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According to Mike and Trisha Vieira - Spokane's Family Farm uses low-heat pasteurization to kill the potentially harmful pathogens in the milk. It's heated to 145 degrees and held there for 30 minutes before it is quickly cooled to prepare for bottling. Most commercial milk is pasteurized at higher temperatures (HTST) to kill the bacteria as well as other enzymes in the milk and extend the shelf life. Some milk is ultra-heat pasteurized (UHT), or heated to a temperature that kills almost all of the microorganisms and can be shelf stable if it is put in hermetically sealed packaging.Food and Drug Administration researchers say the higher temperature pasteurization doesn't significantly affect the nutritional value of milk. Others believe human bodies benefit from the natural enzymes that are left intact by low-temperature pasteurization. They also like the flavor better, and the remaining enzymes help with the fermentation of milk into cheese and yogurt.The Vieiras like the taste of the milk and the "good bacteria" left behind. Although they like keeping the milk closer to its natural state, they don't believe in selling raw milk. "It is a liability and it's still a serious issue," says Mike Vieira, who also worked for five years in dairy sanitation as a troubleshooter for Sunnyside Dairy Supply.Spokane's Family Farm doesn't homogenize the milk, which means the cream rises to the top of the jugs. Most commercial milk has the cream separated out, and then spra back into the milk in a prescribed amount (1 percent, 2 percent or about 3 percent for whole milk). The cream is forced through tubes at high pressure to break up the fat so it no longer separates from the low-fat milk.Milk from Spokane's Family Farm averages about 3.5 percent fat. Shake the jug for creamy whole milk or, as the Vieiras suggest, store it in an iced tea dispenser with the spigot on the bottom. The milk that settles to the bottom has about 2 percent fat and the cream that rises to the top can be saved and made into butter, used for coffee or even whipped. It has about a three-week shelf life.