Most people are familiar with the term "raw milk." It is milk that has not been pasteurized. I have done quite a bit of research on the subject and have concluded that in the right settings, people can drink raw milk very safely. I also believe that raw milk has great natural benefits for the average person. With that being said, we decided to pasteurize our milk. I was more the raw milk type, but Ryan, well, not so much. Probably the biggest thing for me though was neices/nephews/friends that come to visit. I want our house to be a unquestionably "safe" enviroment for everyone and my leanings toward raw milk aren't so dead set that I'm not willing bend some. Home pasteurization is a little different though than what the big dairies do. Our milk is not ultra-pasteurized, which I am still reading up on, but so far it appears that our milk maintains more nutrients and "good stuff" than store milk (don't quote me on that, like I said, I am still researching). Also, our milk has not been homogenized like store bought milk it. To spare you the science lesson, we get all the benefits of cream with our milk. Which for us means fresh butter (and maybe more at some point). We plan to get our own milking cow, but we are pretty picky with what we want, so it takes a little time. At this point we are blessed with raw milk from a good friend. I tried pasteurizing our milk on the stove, but it was very hard to get just right and the taste was very much affected. Ryan let me buy a pasteurizer and I love it. It is super easy and the milk tastes great. I though it might be interesting to show you how we pasteurized our milk. Asher, ever time I get the camera out he says "cheeeeeeeeese" and I have to take a picture.
Oh, here is some real vanilla that I am making. This is my first time making it, but I have been wanting to try for a while! It is just cheap vodka and real vanilla beans.
The hall I am painting. I seriously thought I was going to die climbing the ladder and such.
Ok, this is our pasteurizer. The tube hanging off the side has a cork in it. The pasteurizer gets filled with water and this is the "drain pipe" if you will.
Here is what our raw milk looks like. The pics aren't great, but if you look real close you can see the cream at the top.
This is the pot with the milk in it. That pot rests in the bigger pot. The bigger pot gets filled with water. There's a burner at the bottom of the biggest pot that heats the water. It takes about 15 minutes to pasteurize. All you do is plug it in and a buzzer sounds when it is done. After it is done, you quickly circulate cold water through the same way you filled the pot. That is it.
This is how you fill the pot up.
All my clean supplies.
Here is how we store our milk in the fridge. It works great because all the cream rises to the top and is easy to skim off. I would say the milk we drink is probably between 1% to 2%. The pasteurizer does 2 gallons at a time, so I am pasteurizing twice a week. I also included a pic of how I store my stuff and try to keep things organized.
Just a couple fun pictures! My two girlies and a picture of all the kids loving on Olivia!
Oh, and not to be forgotten, here is a picture of our new little black calf. He/she seems to be doing well!
Julie
Oh, here is some real vanilla that I am making. This is my first time making it, but I have been wanting to try for a while! It is just cheap vodka and real vanilla beans. 
The hall I am painting. I seriously thought I was going to die climbing the ladder and such. 
Ok, this is our pasteurizer. The tube hanging off the side has a cork in it. The pasteurizer gets filled with water and this is the "drain pipe" if you will. 
Here is what our raw milk looks like. The pics aren't great, but if you look real close you can see the cream at the top. 
This is the pot with the milk in it. That pot rests in the bigger pot. The bigger pot gets filled with water. There's a burner at the bottom of the biggest pot that heats the water. It takes about 15 minutes to pasteurize. All you do is plug it in and a buzzer sounds when it is done. After it is done, you quickly circulate cold water through the same way you filled the pot. That is it. 
This is how you fill the pot up. 
All my clean supplies. 
Here is how we store our milk in the fridge. It works great because all the cream rises to the top and is easy to skim off. I would say the milk we drink is probably between 1% to 2%. The pasteurizer does 2 gallons at a time, so I am pasteurizing twice a week. I also included a pic of how I store my stuff and try to keep things organized. 
Just a couple fun pictures! My two girlies and a picture of all the kids loving on Olivia! 
Oh, and not to be forgotten, here is a picture of our new little black calf. He/she seems to be doing well! 
Julie
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