#230 - Say "Cheese!"

Making My Own Mozzarella

This is the sixteenth change in my month-long pledge to give up plastics for Crunchy's Extreme Eco-Throwdown.

Have you read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle yet? If you haven't, you should. I read it this past month for Green Bean's Bookworm Challenge and I loved it! It is the story of one family eating locally for a year in southwestern Virginia. And one of the things Barbara did during that year was to learn how to make her own soft cheeses.

So I figured hey, if she can do it, so can I. You know, because I'm exactly like a well-known, published author with a homestead. Minus the "well-known", "published", "author" and "homestead" part. But back to the cheese...

Luckily, Barbara is not stingy with the details. She tells the reader exactly where she learned her craft and from whom - Ricki Carroll of New England Cheesemaking Supply. So I hopped online and ordered Ricki's "30 Minute Mozzarella and Ricotta Kit" for $24.95. I was so excited to get my package and start making my plastic-free mozzarella!

And then I opened the package. And found?

Really?

Do I even have to tell you?

A shitload of plastic. The rennet tablets come in those plastic/foil pouches, the thermometer is housed in a plastic sheath, and the citric acid comes in a plastic pouch, as does the salt. To top it off, the whole kit is then placed inside a ginormous plastic bag before being deposited in the nifty little cardboard carrying box. So much for plastic-free. But, it is a kit that will allow me to make up to 30 pounds of cheese, so hopefully that will be less than what is normally used to shrinkwrap my premade mozzie. And in the future I will be sure to order the ingredients individually so as to at least avoid the ginormous plastic bag.

Rant over, details begin here.

So this Memorial Weekend I gave it a shot. Sure as shit, about 45 minutes later (I'm a slow learner) I had turned a gallon of whole milk into a little over a pound of fresh mozzarella cheese! Basically, all I had to do was heat the milk on the stove, pour in some of the citric acid and rennet, wait for magic to occur (about 8 minutes), scoop out the curds, recite "Little Miss Muffet", squeeze out the whey, nuke the curds and pull them like taffy.

Really, it's easier than it sounds.

So we had homemade pizza that night (using my own dough, of course) and fresh basil from my deck. Can't wait for those tomatoes to ripen and I'll have a 10-foot meal! ;-) Well, kind of.

Anyhow, if you're thinking about trying this, it may not be everyday-easy, but it is a lot of fun. Be sure you have some heat resistant gloves to wear when you're pulling the cheese as it's pretty hot. Although I'd stay away from wool gloves, as they might add some texture you're not used to finding in mozzarella.

Just my $0.02.

#180 - How Sweet It Is

Buying Local Honey (And Using More of It)

I've been paying close attention to the foods we eat around here. I feel great when I feed my family locally-grown, organic fruits and veggies. I don't feel so great when they grab some Hello Kitty Froot Snax or commercially prepared granola bars - both of which are made with the ubiquitous American food additive - corn syrup.

The overproduction of corn in America has been getting a lot of press lately. From farm subsidies to ethanol, from corn syrup to corn feed. It seems like everything these days is made from corn. This overproduction of a single crop can have a detrimental effect not just here in America, but across the globe. Here are a few reasons why:

Any farmer worth his salt will tell you that crop rotation is an important factor in keeping the ground fertile. Due to the great demand created for corn products, many industrial farms no longer practice crop rotation - they simply grow corn every year. Repeatedly planting these corn crops in the same spot will suck the same nutrients out of the soil each growing season, leaving behind depleted soil. Not only that, but the same crop will attract the same pests year after year after year. This depleted soil will require lots of chemical fertilizers and the bugs will require pesticides. And neither of those are good for the planet.

Also, the huge increase in demand for corn - for everything from food additives, to feed for cattle and pigs, to ethanol for bio fuels - means an increase in the price of grains worldwide. Grains, if you remember your from gradeschool, are the base of the food pyramid and make up the bulk of a decent diet. An increase in the price of grains could have a terrible affect on poverty stricken nations whose people will no longer be able to afford these food basics.

And if that doesn't sway you, how about the fact that it's contributing to the obesity crisis here in America. According to an article at Grist:

Cheap corn, underwritten by the [Farm Bill's] subsidy program, has changed the diet of every American. It has allowed a few corporations -- including Archer Daniels Midland, the world's largest grain processor -- to create a booming market for high-fructose corn syrup. HFCS now accounts for nearly half of the caloric sweeteners added to processed food, and is the sole caloric sweetener for mass-market soft drinks. Between 1975 and 1997, per-capita consumption jumped from virtually nothing to 60.4 pounds per year -- equal to about 200 calories per person, per day. Consumption has generally hovered around that level since.

So basically, it's also making us all fat. Ok, fat-ter. 200 calories per day fatter, to be specific.

Plus, it's just a little freaky. I mean, have you read Omnivore's Dilemma? Have you seen King Corn? Yeah me neither, but they're on my to-do list. And I've heard a lot about them. From what folks are saying, both the book and the movie imply that corn is damn near impossible to avoid in our pre-packaged foodstuffs society. I don't like that. It's like a cheap filler that's used for the sole purpose of keeping the ingredient count up.

And did you know that there is some evidence to suggest that eating local honey will help to minimize seasonal allergies? I've got two kids who live on on Zyrtec six months out of the year, so that is a HUGE bonus!

And so, in an attempt to avoid some corn syrup, I'm going on a honey kick. For both me and the kids. I've been using it on my oatmeal in the morning and I made a batch of granola bars for the kiddos last month. I prefer honey to other sweeteners because I can easily find local sources, they're all bottled in glass and it's yumm-o-riffic . Win/Win/Win. Plus? Honey Butter. 'Nuff said.

Well now that I've got this wild corn hair up my ass, expect to see more posts from me on other ways to avoid corn derivatives. In the meantime, go grab a little honey (take that however you want to).