Milk

Milk may seem such a boring topic to blog about you probably think I'm out of my mind. Well, you may be onto something but hey, it's my blog. I mean you just go to the store and buy it right? You have two choices-cartons or jugs and a variety of sizes and percentages of fat content. How hard can it be? Surly it's the same the world over right?

Well no. I understand even so close as Canada they do things differently, although it may be a rumor. In Uganda milk comes in a bag or one of those small boxes like juice comes in.....with the bendy straw. You know the ones-they spill all over you as soon as you stick in the straw because you are also squeezing the box to hold it. Those, and don't say I'm the only person that ever happens to.

An empty after being impaled

The bags are one liter. What you do is there is a jug that you put the bag into and clip the corner. It's all green and frugal and low carbon foot printy. Actually, it may be, but I suspect that from a technology point of view it's just easier. Because the milk doesn't touch the jug you don't even need to wash it(although it may not be a bad idea). There is another specialized jug which I like because it has a certain savage quality to it. With it you open the lid, restrain the corner of the bag with a little clamp then close the lid which impales the bag and directs the milk out through the lid. This type of jug would need to be washed after each use.

One liter does not sound much but when you consider that it's sour right out of bag sometimes only one liter is a good amount to have to throw out. The fact that milk may be sour out of the bag may have something to do with power outages and shops not having backup power. It may also have to do with inferior sanitation at the dairy that bagged it. It could not be the same process that we use in the states. As you can see this is a mystery to me. There is quite a bit I don't know about milk at all. What I do know is that it always slightly disturbed me that American milk could be so long in my fridge. Maybe what we have here is closer to what it should be and what we have in the states is suspect. (Those who wear The revolution will not be pasteurized tee shirts would probably say that.(you know who you are)) The upshot is check your milk before adding it to your cornflakes.

The little boxes of milk are Ultra Heat Treated which means they do not need to be refrigerated and can last for months.  Naturally little box milk is expensive.