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I tried it when I stayed at my friend's family farm for Thanksgiving in Minnesota in college. I really didn't like it though; I thought it tasted like cow, and not in a good way!

Years ago, it used to be all I drank, milk-wise. My GF (at the time) had friends who would travel down in amish country and bring us back raw milk, every week. The last time I had it was a year ago, when a fellow Murray's employee brought some into work. As far as the danger-levels, I think it's all about trusting your source. Would I drink raw milk from an industrial plant? Not in a million years. I would not hesitate to drink it from a small local dairy though. It's just like sushi. THere's a danger to eating any uncooked product (that included veggies!), it's just a matter or weighing our the risks and benefits. By the way, for anyone who wants to find out where to buy raw milk in their area, check out www.realmilk.com

My mother trades our family's maple syrup to a neighbor in exchange for her fresh milk (yes, it's Vermont), and I'm pretty sure it's raw, although she may do some sort of minor treatment. It's just one or two cows that she milks, so not a big operation at all. Whatever she does or doesn't do, it is by far the best milk I have ever tasted - super creamy and more flavorful (sweeter?) than regular milk. My mom keeps the milk in one of those jugs with a spigot on the bottom (like for lemonade at a picnic), and when she wants whole milk or cream she takes it from the top, when she wants lower fat milk, she uses the spigot on the bottom (the fat rises to the top).

Oy... Nina Planck is such a hack. She feigns nutritional expertise but has no idea what she's actually talking about.

I'm a "I don't do dairy" person. Drinking another animal's breast milk is not my idea of a yummy treat.

My father grew up on a dairy farm. As a I child I would drink raw milk when I visited my grandmother. I didn't find it particularly different from regular milk. Mostly I noticed it was thicker because it was whole milk.

I only buy raw milk here in CA, but mostly because it's organic and local, not for the supposed health benefits of raw milk (which I kill anyway, since I use it to make yogurt and ricotta).

I have tasted it and I really like it, it´s creamier and it gives me a "fresh of the farm" feel. I always boil the milk before drinking it just to kill any bugs, and use the "cream" that forms on top to spread on some toast. It´s yummy.
I would buy it for regular consumption but I´m to lazy to get up that early and the whole boiling thing is kind of a drag.

Can someone clarify something for me? I know I've had milk that was separated-- cream on top and skim on the bottom. Does that mean it was raw? I think we bought it from a local dairy farm in Maine when I was a kid; it was deliciously sweet.

"I know I've had milk that was separated-- cream on top and skim on the bottom. Does that mean it was raw?"

Not necessarily, it just means it hasn't gone through the homogenization process which keeps the milk from separating.

Eliza, when all the separations are removed, such as the cream on the top: it is then homoginzed

I remember drinking fresh milk on a farm as a kid, and thinking its tasted "of cow" in a gamey kind of way... could it have just been the fact that I was drinking it where I was still able to smell the barn?

I regularly buy raw milk here in Philadelphia and it just tastes of milk to me, (a fresher clearer milk however...)

also chances are if you are buying raw milk it is not factory food, where the comtamination dangers are real. The danger of bad milk arose in the days of Pasteur circa 1900 in the early days of factory produced milk, poor conditions of the livestock and poor refridgeration...

the conditions of "boutique" farms supplying milk to city farm markets are going to be of a very high standards... raw milk born illnesses should be quite rare...

i've been wanting to try it ever since i read this

Joy R. - hee hee, me neither :P If I did tho, I would rather have raw milk from a cow on small farm which I knew - my grandma drank raw milk from her farm - than the kind you buy in the supermarket from overworked dairy herds which have never even seen grass.

I used to drink raw milk whenever I was at Granma's, they had a dairy farm (small one, about 60 head of milking cows). Ours were outside as much as possible and we grew a lot of their feed as well. I like it better; to me it tastes like there is honey in the milk. If it tasted gamey like some one had mentioned, I think you might have been too close to the barn :) I don't remember that at all.

I like raw milk, and I don't find it to taste barnyardy AT ALL. Ditto for goat's milk, which I rather expected to have a too strong flavor.

In NY, Hawthorne Valley Farms sell it at their farmstore, but you have to get it in Ghent NY. They're not even allowed to sell it at their Greenmarket stand in the city.
Lovely stuff, that changes flavor with the seasons.

Warm raw milk smells like cow- that's true. But when it's cooled it's fine. Tastes great too.
I used to drink raw milk pretty much "straight from a cow" when I was little. My Grandparents kept 2-3 milking cows so we can have fresh milk every day (and cream & cheese)
Now all I drink is Lactaid because I cannot digest lactose.
Too bad.

raw milk is great and great for you, and milk itself has been ruined by all it has to be put through so it can be sold to "protect" us from the "dangers".. now most people are allergic to it because of the processing and believe me its all about money and not about danger, research the TRUE info for yourself... we drank it for years me and my 6 kids better teeth, better bones no allergies to it and we got it from many different places beware the next big move is to irradiate the veggies they are busy scaring the masses now so they can force this new money-making technology on us..first milk, then oj and apple juice they are pasturizing everything for our health they are SOOO concerned about us...yeah right

Milk straight from the cow is great (I grew up on a dairy farm, we called it "fly milk"), but if you didn't grow up on it, (or even if you did, but haven't had it in years) it can do a number on your stomach because your body isn't used to it.