raw milk

[aka_tico]

greetings,
i have access to fresh supply of raw milk but I'm not sure if it is a good idea, at my level, to use it for cheese making. specially for the soft cheeses. i guess it should be all right for hard chesses that need longer period of aging.
can anyone shed light on the raw milk dilemma or at least direct me to the right place for info.

tnx

[Lee]

If you're sure of the supply, then it should be fine, but I would strongly advise not feeding it to children/pregnant women, elderly, the usual immunocompromised groups. I used to drink raw milk from Guernsey cattle on my uncles farm as a kid, and it never did me any harm.
However, I probably wouldn't drink it now 30 years on, and I'm fairly open to eating pretty much anything. I did a food microbiology degree, and one of the lectureres, who was a very knowledgeable chap and would happily eat and form of rancid cheese said he'd never touch raw milk, as basically it was watered down pus . Kind of sticks with you that image, and he was the kind of guy you should pay attention too!
Cheese is a bit different though, as the starter culture should knock out any undesirable bugs (and if they didn't your cheese would smell shockin'!)