Monday, May 17, 2010

Week 1: Buy Better Milk

After watching Food, Inc. and No Impact Man recently, we realized that we've been getting kind of lax with some of our lifestyle choices. Having a baby definitely makes it tempting to do things based on convenience rather than conscience. So to get ourselves back on track we've decided to make one new resolution each week that we'll try to make a part of our everyday lives.

This week, we're going to stop buying supermarket milk. We like Stoneyfield, but we're lucky enough to have a great local company that sells grass-fed, certified organic, gently pasteurized milk that comes in returnable glass bottles.


I'll have to go a little bit out of my way to get it, and remember to wash and take back the bottles, but it'll be worth it. Not only does their milk taste like real milk, but we'll also be getting extra CLA and Omega-3 fatty acids. All of their farms are located in Lancaster County, so it should all come from about 50 miles away or less. And we won't have to worry about what the packaging is made of or where it goes after we're done using it. And even though it costs a little bit more, the money we spend stays local and supports our farming neighbors. If you're interested in finding local grass-fed milk, check out Eat Wild.

2 comments:

Janine said...

Which store did you pick up your milk from? I was at EatWild the other day looking for grass feed free-range beef and came across a couple local dairy farms that sold raw milk. I was a bit nervous about going that route though.

Gardener said...

We've been buying our our milk for drinking, half-and-half and butter from Natural By Nature. They have a retail outlet near our house but they also sell in organic markets around. Their milk is "gently pasteurized" but not homogenized. It's pretty cool that they have a glass bottle deposit and return program too.

We recently bought some raw milk from an Amish farm to make cheddar cheese. They only sell directly from their farm though. I'm not quite ready to switch to drinking it but being able to see the cleanliness of their milking operation made me feel really comfortable.