the creamery line

This week I learned the difference between the straight-up 2% milk from Trickling Springs Creamery and the "creamline" 2% milk. When I opened the 2% creamline, there was a huge clot of cream at the neck of the bottle. And the milk tasted -- oh, so rich and full. It makes me cappucini more about the milk than the coffee!

And it comes in glass bottles. I'm not sure if it's the fact that the cows are grass-fed, or the pasteurization is different, or the glass bottles, but Trickling Springs Creamery's milk is the best milk I've ever had. Oh, plus, since it isn't ultra-pasteurized, it can be used to make cheese! Which Greg has been hankering to do for a while. Ever since he read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Also, I felt like such a nerd yesterday -- when Greg and I came out of our premarital counseling, there was a whole chicken and some fresh eggs waiting for us! I was reading (in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, where else?) that free-range chickens' eggs have less cholesterol and more Omega-3 fatty acids than your average grocery-story buy. So I'm thinking about getting more eggs from fresh sources, particularly if I can find one closer to wherever we live. (I should say, I'm not sure if these eggs come from free-range chickens or not, but I've also been reading about the benefits of a local food culture, so I'm happy to buy "local" eggs -- local meaning within an hour of where we live. Maybe further than a horse and buggy would venture on a regular basis, but it's still better than buying anonymous eggs from a shelf. Also, these eggs are a pretty brown color.)

But I got excited -- "GREG, IT'S OUR FIRST CHICKEN!" Like it was our first child instead. =) So now I have to find a pot big enough to cook it in, and then we'll have chicken stock on hand as well as meat in our freezer. Mrs. Snader said that the chicken still has the neck attached, though? And Greg mentioned something about a gizzard????

This is going to be a learning week!

I've also mentally called a moratorium on beef after reading about the USDA's mad-cow testing. Or this article. So getting a chicken is exciting. And we're getting two more in November, so yay! We don't eat that much meat, so this one chicken will probably last us until October at least, and maybe longer than that. And the two chickens will probably last us until we get married.

I've also been thinking about politics, more -- if I don't really like either of the candidates from the major parties (if, for example, I think Obama is a liar and McCain has stupid ideas), why should I bother voting for either? I refuse to fall into the trap of thinking that my vote only "matters" if I vote for one of those two options. If there's a candidate I'm really behind, then voting for them is a more responsible choice than voting for the lesser of two evils is. Because if enough people voted their conscience, maybe we'd be able to get rid of the two-party system.

Plus, I'm just tired of thinking about voting like a stop-gap -- who's going to destroy our country and our freedoms the least? I want to think about it like this: so-and-so actually has decent ideas, decent experience, and a grip on reality. Even if they never get elected, at least I performed my job as citizen responsibly and appropriately by voting for someone who doesn't outright suck.

You know what that means, though? I need to go back through and do more research on lesser-known candidates. Or even those who aren't running.

It's the same principle as opting out of a food system I don't like. And forging the lines of our lives against the norm is kind of complicated and requires way more work, but isn't it kind of a good-unto-itself, one that doesn't need effects to prove itself worh pursuing?