Reduce, reuse, recycle. It seems simple enough and we have been repeated it for nearly 50 years. How do we reframe the 3 R’s in terms of things we do every day?
How can you reduce, reuse, and recycle during your evening meal?
Reduce (Your Energy Usage)
That saves money and our natural resources – win-win! Not all cooking devices use the same amount of energy. If you just can’t bear the thought of turning on the oven or burners during these dog days of summer, don’t worry! Your microwave, slow cooker, and toaster oven are actually 2-3 times more energy efficient.
Pro-tip: consider grilling outdoors so your A/C isn’t working overtime during dinnertime!
Reuse (Your Leftovers) For those hot days, nothing beats having a nice dinner already prepped from the evening before. “Reusing” leftovers will cut down on your food waste and your grocery bill!
Pro-tip: Try reusable, washable beeswax paper instead of cling wrap to cover your leftovers.
Recycle (Your Storage Containers)
If takeaway is your best friend, you can still do your part. Once those delicious leftovers have been devoured, the container you brought it home in can move on to its next life. Find out if the following are recyclable in your area:
How else can you apply the reduce-reuse-recycle mentality to other areas of your life? Share this information with your friends to keep the conversation going! Check out The Next Level Recycler Team for more info!
Howdy cheese friends! Our cheesemakers have returned from their pilgrimage to the American Cheese Society conference in Richmond, VA, and we are excited to move forward with all the information learned and shared. We have lots of new cheese friends too!
Conference sessions covered a wide ranges of topics, from dairy farming and climate change, to courses on physical rehab, how to stay physically safe while milking cows and flipping big wheels of Havilah, to discovering new and exciting cheese pairings, understanding what causes cheese defects, to new research on affinage, and even a behind-the-scenes look at how cheeses are judged in competition.
We are all just about bursting with newfound motivation, and it is always great to see old friends and meet the new, and then taste cheeses from all around the country (even Hawaii!).
But its great to be home and great to break open new wheels of our own beloved cheeses, so without further ado…..
Havilah These raw milk Havilah wheels are just delicious. These batches have a dense, flakey texture with lots of that wonderful crystallization throughout. Brothy, hearty aromas greet you as you open the wheel, and when you take a bite, you get a wonderfully balanced flavor: beefy, with notes of broiled potatoes and slow-roasted root vegetables, and on the sweeter side, notes of hazelnut, salted caramel, honey, and vanilla. This is the perfect time of year to fall in love with Havilah again. Raw milk.
Oooumammi Oooumammi is ready to take its rightful place as the star of your summertime cheese board. This cheese is a love child between a vegetal brie and an earthy tomme – the mottled rind on these raw milk wheels is just the beginning of the beauty that is Oooumammi. Underneath that dappled bloomy rind lies a fudgy creamline and a dense center paste packed with flavor. Earthy funky flavors of mushrooms and root vegetables are balanced by notes of salted butter, savory meats, with hints of anise near the finish. Raw milk.
Rarebird Rarebird batches are always exceptional – they are each made with only the milk of 1 day – a perfect snapshot of the farm and the cows at that moment in time. Our delicious fresh raw milk is formed into small wheels in baskets, and for the next two months they each undergo a delicate washing by hand, which helps to form that beautiful creamsicle-colored rind. This batch is fudgy and creamy, with a texture that just about melts in your mouth with every bite. Flavor starts out clean, with notes of fresh cream and warm, yeasty bread straight out of the oven, and then develops just a hint of grassy funk near the washed rind. And Rarebird always leaves a last sweet goodbye: hints of almond and vanilla dancing across your palate at the finish. Raw milk
Herdsman These six month old winter Herdsman baskets start off with notes of cultured butter and creme fraiche, lemony citrus, and fresh sea salt, finishing off with hints of toasted cashew, caramel, and a bit of sharpness. This batch is firm and flakey, very versatile – equally great for snacking or for cooking! Raw milk Toma In store only this week
This rustic raw milk farmhouse Toma batch boasts a delectable dense texture with an enticingly piquant aroma. Each bite of these wheels is buttery and bursting with flavor – layers of grassy notes atop hints of autumnal fruits and roasted nuts. In addition, there is a subtle minerality running in between all the stronger notes that really ties this flavorful batch together. Raw milk.
Buttercup Brie On sale this week at 20% off in our farm store and at our farmers markets. Made from pasteurized milk.
Toma ready for tasting at the American Cheese Society Festival of Cheese. Our cheeses found a place at the table among 500 of the best in the country.
We are off to the American Cheese Society’s annual conference in Richmond for four days of education, awards and cheesy fun! On Friday we will get the final word as to which cheeses stood out to the judges. Keep your fingers crossed for us. And stay tuned for more news!
