Madjeston Milk Station is at the other end of our lane. This is a rather grandiose title; the station is a wooden shed containing various vending machines, open twenty-four hours a day. Newhouse Farm is the location. The farmer has a herd of Ayrshire dairy cows grazing the surrounding fields and so the main feature of the station is fresh milk (other dairy-based products are available). It is a very pleasant excursion to wander along to the farm with an appropriate receptacle, insert a pound coin into the machine, place the receptacle under the nozzle, press the button and watch a litre of fresh, cold milk decant into it. One has a very warm, satisfied and possibly self-righteous feeling, knowing that the walk home is going to be the furthest this milk will ever travel. And a slight feeling of irritation at all the car-drivers making special journeys to the station for their supplies – does this somewhat defeat the purpose? Many of this species believe that roads are for their exclusive use and are thus somewhat intolerant of those engaging other modes of travel. Especially for folks like me, in my own little world, thanking the 'ladies' for their product, and contemplating what an amazing service they unwittingly provide. These great big beasts, elegant and ungainly in equal measure, are munching green grass which they convert into a white, creamy and delicious liquid that provides calcium and vitamins essential for good health. There is sufficient nutrition in the grass to keep these bovines in fine fettle themselves. The waste product is squirted out the back. This too has adequate nutritional value as it breaks down and feeds the grass, making it grow thick and lush for some more cows to turn into milk. It's almost as if someone has designed a perfectly elegant system with total recycling in mind. I wonder...
The station is managed by an ephemeral, phantasmagorical entity known as 'Lucy'. Lucy has a phone number in case of malfunction so one assumes that 'she' is a sentient, anthropomorphic being. Let's call her 'the farmer's wife'. Lucy's milk is pasteurised. Only pasteurised. Milk from the Associated Dairies and other supermarkets is 'pasteurised, homogenised, standardised'. What the...?
Well, all milk has to be pasteurised unless the farm has special dispensation to sell raw milk. So I'll let that pass. As for standardisation, this is all to do with the amount of fat in the milk. Supermarkets like their products to be uniform and consistent – they know what they're selling and the punter knows what s/he is buying. Nevertheless, natural products do not conform to some arbitrary standard set by some administrator, in some glass and concrete office in the middle of Leeds. Nature is infinitely varied but that wonderful tendency must be quashed. How dare it! And so it is with milk. The amount of fat in a batch depends on all sorts of factors – the breed of cow, the quality of the grass, the weather... Hence it must be standardised. Batches are mixed, cream is added or extracted, until the predetermined fat content is achieved – usually 3.5% to 4% for whole, full fat milk. It is forced to comply with the label.
When it comes to homogenisation I seem to have stumbled across a whole subject of controversy. Lucy's milk is not homogenised and she has a leaflet suggesting that milk so treated leads to higher cholesterol levels and heart attack. Really? My interest was piqued!
First of all, what is homogenisation? Simply put, in a process invented by Auguste Gaulin in 1899, the milk is accelerated through a tube with a tiny output orifice and this smashes up the large fat globules into tiny particles. The fat is thus evenly distributed throughout the milk. This prevents it coagulating and floating to the top, giving the milk a uniform consistency.
Secondly, why? This seems to come down to pure commercialisation. Homogenised milk has a longer shelf life. And the fickle whims of the consumer who apparently wants a pure white lactate without a yellowy creamy top. Which consumer in particular is not entirely clear. Isn't the top of the milk the best bit? It adds a certain unctuousness when poured onto the morning cereal. If you don't want it, well why not just give the bottle a shake? That's a choice we're not allowed. But what about all this cholesterol stuff? Maybe full fat milk is just bad for us and so we should avoid it completely! Perhaps we should stick to that ghastly skimmed stuff that is little more than white water and a complete waste of money. Allegedly, the goodness removed is artificially added back in. More investigation required when shops are less challenging to access.
Homogenisation is either good or bad depending on which agenda you are promoting. I have read some interesting things but I can't find empirical evidence one way or another. The non-homogenisation camp points to a study by Kurt Oster in the 1960's which, with long words like plasmalogen and xanthine oxidase, basically claims that the fat is reduced to such tiny particles that it is absorbed directly into the blood stream thereby avoiding the digestion process. Mass homogenisation began in the 1940's in the USA and he links this with a subsequent rise in the rate of heart disease. Other sources link homogenisation with allergenicity and a rise in lactose intolerance; these sugars passing directly and undigested into the gut. Isn't that remarkably similar to above? It is true that lactose-free milk is readily available in a way that it just wasn't just a few years ago. Has the intolerance been created by unnecessary processing, or has it always existed, unrecognised? Given that humans have been drinking cow's milk for thousands of years, the former is more likely methinks. On the other hand, those favouring homogenisation wave this all away with a dismissive hand, claiming a lack of scientific rigour and pointing out all the inconsistencies that they can find - leaving the likes of you and me not knowing what to believe. The Dairy Council and the big dairies make no mention of any possible undesirable side-effects in the way they process milk. One would assume that if incontrovertible evidence did exist to prove that homogenisation is absolutely harmless, they would be shouting this from the rooftops.
The Proverbs encourage 'thinking ability' and my conclusion on the matter is this: a natural product is probably best in its natural, unprocessed state. If, as it seems, the only arguments for homogenisation are commercial, boosting the profits of greedy corporations, that is bad! If I could buy it raw, I would. As a child I used to drink Uncle John's milk, warm from his cow. It doesn't seem to have done me any harm. That's my biased view and I'm sticking to it regardless of any evidence to the contrary!
The other point Lucy makes is that although unskimmed milk is known as whole milk, or full-fat milk, the fat content is actually quite low when compared to other foods that we regularly devour without thought and with alacrity. She has a point. In our kitchen cupboards I have found cookies with a fat content of 18%, some cream and crunch biscuits at 24% fat, some crisps at 27% fat and some dairy chocolate at 30% fat. So at four percent, or up to five and a half percent from Jersey cows (remember gold top?), whole milk really is not high fat at all. When it comes to your daily cuppa, think on this calculation. A mug of tea is about 300ml. Of that about 75ml might be milk, give or take a bit depending on your preference (dark brown with a goodly slug of milk is mine). In that milk is 3ml of fat giving you a drink containing no more than 1% fat. That is not a high fat content.
So just enjoy. Marvel at the efficacy of creation. Appreciate its variety. If you can source, and afford, a better quality product, then by all means do so. Admittedly at £1 per litre it is more expensive than the four-pints priced at 48p per litre in the Associated Dairies (not too far from the vacuous meat pies and nibbled cookies). But if this means a pleasant morning stroll down to the farm, what could be more delightful? And if I have piqued your interest to investigate further, that would be great. It might be that full-fat non-homogenised milk is more healthful than its skimmed, homogenised cousins.
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