Got Milk?

Yesterday we went grocery shopping. Harris Teeter was having some pretty good buy 2 get 3 free sales. I love it when their sales match my coupons. It makes me so happy to save more than I spend at the grocery store. BUT, this is not the point of the blog post. We were going to buy milk while we were there, but our friend Skyler told us about some yummy and all natural milk he bought at a local market. So we headed to Reynolda Farm Market to check it out.

I have been aware of the "cow factories" where almost all of our meat cows come from, but I had (ignorantly) thought that our dairy cows escaped that same fate. As it turns out, most of our milk comes from cows that live in confinement, feed on grains, are injected with hormones, and milked three times a day - all so that they will produce more milk.

Consequences (besides not having a happy cow) for our milk?
*Lower amount of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) - a fat that might be one of the most potent cancer fighters.
*Distorted ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids - studies suggest that those who consume equal amounts of omega-3 and omega-6 have a lower risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and other disorders. The more grain and the less grass means the more omega-6 and less omega-3.
*Less vitamins - the more a cow is milked (2 times is the normal milking) the less vitamins per milking. Also, more vitamins are consumed (and passed to the milk) when the cow is pasture fed.
You can read more information here.

So here is our new milk:

This milk is from Homeland Creamery. And, it is made only an hour away from here. These cows are not 100% pasture fed, but they are not given any hormones, and are only milked twice a day. Check out the website - it looks like those cows are happy cows :)

Got Milk? Yes we do, and yummy good milk at that.

A Fresh Start

So again, the look of our blog changes, but this time, the theme of the blog changes too. It is no longer just about the "happenings" of Jamie and me, but about us trying to embrace an entirely different way of living. We believe God is calling us to change. The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it. We want to live in a manner that cares for and respects all of God’s creations.

Our goal for this blog is to share the ways we are changing the way we live, whether that is giving up something, adding something, adjusting something, or being more aware of something. Food is going to be a big part of the changes we make and our first life change is to move away from industrialized, processed foods. One consistent aspect of our blog will be us documenting at least one meal a week which we will make from local ingredients whose source we can trace, grown in organic soil and conditions, and that we may have even helped harvest.

Hopefully through this, we will not only change ourselves, but contribute to changing the world as well.