THE KITCHEN

Dairy

Milk
Milk is one of the staples to our diet that has been played with most, i.e. pasteurised and homogenised to death. It is unfortunately now a white liquid sold in plastic bottles. We have been fortunate at Green and Away to have a dairy farmer that has supplied us with fresh milk, it is a cream colour and the cream will set on the top.
To my surprise our public liability insurance says we have to inform pregnant mothers that it is fresh milk, as the bacteria found in fresh milk can now be harmful to them. It is a scary realisation that the 'normal milk we buy is so far removed from what it was, the healthy bacteria that milk is known to contain, our bodies may now have difficulty in tolerating.
Many dairy farmers are starting to treat their own milk, and sell it directly to the public. Neil's yard cheese shop a prime example of a chain now stocking only farm-produced milk, it is worth the extra expense, proper milk as it should be!

Cheese
Again many farmers are now making their own cheese, and it is a far cry from some of the super market examples. Once you try cheese from a farmer, as with the milk it is difficult to go back. Mass production and clinical conditions are not necessarily good for cheese as its production is also based around creating healthy bacteria. The now wide spread availability of farmers markets means we are no longer bound to supermarket cheese, check out a farmers market near you.
See Perspectives link to farmers markets in England.

Yoghurt
Another healthy bacteria product, yoghurt for example contains 'Perboitics' a new term for foods that encourage the friendly bacteria we already have. Natural yoghurts with your own fruits added, perhaps sweetened with a drizzle of honey or maple syrup. Creamy Greek yoghurt is higher in fat than most yoghurts but it is still a fat saving alterative to cream.

Butter
Personally my taste has always been for butter not margarine, there is no replacement for the real thing in my opinion, every thing we eat should be as unprocessed and as natural as possible. If you still use dairy products, my suggestion is to use good quality butter, when following a vegan diet say away from spreads that contain hydrogenated oils.