Happy Independence Day

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. Of course, it has an unfair advantage because it is stuck right in the thick of summer, my favorite season. Most of all, I love how we celebrate Independence Day.

Families and friends get together to celebrate. Cookouts, barbecues, days at the lake - these wonderful celebrations are what life is all about, and the 4th of July is a great excuse to spend the day under the sun eating burgers and brats.

Fireworks. Say what you will about Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but I will always maintain that you haven't really lived until you've been to the July 3rd lakefront fireworks. For years my family made the trek to the shores of Lake Michigan to eat, drink, play and watch one of the best fireworks shows. When Jack is a little older, we'll continue this tradition with him. I couldn't be more excited.

Flags. I love seeing people fly their American flags. We fly our flag all year, but we do a little extra on the 4th of July. We decked out Jack's stroller with two little American made flags. I want him to grow up with a sense of pride in his country. I want him to know the significance of our flag, the sacrifices that people before us, around us, and people yet to come will make to keep it flying. I want him to be proud to be an American. I want him to know our Founding Fathers, I want him to say the Pledge of Allegiance proudly, I want him to know the Bill of Rights and what it does and does not do.

I love the 4th of July. Happy Independence Day. May your cookouts be well-done, your parades be festive, and your flags fly high today.

My crisis of faith in organic foods

I'm having a crisis. My faith in organic food has been shaken, and I'm doing some soul searching as I try to figure out what's right for my family.

The setup: I'm a strong believer in buying locally, and I think that, in theory, the benefits to buying organic food are so obvious that it would take an act of willful ignorance to deny them.  I want to buy food that is free of added hormones and antibiotics, free of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.  I don't want the animals that provide our family's food to have been fed a steady diet of trash (no, worse than trash) their whole lives.  I want to support farms that don't add to our mounting environmental problems.

Yet I've been running into problems on a near-weekly basis with what I'm buying.  I have to question the intelligence of purchasing food that just ends up being thrown away.  I don't have money to waste.  Who does?

Let's take this week's purchases:  broccoli and organic milk.  The broccoli was locally grown, and cheaper than grocery-bought broccoli.  The milk is from a local organic dairy, and much more pricey than grocery store skim.  I bought the broccoli on Saturday and attempted to cook it Sunday night, but it was already bad.  All of it.  When I purchased it, I knew that I would have to use it soon, but within a 36 hour period it went from quite acceptable to completely unusable.  I tried to cook up the nicest parts to see if any of it was salvageable, and it was terrible.  The entire purchase went unused.

And then the milk.  I'm actually a little post-traumatic stressed about this.  I had previously bought milk from this dairy three times, with good results.  But last week's milk was terrible immediately.  It was...chunky.  I poured a glass, saw that it was bad and poured it out.  I poured a second glass and realized it was the same.  Then I smelled it.  It was absolutely bad.  I tried salvaging it by using a little as cream in my coffee and even that was totally unpalatable.  I poured it all down the drain.  This week I bought skim milk instead, from the same dairy.  The expiration date on the milk is still ten days away, but as of today the milk was absolutely bad.  I noticed it when I poured some in my coffee and it came out like a big dollop of slime.  Slime - I've never seen milk do anything like that.  I poured a little into a glass, and it looked fine so I took a sip.  The taste and smell were unmistakable:  vinegar.  It tasted and smelled like vinegar.  I don't even know how that's possible.  I poured the entire bottle down the drain.

Why am I buying organic when I keep having these experiences?  Is better living through science really a better concept than sustainable living through organics?  What do I do?

I know the short term answers:  I'll ask about the milk tomorrow when I return the bottle and see what they suggest.  As for the broccoli, I can certainly do a better job of checking for freshness, but I don't know that I would have chosen any differently - that broccoli looked very good on Saturday.  Maybe I'll avoid that seller altogether - his wasn't the only broccoli at the market.  The short term answers aren't what I need here, though.  In the long term, do I continue to buy organic, local food and hope that I have more "hits" than "misses?"  Do I have that kind of money to waste on the "misses?"

I know what I want to do:  I want to continue to buy local, organic food.  I also know I don't want to waste more time and money than I already have.  Organic foodies, do you have advice?

Guest Bloggin' My Life Away

I wrote a guest blog for one of my favorite mom-of-all-trades bloggers. She writes about mom stuff, family stuff, food stuff, chocolate, and general how-do-we-keep-all-this-together stuff. She's also much funnier than I think she gives herself credit for, and I always enjoy her blog.

So, without further ado, come read my guest blog on ideas for summer family time fun on a budget.
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