This post is for Fight Back Friday :).
We eat a lot of diary. All four of us are cheese addicts, the boys love milk (if its COLD, which I can relate to because I hated warm milk as a kid) and we’re huge fans of yoghurt also. I recently found a source (in Brooklyn, and they deliver free!) for raw milk. I’m loving it. I always wanted to do it, but had trouble finding a way to get it. Last summer in MA we could get it at a local farm, for all of $6 which I thought was great compared to what I was paying for organic. Now I pay $10/gallon to have it delivered. We go through 1.5 gallons a week in drinking and cooking and coffee. We also go through about 1.5 lbs of cheddar cheese (whatever’s on sale, kraft or what have you), another 8oz of feta, and 1.5 48oz containers of plain yoghurt from 7 Stars Farms Organic/Biodynamic. I love the taste, and am happy with it’s source too (one state over on a farm my SIL used to work for … happy cows)
It’s the cheese that bothers me. I loooove it, always want more, and am happiest when the drawer is stuffed and I can snack all I want. However, I can’t freaking afford to pay for as much raw cheese as we can eat. I’d much rather, but the price is at least double, and triple if you get the fun stuff like Manchego (my all time favorite) and feta and such. I can get good raw cheese at the local farmer’s market, but I can’t possibly pay $18/lb. So what to do? I can get raw cheddar/colby etc from the milk delivery, but at $10 lb I can’t see it fitting in the budget. Not much does these days, at all. Do I commit to raw cheese, skip the fun ‘snacking’ ones, and go un-organic on some other things? $30/week for cheese seems insane when the entire food/household supplies budget fluctuates between $100 and $150 for a family of four in NYC. I know it’s a matter of priorities, and doing what I can, but I’m tired of believing something is far healthier for my family, but feeling unable to put it on the table. What to change?
I also want to simplify our eating, cooking, and shopping, but that’s another post.