August 1st. I made it. I went 1 month where I would estimate that my consumption was nearly 95% Indiana. I found new things I liked and new things that didn't quite work out, but today is August 1st and the month of July is over. Does this mean I'm running to Mc D's for an egg mcmuffin and then headed to Applebees for lunch? Probably not, I didn't go to those places to frequently before hand, but it means some simple things are now back in my daily routine.
The first of those is breakfast cereal. I love cereal. I love the healthy Kashi cereals and the super sugary cereals, so to celebrate this morning I had a bowl of cereal for the first time in a month. I have had local made granola, but no cereal. It was wonderful and I feel I now have a great burst of energy that should last me at least 5 minutes.
I don't expect most other things will change. My garden is just now in full bloom. Yes I've had a few cherry tomatoes available and cucumbers, but now I have everything else coming in finally. I also will continue to source most produce locally.
I also wanted to follow-up on a post from two weeks ago on the Indy Hub website. I had talked about the dairy tour Maureen and I were going to take. That happened yesterday. It wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. My first misconception was that I thought we were
going to the visit Swissland cheese, but it was the Swiss Connection (also a great farm that I have purchased products from). Swissland is one of my absolute favorites, so that was a little disappointing. I did realize this before we went on the trip yesterday, but we had already committed and paid for the trip and it still was a chance to visit 2 farms in Indiana which was pretty cool.
The second misconception was a much bigger one. It was a tour of two dairy farms, but the real emphasis of the trip was on raw milk (i.e. no pasteurization). I knew that there were some dairy farms in Indiana that produced raw milk, but I had no idea of the culture that surrounded it. The other people on the tour were all huge supporters of raw milk and were greatly concerned about their rights to drink it and the governments general stance against it. In Indiana it is legal for farms to either sell raw milk as a product for pets or through a club where you technically own a share of the cow and the farmer is just extracting product for you. It is not legal to sell raw milk to the general public, at least not in Indiana. Had I known that the real focus of the day was going to be on this I likely would have passed and chosen the Best of Indy event at Sunking, particually since it benefitted the Humane Society of Indianapolis.
None of this is to say I didn't enjoy the day or learn a lot. At the Swiss Connection we learned how butter and cheese are made (also saw a demonstration). The best part though was sampling a large varietyof their cheese. At the second farm we took an entire tour. Maureen snapped this picture (not such a flattering angle) of me going into a chicken coop to gather eggs. There were also two amazingly cute puppies at the second farm we played with a lot! It was fun visiting the two farms, but not sure it was worth the 4.5 hours in car to get to both farms and back home.
I may have a second breakfast now, I'm pretty excited about the eggs I gathered, farmhand discount of only $2 a dozen. Can't beat that.
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