The Milkman Cometh

I have vague memories of my grandparents getting milk delivered to their house in Kapuskasing when I was a kid. At that time, milkmen were all but obsolete. Things have changed.

This week we joined a number of our friends in the Boulder area and started having our milk delivered to our doorstep in reusable glass containers by the Longmont Dairy Farm, a local organic dairy. Organic food is a concept that I've tried to appreciate from afar for years, but have never been able to justify in terms of our actual grocery bill. I have often thought, "I'd buy organic, but I just can't justify paying almost twice as much." Well, it seems that Boulder mentality is gradually seeping into us.

For years, Keith and I have taken some pride in the lack of processed (read: frozen, pre-prepared, chemically enriched, etc.) food that our family consumes. We are the type of family who goes to Costco and stands in line with our 10 cans of tuna, package of 10 fresh chicken breasts, 10 kg bag of apples, 50 rolls of toilet paper and 5 kg of brown sugar, marvelling at the vast amount of frozen foods that overfill the carts of the neighbouring shoppers. We both like to cook and bake, and it's much more satisfying, and far less scary, to serve foods where we can easily identify and pronounce most of the ingredients. (Even for a chemist, some labels can be rather horrifying.)

So it's likely a natural transition that we've been experiencing.

Many of you know that we're a cereal family. I'm a little obsessive, and I tend to stick to the same cereal and eat it every day, week after week, month after month. The last few years we lived in Ontario, that cereal was Vector, which is not available in the US. So addicted to it were we that we had my parents bring us 10 boxes when they came to visit in August. Needless to say, we had a lot of searching once we moved here to find an acceptable alternative, and strangely enough, all of the best options we've found here have been in the organic aisle. We've now been eating organic cereal for well over half a year, and it has begun to make sense to consider changing some of the other foods that we consume daily to a healthier choice.

For years I've been in denial about the effects of the hormones that are added to mass-produced milk products. And who knows, maybe the only people who should be concerned are those with young daughters? Regardless, the old what you don't know can't hurt you can only go so far, and after a while, one needs take responsibility and become more informed, even if it means cutting corners elsewhere. Thankfully, the financial commitment is only about 20% more expensive than the non-organic alternatives.

One step at a time.