I wonder if you have ever considered learning how to make your own cheese. A) it’s fun, B) you can make sure it’s organic, rBST free, etc., C) it’s an excuse to avoid MORE PLASTIC!

The whole subject of making cheese, to most people, induces a reaction of “uh, isn’t that, like, some sort of a deep culinary black art that mere mortals should cower in fear of?”

Well, no. It’s actually pretty easy, depending on the type of cheese, how much space you have to work with, and how committed (or not) you want to be.

I’d recommend starting with a queso fresco or paneer style fresh cheese, one where the curd is separated from the whey via lemon juice or vinegar. The equipment overhead of getting started is nothing more than a gallon of milk and a big pot to cook it in (which you probably already have).

If you get really into it, you can send yourself or your spouse off to a hardware store to find supplies for making your own plastic-free cheese press (again, not too difficult, if you’re willing to exercise a little creativity) that will open up a world of other cheeses to your reach.

But it’s definitely worth giving a try. The book I’d recommend is “Home Cheese Making” by Ricki Carroll. And while you can probably check it out from the library (another good idea, at least for your first attempt), if you decide that cheese making is something you’ll want to pursue then this will definitely be a book you want to own. It has recipes for cheeses from American to Ziergerkase, as as much about the science and biochemistry of cheese making as you probably care to know.

On a similar, working in a grocery store, even though I happen to love my store, is terribly depressing. More and more people are bringing in their reusable bags, but then almost every single thing I swipe across the scanner is encased in plastic. It’s a little disheartening by the end of an 8-hour shift.

Love the blog, by the way–I just cam across it and have been working my way through the archives!

One Response to “Why Are Organic Bananas Wrapped in Plastic?”

1. Luis Monge on February 21st, 2008 6:31 pm

Just wanted to clarify that putting bananas in a plastic bag WILL NOT speed up their rippening process.
Plastic bags are used because the retailers need that everybody pays for the product that is buying. Many people take the stickers off of the organic bananas and claim that they are conventional at the cashier.

We do not make any money out of the plastic bags, we will love to avoid them, but consumers also need to help with this process. Ask your retailer to stop selling plastic bagged organic bananas.

We are also looking for other altenatives to avoid plastic bags in our products, but it takes time.

The comment about ethylene is just out of place, bananas are not BLASTED, since it is needed in a very small quantity, the ethylene used is not to ripe the bananas in an artificial way, the ethylene is used to start the natural ripening process, because bananas produces ethylene by themselves, so you only need a very small quantity to make it start. You can try… take a green banana put it togheter with an apple in a close space (it could be a bag, or any other recipient / container) and the ethylene produced by the apple will start the natural ripening process of the banana.

As extra information, most of the Ethylene gas used (which is exactly the same molecule than the natural Ethylene contained in the atmosphere) is produce using Ethanol and a catalitic box machine.

The Luis Monge name links to the Dole website. Who knows if that’s reliable though.

Also – interesting side note. I started my blog right around the same time as you. What a hoot.
Beth Terry… corporatecowgirl dot com