Food 22 Jun 2007 08:17 am
Moo.
What is the cost of milk where you live? We’d been going through about a gallon a day so I haven’t been buying good, organic stuff. I couldn’t bring myself to pay $5.00 a gallon. Then, with lent earlier this year, when we couldn’t completely cut out dairy, we scaled it back to 3 gallons a week; basically I bought it on grocery day (our fridge is so small it will only hold 3 gallons) and didn’t go back for more later in the week. I know that gas prices have a large effect on milk prices, I know that milk is artificially low in cost because the expense isn’t benefiting the farmer much but rather the steps in between the farmer and the consumer….and when our gas tipped $3.00 a gallon, the milk went up to $5.00. Well, $4.89, but whose quibbling?
Methinks I should’ve been buying the good, hormone-free stuff all along.
So getting goats is back on our table of discussion. Actually, the entire urban homestead idea is back front and center. In addition to moving to Mexico, we also are considering a move into town (Oak Ridge) OR buying the neighbor’s house and land here, which would give us nearly 2 acres. Their land is sunnier, providing for a bigger garden and most certainly goats and chickens. We’d eliminate the “bad renter” issue that is currently there. The trade-offs involve lots of driving still and the somewhat uncertainty of how long we will work out here. Not working out here but living out here is not sustainable, unless my book is a huge raving success and we have more flexibility. I do indeed have great hopes for the book but would prefer to not factor the uncertainty of that into real-time decisions.
But milk goats and more birds could have a huge effect on the cost of our food. We sit a bit paralyzed out here right now, directing our project energy into things that will be necessary for selling the house next year rather than getting a micro-farm going. I suspect the price of food is only going to go up, up, up and my quality desires are also going up, up, up. Any move of any kind is going to have to take those concerns very seriously.
Anyway….it’s what we’re thinking about.
In other news, we have two new blogs up. David’s Deliberatus and my Exercise365.
on 22 Jun 2007 at 9:23 pm 1.susan said …
Oh my gosh! $5 for a gallon of organic milk. I wish! I pay between 8 and 10 dollars for that here in Ontario
There are times when we go through that amount in less than 1.5 days. On the other hand, when we’re a bit tight and I go to the regular milk I always regret it — it’s rather horrid. So last time I did that I made a decision not to do that again, and rather to cut back elsewhere in the grocery budget.
on 25 Jun 2007 at 2:37 am 2.Emily said …
Having a small family farm is a very good idea. You be able to provide you and your family with eggs and milk (cheese to if you wanted to make it). One thing my mom did istead of that was she started buying whole milk. Its very good, maybe not organic but its $3.00 or $4.00 a gallon. Whole milk is also very filling. Well i guessi will see you on Sunday!