Milk… | #AtoZ #LetterM #nonfiction

…and my opinions.

Hi! I know you stopped by looking for an A-Z post of a short story, or perhaps the craft of writing. Perhaps you even looked so far as to see that my theme is “Catching Up.” Well, while I did spending a couple of days “catching up”, so at least on that point I’m on theme, there may actually be no fiction or writing talk.

We (Junior Youth and I) were talking about goats this evening.

“Goats are so handy!” JY proclaimed.

“How are goats handy?” I asked.

“Well, they make milk, and cheese…”

“Would you drink goat milk if you had the chance?”

And thus started the discussion.

JY, for the record, would try. When asked if I would, well…

I’m with the vegans on this one. I’m kind of over the concept of drinking milk of other animals. I used to love milk. We got skim as a kid, and even though everyone else says it tastes like water, it was always my favorite. Mom and I would drink it, and I bet we went through a gallon a week.

That is nothing compared to how much milk my family drinks now.

In our small house of four humans in various stages of adulthood, we consistently go through four gallons of milk every week. I used to pick up exclusively 1%, on the off chance I was interested in having any, but now with the quarantine and the limits on purchasing multiples of certain items, I end up buying 2 gallons of 1% and then 2 gallons of 2% – which thrills DH and EY, because they prefer the 2%.

But somewhere between my 20’s and my 40’s, I stopped drinking milk. I’ll have a glass every few weeks, but I can often go 2 months or more without drinking milk at all. It’s just not as good as it used to be.

And like I said, the vegan opinion on this sunk in – it’s for baby cows, not humans. The idea of drinking it now is generally kind of squicky.

All that said, I still love cheese. This is a double standard I haven’t sorted out yet. Thankfully, I’m not actually vegan yet to have this be a weight on my morals. And to be perfectly honest, I’m pretty sure the closest I’ll be able to get to vegan is “mostly plant-based”. I like chicken, beef, pork, fish, and cheese. I really love cheese. The others I can have in extreme moderation. I could probably go a month without meat and not miss it. (Not that I do that right now, but that’s purely a matter of convenience. Our family “cooks’ a lot of meals by opening packages and inserting food into the oven.)

Now, I realize nobody asked my opinion about milk. And you’re welcome to drink all the milk you like.

But I had enough to say about it to write a blog post, which is what I’ve done.

You’re welcome!

❤

(Ooh, damn. I should have written this about mail! I have a lot to say about that, too!)