Category Archives: Food

Milk!

Several weeks ago, a friend turned us on to the milk from Lavy Dairy Farms in Silex, MO, just north of St. Louis.  Their listing on the Local Harvest website (linked above) reads as follows:

“The Lavy Dairy Farm is a certified organic Grade A licensed dairy. Family owned and operated. We sell quality organic raw milk. Our cows are cross bred for high protein and butterfat.”

Not only is their milk organic and local, the cows are pasture-fed (except in winter).  We finally visited in-person on the way home from Iowa yesterday.  For the amazing price of $3/gallon, we left with four gallons of beautiful milk.  Until we found the Lavy Dairy Farm, the lowest price we’d seen for this product (local, organic, pastured milk) was $10/gallon.

Now here’s the part that gets me.  They produce more milk than they sell directly to customers (like us), so every other day, a big truck comes to empty their milk tanks.  Due to the low demand for organic milk, they cannot get on an organic pick-up route at this time.  Their amazing milk that comes from cows tended with such care gets mixed in with all the other milk from factory-farm dairies!  Such a tragedy.

I don’t have exact numbers, but some quick peeking at milk commodity prices indicates that they make a mere $1 (rough average) per gallon on milk that they sell on a large scale.  They can sell their milk directly to customers (like us), but not directly to stores or at farmers’ markets because it is unpasteurized.

If you’re not sure that buying local food makes a difference, this proves that it does.  In this case, even selling at the bargain price of $3/gallon, the farmer makes $2 PER GALLON more when selling locally.  The Lavy Farm, and countless others like it, require [more] customers who value high-quality, healthy food produced in an environmentally-conscious manner.  Vote with your dollars!

I had my heart set on seeing some calves (and posting some adorable pictures here), but that was not to be. Due to the ever-present rain, we didn’t get to see as much of the farm as we hoped yesterday, but that just leaves something to look forward to on a future milk run!

Dinner and a movie

Happy Earth Day!

Last night we hopped on our bikes and pedaled over to Stellina Pasta for dinner.  Sadly, they only had one vegetarian entrée.  When we eat out, we like to order two different things and split them.  With only one option, we decided to just order one entrée and follow up with more food at home.  I must say, the dish was delicious: “Whole wheat walnut Tagliatelle with oyster mushrooms, asparagus and fresh mozzarella in oil butter garlic sauce.”  Mmmmm.  This made the trip well worth it!

With plenty of room for dessert, we ordered the “chocolate peanut butter bomb.”  Eh, rather disappointing.  It was not bad, but certainly not spectacular.  I left wishing we ended the meal after the entrée.  Oh well, live and learn.

I puttered around the apartment for a bit when we got home, then plopped on the couch with my book.  I completely forgot about Food, Inc. until Matthew asked, “When is that thing on?”  Oh, oops!  I fired up the t.v. and ended up catching all but the first few minutes.  I’m glad I watched it, although I have to admit I was wishing for commercials.  I wanted those breaks to get up and move around and do stuff, but I didn’t want to miss anything.  In the end, I remained in my seat for the entire 90 minutes, with one quick dash for water and lip balm.

Like Fresh, I found many parts of Food, Inc. difficult to watch, but that’s part of the point.  This is what’s going on in our food system, this is the food we put into our bodies, that’s how millions of cows and cute, fluffy chicks are treated, not to mention the workers in the meat processing plants.  I love the contrast with Joel Salatin’s Polyface farm.

Did you watch Food, Inc. last night (or at some other point)?  What did you think?

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Image credit to http://www.clarku.edu/tbwa/images/web_pages/Accomplishments.htm

Red hot chili peppers (or “Experiential learning”)

In seventh grade, my home economics class made pancakes and maple syrup.  I’m still not sure why we had to “make” the maple syrup, but apparently you can buy some sort of packaged “maple syrup” mix (which I’m sure consists of fun things like corn syrup solids, artificial flavors, and coloring), combine it with water, bring the mixture to a boil on the stove top, and voilà! maple syrup.

Skeptical about this “maple syrup,” I logically decided to taste it before adding it to my pancakes, rather than risk ruining all of the pancakes if the syrup was gross (which it probably was).  Not so logically, my sampling method involved STICKING MY FINGER into the pan of BOILING SYRUP.  The result?  A nice second-degree burn on my right index finger.  I do not recommend this method of taste testing hot liquids, especially hot, STICKY liquids.

I had "E.T. finger" for a number of weeks

Anyhow, last year we bought some locally-grown chipotle peppers.  (Chipotle peppers are just smoked jalapeño peppers.)  We have been slowly working our way through a rather large bag of them, enjoying the rich, smoky flavor they bring to recipes.  Like all chili peppers, they possess a good bit of heat.

Last night, I chopped one of the chipotles to add to a pot of chili.  A few minutes later, I felt an intense burning on the skin directly under my left eye — the skin that I had just rubbed with my unwashed chili pepper hands.  In an effort to alleviate the burning, I washed the area with soap and water, which only served to move the hot pepper INTO my eye.  The next few minutes involved me lying on the kitchen floor, worried that I might go blind in my left eye, with Matthew next to me, flushing my eye with a bottle of saline solution.

The good news?  My eye returned to normal in a relatively short time period.  Lesson learned?  It really is important to wash your hands (and cooking surfaces, such as knives and cutting boards) thoroughly after they come in contact with hot peppers.  And until you can do so, keep your hands away from your face!  Who would have guessed?

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E.T. image credit to this site

In which I encourage you to watch t.v.

Uncharacteristic, I know, but every once in awhile, someone broadcasts something worth watching.

Case in point: next Wednesday (April 21st), many PBS stations will air Food, Inc. as part of their “P.O.V.” (which stands for Point of View) documentary series.  Check your local listings for times.  TVGuide.com simply listed it as “P.O.V.,” which threw me for a moment, but don’t be fooled!

If my sources are correct, it’s airing in St. Louis at 9:00pm and Burlington, IA at 8:00pm.  Personally, I prefer 8:00pm — less chance of interfering with my bed time and all, but I’ve been curious about Food, Inc. for awhile.  Now I can watch it at my favorite price (FREE), while sitting comfortably on my couch, wearing what I want (i.e., sans pants).

Tune in and celebrate Earth Day Eve by learning about the connection between farming and food systems, our health, and the health of our planet — just remember to unplug the t.v. or flip the switch on the power strip when it’s over!

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Image from the Food, Inc. website

Green goings-on

Despite having a crazy busy couple of days ahead, we attended Green Drinks trivia night last night — and reaped the benefits.  The weather rewarded our commitment to biking by staying warm, dry, and not too windy.  Three lovely, intelligent people joined our table to form the five-member “Compost Crusaders” team.  We enjoyed getting to know our teammates while kicking some green trivia butt!

Yes, for the first time in my limited trivia-going experience, I was on the winning team!  We scored goodies from Kakao (blog here), Local Harvest, and Black Bear Bakery.

And a t-shirt!

One question had to do with Sheryl Crow — apparently she thinks limiting toilet paper use is a good idea too!  She takes the two square idea one step further.

The green event train continues tonight, with the Fresh Fest.  We’re looking forward to watching the food documentary Fresh, and enjoying some local fare (hoping for a decent selection of veg offerings).