I am by NO means what one would define as “granola”, “green”, or “crunchy”. I don’t get my knickers in too much of a twist about High Fructose Corn Syrup, I am fond of processed foods, big box stores, McDonald’s and Diet Coke. (I know you are all super shocked at that last one.)
And I may or may have not just polished off my 2nd box of Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies this week.
But.
That does NOT mean that I don’t love mom & pop stores, handmade products, eco-friendly products and companies, vegan dishes, farmer markets, gardening and organic foods and best of all…good, old-fashioned, homecooked meals. I’m a TOTAL foodie, despite the fact that I love Kraft Mac & Cheese and swear by McDonald’s new oatmeal.
I like many things that are all “granola”, “green”, and “crunchy” and my love and zeal for them just seems to be growing as time ticks by.
Despite the fact that my husband is a ceaseless in his objections about my unhealthy junk food passions, I do manage to squeeze quite a few things into my lifestyle that are very healthy and very un-objectionable to even him.
Not that Jonathan does not have bad food habits, he does. He just doesn’t embrace the ones he has with as much gusto as I do.
His family is very health conscious. They are totally down with all things herbal and homeopathic and such. The latest ‘thing’ in the clan is “raw milk“.
What is “raw milk”, you ask?
Well, it’s milk.
Straight from the cow.
Period, the end.
No processing.
No pasteurizing.
No homogenizing.
Nada.
Straight milk with cream that you have to skim from the top of it just like you read about in Little House on the Prairie and Little Women.
And my inlaws SWEAR by it for a million different reasons that involve ‘good vs. bad bacteria’, improvement of health and the fact that my lactose intolerant brothers-in-law seem to digest it just fine.
The thought of drinking it straight kind of makes me want to hurl, but I admit that I did not mind drinking this mind-blowingly good chocolate milk concoction that my brother-in-law makes and drinks every day that has raw milk, pure cacao (another thing they swear by) and honey.
It’s illegal to buy or sell raw milk for all those pesky health reasons that are crossing most of your minds RIGHT NOW. My inlaws get theirs the legit way but for our family to do it we would pretty much have to hunt down a black market supply in our area to get it. (You think I’m kidding about that whole “black market” thing but no, there is a very large market for it. Somehow, I never imagined having a ‘dealer’ for, um, milk. But ya know…I also never thought I’d do half the things I’ve done in my life. Weirder things have happened.)
We’ve made a couple of changes that I think I am REALLY going to love. For one, we are going to substantially expand our garden this summer.
And we are going to be composting.
Let me repeat that.
WE ARE GOING TO BE COMPOSTING.
ME.
If you know me, you are just shaking your head at this point.
And?
Today, we had our first delivery (TO OUR DOOR) of fresh bottled milk from a local dairy.
I love the taste of it.
And the convenience of it.
I think I am going to LOVE it.
I’m still not down with the ‘raw milk’ thing. I just…dunno.
And if venturing back to the days where all milk was delivered to every door wasn’t enough, we’re starting an even more ambitions project. We meant to start it last weekend, but with funerals and sickness, it has been bumped back until the weekend after next. It’s something that we have been looking at doing for a long time and since my beloved cat, Wilbur, is gone from our family, I now have the last objection removed and we’re going to jump in and just do it.
Here’s a hint:
Yup.
We’re buying chickens and raising them to get eggs for our family. We have a *huge* yard and I LOVE eggs. I love organic, fresh eggs even more. Several of my inlaws have chickens and I have gotten a TON of advice online. And hey, if you have any advice for me feel free to leave it!
We’ve been thinking about it for YEARS and like I said, my main concern was having our cat, Wilbur around with them. I know that I could likely keep them safe, but my mom was an elementary school teacher and she brought little chicks home from her classroom one year for the weekend and I failed to shut the door completely and our cat got to them.
I still haven’t recovered from that, actually.
So, we’re going for it.
My father and I took the boys down to look at a flock of different chicks for sale. Butterlump went loco. He WUVED them. We’ll have to keep a careful eye on him because they will be in the house for a bit until they are old enough to be housed outside in the coop and run we are purchasing.
We should have eggs in about 18-20 weeks.
And hopefully, I’ll have a bowlful of these beauties sitting on my table as well!
While I am really excited about these changes I am also left scratching my head at some of the things I’ve been getting into lately.
Homeschooling.
Chickens.
Milk.
Soon I will be telling Pa that I want to hitch up the wagon and move out to the claim on the prairie and hunting and eating squirrel.
Well, maybe not that last thing, but ya never know.
Stumble it!
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