Raw Milk Available at Exeter Farmers Market

The following is from the Seacoast Growers' Association:

Raw milk from a New Hampshire farm will be one of dozens of local items available at today's Exeter's Farmers Market.

The market goes from 2:15 to 6 p.m. at .

Brandmoore Farm, of Rollinsford, is selling raw milk.

"We hand-milk our cows twice a day," Becky Brand told the Seacoast Growers' Association. "They are all grass fed, which is one of the keys to successful raw milk."

Becky Brand owns the farm with her husband, Phil.

Raw milk has to be more carefully stored and be consistently kept cool because it doesn't go through modern types of preservation like grocery store milk does.

"Homogenized milk has the cream broken up and suspended in the milk," said Phil Brand. "The heating process in pasteurization helps it lasts longer on the shelf."

Without these processes, Brandmoore milk comes with the cream collected into a rich layer at the top, which you can shake up into the milk or skim off and use for cooking. Some lactose intolerant people are having luck with raw milk since the natural enzymes are still present to break up the milk sugars (lactose) they have trouble digesting.

The farmers market goes through Oct. 25 on the parkway.