Whoops!
Read some sources that said it was safe nutritionally to freeze your #rawmilk for storage. Me and Sam went in on a big five gallon purchase to save some money and each bought some half gallon canning jars. This is what I came home to... Five busted jars of milk.
So I'm thawing them one at a time in a pot in the fridge in an attempt to save some. Hoping glass doesn't float in milk... ;) So from my experience, don't put all your milk in the freezer at once, and probably leave two or three inches of head space instead of one. And maybe freeze the milk first with the lid OFF so it doesn't build pressure in there.
#farmfresh #naturalmedicine #pasturedmilk #homesteading #share2steem #farm #milk #dairy #newbiemistake #whoops
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Nate.
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nateonsteemit
Oh, that's so sad! I break jars sometimes when I'm pasteurizing and lose all the milk. If you're freezing it you might try gallon freezer bags. Freeze them flat and then you can store them upright in the freezer. Saves a lot of space.
Good idea! I'll do that with whatever I can salvage, then use a jar for whatever I keep thawed in the fridge to be used. Thanks!!!
If you drink coffee you can run the milk through a coffee filter to make sure there aren't any glass slivers.
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Oh my I would be very upset had this happened to me! Bummer.
I'm lucky in that I can set my fridge at 37 degrees, and if I put some of my milk (I get five half gallons every other week) way in the back with a barrier around it (of other foods) it partially freezes and will keep for a good two weeks. The rest I make into yogurt, kefir or cheese. I tried putting a tad of colloidal silver in some as I had heard folks used to drop a silver coin in to make it last longer, but that did not work. I'd like to try it again.
I hope you can salvage some.
Yeah, if I lose it all, that's like $30 gone. Good thing it wasn't from our regular budget, but from money I got for some side work.
Colloidal silver would kill the active cultures, wouldn't it? @ppmsilver would be the one to ask about that. Not necessarily the preferred outcome if drinking raw milk, but may be an alternative to pasteurization?
My friend and I are going to be venturing into the world of making our own yogurt, cheese, and butter very soon now that we've found this raw milk dairy. Really pretty excited about it all.
I'd be really bummed usually, except today I noticed leaves and buds on both of the small goji plants that I planted. I was sure they were both dead :) so taking the good with the bad, and being optimistic because I still learned some valuable lessons.
It's great to culture your own stuff, and phenomenally easy once you get into the swing, plus you save a LOT of plastic use.
Yeah I imagine the silver would do some damage to the biome (not sure that's the right word here) but it would still be better than store bought milk (also usually in plastic) and only necessary for milk you need to be still fresh a week from now. The rest you suck down unadulterated and raw, because it sure tastes good.
Idk, I'm just trying to recover some of the old ways. @ppmsilver, would love to hear what you think!
Do you just buy the cultures and put them in milk and let it set a while?
We'll be looking into it more, but I'm super glad you've mentioned it!!!! Now I have a cheese person :D
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It's really easy after the first couple tries. I suggest starting small, but that's just me. You strike me as a person who likes to start big!
You need two or three tablespoons of good yogurt to start. Put that in the bottom of a one quart mason jar. Scald a little less than one quart of milk and let that cool to body temp, or between 90 and 100 degrees. Pour the cooled (but still warm) milk into the mason jar with the yogurt and mix it together. Cover the jar (I use wax paper) and put it in a warm place. I just put it in one of my upper cabinets that has a counter light underneath, right on top of the light. In cold weather I also wrap the jar with a towel. I hope I can find a picture of this and manage to put it here. leave it there for 12 to 24 hours, depending on taste. It gets thicker and tangier the longer you leave it, but too long and it turns kind of into cheese. It's still good though.
So the light is on under that cabinet, and the jar is directly over the light bub. Shut the door and forget about it for 24 hours. Let me know how it turns out. Might be a good way to keep some of the milk you have salvaged which may be contaminated after all the work you are doing to save it so scalding it (pasteurizing) would help redeem it. Whatever you do, don't buy a yogurt maker. They are a complete waste of money.
Sorry for the slow reply. Just discovered the mention after a crazy busy week directing the state scholastic chess championship, making my wife Leslie's birthday present and now preparing to leave for setting up my sales table at a market in town.
Yes as @nateonsteemit alluded, silver will kill the bacteria and other microbes it comes in contact with. If there are curds which colloidal silver does not penetrate, the cultures may survive in those. Instead of using CS, you can drop a silver coin or other high percentage silver item in the jar for preservation, as has been done for over 2000 years. This would probably provide less exposure of the cultures to silver so more would survive.
Most times in life, the answer is somewhere in the middle. You could use fresh raw milk without any silver. Then add silver for preservation when you get more fresh. Then use both to maintain the full benefit of raw, but not have as much go bad.
Hope that helps.
Thank you! Really appreciate your knowledge on this.
That reminds me, Nate, to second this about fridge temps. I also keep both my fridges at this temp and the milk does last for 2 weeks. We have to keep it on the bottom shelf though to keep it from freezing...
We had our fridge set on the coldest setting, and the milk didn't thaw one bit all day lol. I had to turn it up, and now it's working. I'll check the owner manual to see what temp the settings are.
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Thermometer works good too.... :)) I keep one in each fridge and a freezer...
Why on Earth would I use a thermometer to measure temperature? So old fashioned and such a simple solution! ;P
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LOLOL!
Ooo nightmare Nate! Carefull with that glass tiny fragments could do a lot of damage, id got with the coffee filter or a muslin/cheese cloth if you have one.
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Yeah, coffee filters are a good idea! I like that one.
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Oh dear, I hope you are able to save them all!
I'll save some for sure! Not sure how much, as I'm not going to mess with glass in the bottom.
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Of course, it's so dangerous!
Oh noooooooo! Yeah definitely need that head space when freezing liquids. Be sure to strain it to make sure there's no glass!
I'm liking the idea of coffee filters. I left about an inch of head space, as that was recommended. Guess it needed more lolol
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Bummer, Nate! Filter that milk REALLY carefully, glass slivers would be pretty nasty...
Now you know you can NEVER freeze anything in jars that have shoulders. Most people freeze the milk in plastic bottles, that they have emptied some of the milk from.
Ball does make jars for freezing, but not in the 1/2 gallon size.
My son said frozen milk had an odd taste and texture, so I never froze any more. I have found that our raw milk keeps for up to 2 weeks. The cream gets really thick and will clump, but it's still fine to drink.
Two weeks, wow!
This is our first experiment with freezing milk. Didn't know it changed the taste, so I guess I'm in for some more learning! Lol
Freaking city kid trying to do homestead stuff 😂😂
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Gotta learn sometime :))
Learning more today!
This stuff STILL isn't thawed! Wowee. Friend Sam brought a half gallon of his milk. He used the same jars, but as soon as I found out she I called to warn him. He let out more milk and didn't put the lid on til the milk had frozen. Worked well for him, glad he didn't have the same learning experience as us :)
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Keeping the milk below the shoulders does help prevent breakage. But the half gallon jars were not made by Ball for freezing.... The heavier straight side jars were the only ones they made for that, and the largest, no longer made, was 22 oz.