Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Monday, May 7, 2007

Organic dairy queen

Nice jugsWe eat a lot of dairy. Mostly because we don't eat much meat and it's one of our big sources of protein. Recently I've started making our own yogurt instead of buying the 20-odd little plastic vats of yogurt per week. And I've been getting organic cheese too.

We've been buying organic milk for about 8 years so I was quite excited to see organic glass jarred milk at our local co-op store. You pay a deposit for the jar and then return it to the store for a refund. You know the drill. The milk is from a local dairy and is hormone-free. Plus, it fits into that whole 100 mile diet thing. Not that I'm a strict locavore adherent but I'm trying to choose local when I can.

I'm very excited because we go through so much milk with the kids and I hate those plastic milk jugs. We use the 1/2 gallon milk cartons to hold food waste, but I thought I'd try out the glass and help support a local dairy.

10 comments:

oopuy said...

Crunchy Chicken, I just recently came upon your blog and I want to thank you for posts, ideas and commitment. It's great to know that you and other people like you are out there...I hope to become a frequent visitor. Best, Lrapps.

P~ said...

That picture reminds me so much of when I was a kid and would go with my grandpa to the dairy in the next town. I loved it, he'd get his milk, and I could eat all the cherries I could stomach from their trees. The dairy is now Mc Mansions but some of the cherry trees arae still there. Ahhh. memories.

Crunchy Chicken said...

p~ yeah, isn't there something super-nostalgic about a glass milk bottle? Not that we ever got it as a kid (can you say non-fat powdered milk?).

QT said...

As someone who lives in the dairy state, I am very fortunate to have access to local, organic dairy of all kinds. I did start making my own yogurt after reading about it on your blog, so keep up the good work! There are always so many useful, easy ideas on here.

Anonymous said...

Crunchy Chicken, which coop did you find the organic milk in glass jars? And what was the source? I'll try to coerce the coop i shop at to carry it as well.

Anonymous said...

Crunchy Chicken, cows' milk is for calves! Why are you still consuming dairy products? Just wondering if you have explored the more earth-friendly and animal-friendly alternatives...P.S. Humans don't really need all that much protein anyway - please read Diet for a New America by John Robbins.

Crunchy Chicken said...

jenn - I got the milk from PCC. The milk is from Faith Dairy.

Crunchy Chicken said...

danielle - thanks for your comment. Yes, I understand that cow's milk is for cows, humans don't require as much protein as we think we do, etc. I used to be a vegan. I have read Diet for a New America as well as several nutrition books on vegetarian and veganism. It's a personal choice that I have made to consume dairy again based on several factors, which I won't go into grand detail here.

If people are more interested in the problems with dairy consumption there are many wonderful resources out there (I'll leave you up to Googling them).

The point of my post was to encourage those who do decide to consume dairy products (and they are the majority, I'm afraid) to at least look into lower-impact resources such as organic products, and to support small, local dairies, where you see some of the issues less exacerbated than with the huge dairies.

I encourage all of you to at least be aware of the health and environmental issues with raising cattle and consuming the by-products.

Caroline said...

I don't know if it's lower impact, and it certainly won't work for everyone, but we have our own dairy goats. Problem: you only get milk after the goat has a baby, and something must be done with the baby. We only have one baby right now and it's a girl so we're keeping it. Milk production definitely follows a lactation curve, howeer. Good things: our own milk and cheese, and DH has been able to get off his ulcer medications after 10 years due to the goat milk. The goats are also easy to care for, and have great personalities!

We find that our trips to the dump decrease dramatically once we no longer have plastic milk jugs going into our recycling bin!

Village Green said...

I wish soy milk came in glass returnable bottles.

Hi Crunchy Chicken! Thanks for visiting my blog. I will join in your Low Impact week for sure!