apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Whoa. Never heard of such a thing. Well my first thought is I wonder if heat will damage all those amazing antibodies and such. My second thought is I wonder how cow colostrum actually works for humans - given that each mammal's colostrum is perfectly formulated for that species' offspring, what does and doesn't work for us non-bovines? My third thought is how does it taste?

I second mjoe. What does it taste like?

What does the calf drink if you're drinking this?

honestly, as a former nursing mom, I may have trouble just drinking milk after reading about this. Maybe you could put it over berries or something... I'll pass though..

good question mollyjade. i'm not vegan, but hmmmm

I can't say that I've ever cooked with colostrum, but for those so inclined:

http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/colostrum.html

I really was just going to say "ewwww."

And I agree with mollyjade.

I was going to buy the milk for my son. But the milk and colostrom are unpasturized. So there isn't a problem with heating killing the antibodies. Unpasturized milk isn't really a worry if you are healthy person.

what's the diff between this and raw milk?

This elicits a giant eee-YUCK from me, too. And yes, I'm also confused about the calf. A cow (like a human) can produce milk indefinitely, but colostrum is pre-milk and is only produced for a few days (at least in humans, and I think in other mammels, too). So, uh, how does this work?

Not that I really want to know, actually, now that I think about it. Blech!

Gross! Sorry, but I can't comprehend why anyone would eat this. Or drink it. I get sick just thinking about it.

The calf is taken away from its mother and closed up in a veal pen until it's ready for slaughter. Colostrom isn't really an issue.

Also, since most dairy cows are kept lactating or pregnant almost year-round, I don't know how many nutrients would be available for any given batch of colostrom.

Jooly, I guess that is the obvious answer, I was just hoping for a more humane one. And you make a good point about the nutrients.

But ethical considerations aside, why all the ewwww? What makes colostrum any grosser, in theory, than milk?

So does this mean veal calves are routinely fed antibiotics?

I've heard of some hippie-dippy food products, but this - NEVER EVER. Is there even enough market for something like this to justify bottling it? Was it selling briskly?

I guess in theory it's not any grosser than milk. I happen to think milk is gross too, though. I admit to being easily grossed-out.

I think about 90% of what makes this "grosser than milk" is the name. Seriously, i got a screwed up look on my face reading this, even before i knew what it was! :)

I grew up on a dairy farm and I have to say EWWWWW!

I would never EVER touch the stuff. Straight up, it looked bloody. And lumpy. (This stuff is probably homogenized.) If you get it, I'll bet the color is really orange. Here's something to think about: 500 gallons of blood need to pass through the udder to make one gallon of milk.

mjoe: The truth is that the cows produce way more of this stuff than the calf needs. Especially the heavy lactaters. (A good cow would produce upwards of 10 gallons of milk per day.) Much of the time, we'd throw the excess into the gutter. Plus, some cow's milk is better than others, so we would feed to good stuff to the calves and discard the not so go stuff - or sell it to people at farmer's markets now, I guess.

However, we used to feed some of it to our cats, and they LOVED the stuff.

I'm from the state that contains (?) mumbai in India and we make a dish called kharvas from colostrum. Its quite mild and delicious and I think uses only sugar and a bit of cardamom and nutmeg powder sprinkled on top. I think it's steamed so it looks almost like flan but with a denser mouthfeel.

If the main point is the health benefit and not any sort of taste, I'd probably just hide it in a smoothie/shake type concoction. Although gayatri's suggestion does sound interesting.

Not homogenized. The website warns that it may be pink from the blood in the milk. And there are cows on the family ranch. The calves are kept with the mothers for a while. And the milk is just used in Foster Farms milk. So one would assume that they are allowed to on an organic, free range farm. The reason I didn't use it with my son is because he has an adrenal problem, so even though he has never had anything more serious than a cold, he is not healthy. So unpasturized milk would be too dangerous.

Aaaannnnnnd.... yet another reason to take the road to veganism.

This is why I can't support the dairy industry - you are stealing breastmilk from a baby animal who will then be killed in the near future for its tender flesh.

It would be melodramatic if it weren't TRUE.

Why in the world would you want to consume this? It's good for calves, so therefore it must be good for humans? If that's the "logic," it's pretty lame, I'm afraid.

jooly and Joy: the calves aren't necessarily being sent for veal. The females would be raised for dairy. The number of male calves born on a dairy farm is less than 50%. And the veal calves ARE usually milk fed. Never heard of "milk fed veal"? Some of the males are raised for beef, not veal, as well. (Not that you'll see that as much better, but they get to live longer than 6 weeks.)

I doubt they're stealing the breastmilk from the calves. Colostrum is only produced for the first few days, and, regardless of what will happen to the calf, they usually stay with the mother for that long. Especially on a family farm - if you google this company, you'll find that they are an organic family farm, not a factory farm.

Please understand that a newborn calf only needs one or 2 gallons of colostrum per day, and the mother is producing at 5-10 gallons a day.

Information about how much colostrum a calf needs and how it loses it's benefits to the newborn can be found here.

I really hope this doesnt find a market and catch on with the soccer mom crowd. The thought of the industry keeping up a wide supply of this stuff frightens me. Im not a milk drinker, but at least milk production isnt as hard on the body as constant pregnancy.

That's just so ... sad. That should be drunk by a calf, from its mom.

I'm so surprised by the knee jerk reactions to this post. Follow Julie's link and you will read from a relatively reputable (althought alternative) nutritional source that colostrum has been consumed in other countries (including India and in England!). And how can people continue to say things like this is "sad" when people with more knowledge than us have already testified that the cow produces far more than a calf will need? Bizarre responses. So strange that people would feel more comfortable drinking non-organic non-family farm friendly milk than organic family-farm friendly colostrum.

well, too late for this go around, but since you asked, the traditonal yorkshire dessert called a curd tart is, when made properly, made with bislings milk

it's bloody lovely too.

I grew up on a farm, and my Mom used to make cheese from it, and cheescake. It is very good, as long as you use quality milk.