Hi there,
I'm very sorry to hear about your sensitivities to milk but you must listen to your body.
so you've done the right thing by not doing the milk thing anymore.
When you say you miss kefir... what kind of kefir were you eating?
I'm going to assume it was pasteurized cow milk kefir because that's what they have available at the health food stores... I used to buy a brand called helios I think but the benefits of raw goat milk kefir to helios is incomparable.
Okay as far as a brand goes...
I'm so sorry to tell you this but I don't know of any brand for raw goat milk kefir that you would have access to unless you live in Cali.
I'm very lucky to live in California and
I get my raw goat milk kefir from Jame's lot in Santa Monica California...
It's a private membership thing and they sell all raw just about anything and everything.
I don't know where you live but my heart goes out to people who live in other states because California and Arizona are the only two states that allow grocery stores or anyone to sell raw dairy.
If you live in any other state your raw dairy will need to have a "pet food" stamp on it as required by law. Raw dairy is only allowed for pets and or other animals in other states.
Your best bet would be to get to know the local organic farmers in your area... find out who has goats and if they're drinking the milk...
necessity is the mother of all inventions... who knows maybe you'll be the first raw goat milk distributor in your area.
The good news is YOu CAN get raw colostrum kefir (which is amazing) from
organicpastures.com They spell it qephor but it's the same thing.
they come to our local farmer's market you can look at their website and they ship all over the country.
There is a lot of info on their site...
This is my favorite.
It can be found at
http://organicpastures.com/healthbenefits/
when you get the qephor... let me know.. I'll send you a great recipe.
good health to you...
Denisenolongervegan
Heres some info on their site about raw milk
____8. Why is milk pasteurized?
120-150 years ago many people died (especially young children) from diseases transmitted in raw milk. In the 1800’s, many US dairies began commercially producing low quality raw milk in the inner cities of Boston and New York and others. These Brewery dairies would feed their cows very poor quality “brewer's mash.” The resulting milk was very weak and nearly blue from lack of protein, mineral, and fat content. This occurred during the Jamaican rum embargo. During this same time period, the dairy industry did not use or have access to refrigeration, stainless steel, milking machines, rubber hoses, hot water, or chlorine as a sanitizer. TB and Brucellosis was rampant (not to mention horse manure on the streets, flies, and lack of public sanitation and sewage) and the cows were milked by hand with out mechanical machines. The cows stood in manure and there was no access to pasture (sounds like some factory dairy farms of 2005). The resulting unhealthy milk from these sources literally killed millions. The heating of milk to high temperatures reduced this horrible blight. During this same time period, milk from the country side taken from pasture grazed healthy and clean cows was the best medicine of the day. In fact, the Mayo Clinic used this high quality country raw milk as a basis for many disease curing therapies. This was the untold story of raw milk. Because of pasteurization successes, commercial interests prevailed and all dairies (the good, bad, and the ugly) then began to pool their milk and no body would die even if milk quality was very poor. This was great news for milk mass marketing and creameries created high profits. These pasteurization practices continue today with the chief benefit being extended shelf life. These modern dead milk products now cause allergies and lactose intolerance to huge sectors of the population. Current (PMO) Federal standards for pasteurized milk permit 100,000 bacteria per ml for milk going to be pasteurized with as many as 20,000 injured or living bacteria to be alive after pasteurization, and this may include pathogens (this is arguably the reason why milk is pasteurized). California standards for raw milk require that milk sold for raw consumption have fewer than 15,000 live bacteria per ml and no pathogens. OPDC averages about 1500 beneficial living bacteria per ml (and never a human pathogen). For a great book on the subject of milk history, please order “The Untold Story of Milk” by Dr. Ron Schmid ND. It is available from OPDC. You get the whole story… starting 12,000 years ago, right up to and including OPDC in 2003.