A summer evening… the wind rustling through leaves, the gently munching cows in tall grass, and barn swallows swooping across the pastures…
There is nothing quite as satisfying as eating a chef’s dinner outside on the farm… meeting the farmers, hearing the love of good food and farming from the man who cooks and the folks who grow and make your food. Sit with friends, old and new, and share a well made meal as the moon rises and the fireflies start their evening dance.
Join us on July 6th when Chef Barry Sexton creates a five-course evening to remember with Cherry Grove Farm cheeses, eggs and meats, and fresh produce from Abe’s Acres. Enjoy a short farm tour, cocktail hour with artisan cheese board, and five grass-fed courses crafted and presented by Chef Sexton of The Rooted Affair.
Its Earth Day and we wanted to think about ways to be kind to
our grand blue marble, Earth.
Here are 6 simple things you can do to
drastically reduce your plastic waste.
With all the plastic being dumped into
landfill and floating in our oceans, the time has come for all of us to behave
more responsibly.
And that’s actually pretty easy.
You don’t have to be perfect, or completely
change your way of living. Just follow these simple steps and you will cut down
a lot of unnecessary waste.
Change your mindset
It all starts with changing the mindset.
Once you start to actively reduce your waste,
you will realize just how much waste there is everywhere. And then, you’ll be
able to make conscious decisions about what you buy.
You will be better prepared and will be likely
to buy less “stuff” – as you’ll only buy what you need. That, in turn, can help
you save money!
2. Say no to plastic bags
The average American family takes home almost
1,500 plastic shopping bags a year. So if you choose to stop using just one
type of plastic – the plastic bag is a great place to start.
Stock up with a few reusable bags and you’ll
never have to contribute to this waste again.
For example, reuseable produce bags are great to use to
pack your fruit and veggies at markets. Pop your produce straight in the bags,
and when you get home – wash them inside the bag, and pop them straight in the
fridge.
They are also handy to use while shopping in a
grocery store, or for general organization too.
3. Swap your plastic
toothbrush for bamboo
It’s recommended that we change our toothbrush
every 3-4 months. If these toothbrushes are plastic toothbrushes, that’s a huge
amount of plastic waste that is being discarded every single year.
In fact, over 1 billion plastic toothbrushes
are thrown away every year in America alone.
Imagine if 50% of the American population
swapped their plastic brush for a biodegradable bamboo brush. That would
prevent 500 million pieces of plastic entering our environment every year, and
5 billion every decade!
Check out thesebamboo toothbrushes – they work super well,
have been recommended by multiple hygienists, come in cute colors, and work out
to cost under $1.49 per brush (often cheaper than plastic ones.)
Swapping your plastic for bamboo toothbrush is
another small change you can make, and save money while helping the
environment, too.
4. Rethink the straw
Plastic straws are a one and done event. They
are too small to be recycled, so their only destiny is either landfill or
floating in our ocean.
Ask yourself: Do you really need the straw? Maybe it’s an added
luxury…and you could get used to drinking without one?
Alternatively, you can keep a small pack of
reusable straws in your bag at all times…and whip out in times of need. They are
easy to clean and kind to our wildlife. Whether you prefer stainless steel drinking straws or bamboo straws, you’ll never have to drink with
a plastic straw again.
5. Buy locally
At Cherry Grove Farm, we’re all about
sustainable farming and treading lightly on the land.
When you buy from local markets, you can cut
down your consumption of plastic packaging and will end up throwing less away. We have a small “Sustainable Re-useables”
section in the farm store that makes cutting back on waste a bit easier. Try
our re-useable tea
bags and coffee filters, or reusable beeswax
wraps to keep food fresh without using plastic wrap.
6. Make more at home
There’s nothing wrong with getting take-out;
the problem is the packaging that the take out often comes in.
Plastic lids, cutlery, wrap, styrofoam,
polystyrene… None of it biodegrades which means that even though your meal only
lasted once, the packaging will last forever.
We know it can be difficult to find the time
for home cooking, but cooking meals in bulk can cut down a huge amount of time.
And make enough to last two or three meals and it can be just as convenient as
a take out – but with all the added benefits of being home-made, chemical-free,
and plastic-free.
But if you must have those pot stickers or tacos al pastor, why not have a handy reuseable bamboo cutlery pack in the car and just say no to the plastic utensils? Reduce waste in your life.
***
Earth Day is a good day to think
about what we can do to reduce waste and single use disposables. Hopefully these 6
simple steps have given you a little inspiration to reduce your waste today.
And remember – it doesn’t all have to be implemented at once. Just one small
change can make a big difference.
We are considering expanding our “Sustainables”
section in the store to include bamboo reuseables. Tell us if this would help
you reduce waste in your life!
