Comments on: Dairy Wars: Battle of the Milk & Cheese

By: Mary K

Mary K — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:09:18 +0000

I know this is an old post… but I have my own plastic free milk solution. My husband and I recently joined a local food-buying club. People join together to buy local foods….. for example, we can buy a whole cow from a local farmer and split the meat, etc. Its an elaborate group, but anyhow…..

One of the items we get through the group is local, raw, grass-fed milk (raw meaning not pasteurized). If that sounds crazy to you, do some research on it and check out the Weston A. Price Foundation.

We order milk each week and it comes in reusable glass bottles. The screw on lids are plastic, but they get reused along with the glass bottles. Each week you bring your clean, empty bottle and get a new bottle of milk. It has been great! I am so glad to have weaned my husband off of milk in plastic jugs… milk that was undoubtedly much worse for him anyhow!

If I can do this in Kentucky, surely you can do it in California!

By: K

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:33:00 +0000

Waay late, sorry I just discovered your blog a couple of weeks ago through No Impact Man.

Do you have to always buy the same kind of milk? They both have a lot going for them, so why not buy one sometimes and the other other times? That's what I would do.

I wish we had glass-bottled milk around here. There are two grass-fed dairies in the area (Berkshire County, Massachusetts), and they both package in plastic only. And one of them is raw milk only, and you can only get it at the farm, several miles from anywhere I ever go, so that's out for me. I emailed the other last night to ask if they would consider using glass.

Yesterday I read in the NYT that plastic recycling is getting less profitable, and therefore happening less. I was already reducing plastic bag consumption, which has been very easy for me, but this news made me realize that I need to start down your path. Thanks for going first and lighting the way!

By: Alice

Alice — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:30:00 +0000

On the Milk front, I would choose the glass bottle. I have recently signed up to have millk delivered in glass bottles. They are topped with bits of aluminum foil which you press to take off. Its great that they haven't stopped milk deliveries in England!

On the cheese front, I would choose Kerrygold, I know about the food miles, but isn't your real issue plastic? Also I often buy things from overseas because they just cannot or will not be produced over here. (Nothing to do with my boyfriend being Irish and insisting on their butter!)

Also have you thought of buying the whole block of cheese? Keep it out in your pantry not the fridge where it is still nice and cool, and give away to your friends what you won't be able to eat. Actually maybe some of it could be frozen and last longer!

By: AnnMarie

AnnMarie — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:04:00 +0000

Did they give a reason why it has to be wrapped right away? I frequently (like almost 5 days a week) eat cheese for lunch. I cut it up at home and put it in a container to take to work. No plastic involved! And usually, the cheese at home has been unwrapped and placed in a container, too. The cheese never goes bad. the worst that happens is when I forget to put it in the fridge and it sits out for 5 hours and gets a little bit oily. It's still edible.

Maybe you could bring a container from home and they'd put it in that. If they insist on plastic, you could have just one plastic container or baggie you used for it perhaps that you already owned.

By: eco 'burban mom

eco 'burban mom — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:10:00 +0000

Oh, a blog topic on cheese… I can barely focus. My husband once asked what one food would I take to a deserted island? CHEESE! Finding locally made cheese in plain ‘ol wax would be heaven here in the ‘burbs, but, along with glass bottled milk, you can rarely find either. However, we do have a cheese artesian in our “up north” region. For those fellow Michiganders, visit the Leelanau Cheese Company http://www.leelanaucheese.com/
at the BlackStar Farms Winery in Suttons Bay. They not only make their own wine, but have won many awards for their European style cheeses – The Raclette is TO DIE FOR. They also have an onsite farmers market with organic fruits and veggies. So, it’s a virtual one-stop! But, to agree with some of the other commenters – why not ask them to wrap it in wax or butcher’s paper instead of the plastic. That would make it taste all the better! I’ll try that this year!

By: jennconspiracy

jennconspiracy — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:48:00 +0000

DUDE!!!!

What about the Cheese Board on Shattuck near Vine. I’m sure if you brought your own container, they’d be happy to put the cheese in it. And they have yummy pizza.

I miss cheese.

Cheeseboard Collective
1504 Shattuck
http://cheeseboardcollective.coop/

By: Fake Plastic Fish

Fake Plastic Fish — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:35:00 +0000

Hi Green cat. Your question is the same one that many, many people have asked me. And believe me, if I had the option of a local cheesemonger that was willing to cut off slices and wrap in paper, I would be using it. Unfortunately, and as weird as it sounds, there is no local cheesemonger here that will wrap cheese in paper.

Here's the thing: when you're talking about cheddar and other hard, aged cheeses (gruyere, gouda, for example) which are my favorite types of cheese, what I've been told is that as soon as they are cut, they have to be wrapped. So they will cut a piece of cheese for me plastic-free but then cut up and plastic-wrap all the rest of the round or block. It doesn't really save any plastic.

Also, many blocks of cheese come in plastic wrap to begin with. Like the cheese at the Safeway deli counter, which I won't buy because it's factory-farmed cheese.

We don't have any cheese vendor at our farmer's markets except Springhill, which brings plastic shrink-wrapped blocks with them to sell. I have asked about the possibility of having them bring me some unwrapped and was told they can't do that for one customer.

I continue to search.

By: The Green Cat

The Green Cat — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:03:00 +0000

Beth, since cheese is so important to you, why aren’t you using a local cheesemonger? My farmer’s market has a cheese maker that will slice off however much cheese I want and wrap it in paper. (From what I understand from reading The Cheese Snob http://www.cheesesnob.com/, cheese should be allowed to breathe and so should not be wrapped in plastic anyway.) I also know that a number of “specialty” markets have cheese counters where I can buy cheese wrapped in just paper. Surely you have these options out there, no?

By: emily

emily — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 05:01:00 +0000

I’d go for the glass bottles, and whatever paper-wrapped cheese you can find.

Quick story–if anyone appreciates it, it’ll be you! I returned two glass milk bottles to the grocery store today, and as always, put them on the checkout belt with my food. First the boy asked me how much they were, then he charged me the $.85 per bottle! I said no, I’m returning them for the deposit, not buying. Turned out he actually didn’t know what a deposit was–I had to explain the concept. He had no idea how to run it through the register, obviously. Neither did his supervisor. I was told that the glass bottles are “never” taken back at the register. Got sent to customer service, where they also thought I should deposit the bottles somewhere else. I spent 10 minutes on the whole circus, and in the express lane, too (received many annoyed looks). But eventually someone handed me the cash…

By: Tracey

Tracey — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:16:00 +0000

Oh!
EMERGENCY milk recipe:
Put four parts water, preferably hot, in a blender with one part nuts, any raw nuts will do. Blend the dickens out of them, then filtre. Use the sediment in a soup, and the creamy liquid in your coffee, tea, or baking…
You can soak the nuts ahead of time,m as the more together reader commented, but I never plan to make emergency milk…