As most of you know, I track my weekly
food waste and last week I had a big surprise. We had spoiled milk. I
don't remember having spoiled milk during my entire adult life. And
while I remember milk spoiling when I was a child, that too was a
rare occurrence. (Back then, we drank whole milk that spoiled faster
than the skim milks of today. Also, spoilage usually happened because
one of the kids forgot to put it back in the refrigerator.)
During my childhood, we always had
whole milk, butter, and ice cream in our house. We even had butter
milk, which I hear if you weren't raised on it, is not too appealing
for most people. My father was a farm boy, and the way he saw it,
dairy products were a must for every day life. We were happy he
thought that because we all our liked milk. There was no need to tell
my sisters and me that we needed to drink it to get strong bones. We
were already consuming it with gusto.
Not only did I enjoy milk, it was a
useful tool sometimes during supper. That was on those days when my
mother served liver or sweet potatoes which I considered the worst
tasting foods on earth. The rule was that you had to have a spoonful
of everything, but no more if you didn't like it. So I would get the
smallest spoonful I could, then spend the next while taking a small
bite, then a drink of milk to wash it down. Another small bite, then
a drink of milk. I could easy drink a couple of glasses of milk using
this method before a small serving of sweet potato was gone. That
seems kind of silly now, but it was my tried and true method then.
Through the years, my milk drinking has
decreased and I prefer water today. However, the Carnivores in my
family still love their milk. When there were four of us living here,
we bought milk 2-3 gallons at a time, and that would happen a couple
of times per week. However, with Wally and Theo buying their own milk
now, obviously Ward and I don't need as much. I have cut back to
buying a gallon a week. Sometimes that's not enough and sometimes
that's too much.
I hear there are a lot of uses for old
or spoiled milk, however I haven't paid much attention to them
before. I never had any reason to. However, maybe that's something I
should look into these days.
Do you drink much milk?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Shaking
For heaven’s sake, for your sake and the cow’s sake.
That’s the dumbest way I’ve seen
To make a milk shake.
~Shel Silverstein
