize Raw Milk Sales!

  It still very much amazes me that in this day and age, raw milk is illegal in most states. You can walk over to your local convenience store and purchase a carton of cigarettes, a 12 pack of beer, and any number of processed "foods", but you cannot legally buy fresh milk. Raw milk straight from the udder, no preservatives, no crap. Raw milk is a wonderful thing in my humble opinion. Chalk full of vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and living enzymes, I would totally consider it a health food. But I am not here to convince you of that.
  What I want to get across is that we as a people should have the freedom to be able to choose what we consume. Government should never take away our right to choice, but only have the say to warn if need be. While pasteurization came about out of necessity, that need was brought on by uncleanliness, poor animal husbandry, disease, and improper feed.
  For those who aren't aware (I being one for a very long time), cows do not naturally eat grain. Cows were meant to eat grass, and only grass. Grain does some pretty nasty things to the complex digestive system of ruminants (cows, sheep, goats). But grain became a very cheap commodity crop, and it became much easier to cram large numbers of animals into filthy concrete buildings than have them roam freely on expensive pasture far from town. So came the invention of pasteurization, homogenization and the introduction of antibiotics into our food supply.
  However, not every farm operates under these conditions. There exists people that believe animals should live how they were designed to live, and eat what they were meant to eat. Small farms bring back the natural and wholesomeness to our food. And we should be able to freely purchase products from these farms if we so choose.
  Nature's Harmony Farm in Elberton, Georgia (who, by the way, make fabulous raw milk farmstead cheeses) is rallying to legalize raw milk sales. I urge you to sign their petition and help get the process started. Even if you don't live in Georgia, changing the laws here can have a significant impact on surrounding areas. It is high time that we turn our food system around and focus on small family farming, not dangerous conventional models that prove to do nothing more than make us sicker and sicker. Let's legalize the white stuff!


Click here to sign the petition



To learn a little bit more about raw milk, click here

Or here


"If the people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny."  Thomas Jefferson

Southern Spotlight: Sequatchie Cove Cumberland

 
  A new cheese has come onto the southern scene lately that I think you need to know about. Sequatchie Cove is a farm located in Sequatchie Cove, Tennessee, which rests just above Chattanooga. Of the two cheeses they make currently, the one pictured here is Cumberland, a glorious example of a French-style Tomme.
  While Cheddar is a style everyone can easily grasp, Tommes are a little more difficult to get a handle on. Generally, their texture is light to semi soft and most posses a weathered rustic rind that gives the cheese an earthy aroma and taste. Tommes are fantastic on a cheese plate, and equally good when used in the kitchen. Potatoes are a natural partner.
 


Cumberland



  Sequatchie's take on Tomme is one of the best examples I have tasted. While the flavors are subtle, it is anything but boring. Their dairy herd includes the rare heritage breed Milking Devon, which is the pretty red cow featured on the label. Heritage animals impart a unique old fashioned flavor that modern Holsteins just can't achieve.
  The Cumberland is both rich and light, with a springy creamy texture. Nuttiness, fresh grass, milkiness, and damp cellar (which can be a good thing) are the boldest flavors that shine through. And the rind is one of the prettiest and most colorful natural rinds I've seen. I could easily see it being paired with pecans, green pears, a dry Riesling, or a Saison. I imagine this cheese would also be wonderful melted, but it never lasts long enough to find out.
  For cheese geeks like me, it is a very exciting time in American cheese culture (pun intended). Not only have we caught up to the European's quality, I think in some ways we are surpassing it. More exciting is when world class cheese dairies pop up near home. Sequatchie Cove's Cumberland is a fine example of a true Southern original.