The squeaky wheel gets the oil.....

Is that the saying? I know it's something like that. Well, actually, I guess I just sort of suspect it. I really don't know much at all right now as I'm merely a sip into the first coffee of the day. I may know more later. In the meantime, please consider that it's something near enough like that to give the idea.

What I'm trying to say through this fog of uncaffeinated ignorance is that I think Full Circle Farms is making ripples in the local grocery. The other day I coupled the joy of our greenflighted boxes of organic, sustainably farmed produce with a(n) (albeit mild) complaint about the local absence of hormone-free milk. (OK, I also complained - albeit mildly - about having to pay $30 for a gallon-and-a-half of laundry detergent, but that was funny -right?) Funny or not, mild or not, there is no dispute that within a few days of that post.......Well, check out what I found at the local A.C. grocery store yesterday:

Isn't that pretty? Hormone-free milk! At the A.C.! So pretty, in fact, I think it warrants a high-tech close-up:

Alas, my cartwheel of glee is a little restrained. It's a little pricey. Someone check my measurements and math, but doesn't it come out to around $15 a gallon? That's almost the cost of orange juice! Though I love to see it there, it just seems a bit steep....even for the privilege of freedom from artificial bovine hormones!

Of course, I wouldn't write a whole post just to announce the local availability of hormone-free milk. Well, actually, I would. But I didn't, in this case. I am also writing to share a rather .... hmmmm, [how do I describe this mildly] interesting tundra-island trick that I recently learned about from a neighbor. Apparantly, the thing to do is to wait until the expiration date, when the A.C. will sometimes sell them at half-price, and buy-out all the remaining gallons of milk. When he told me this trick, he was buying only one gallon of the expired milk. And was quite excited about the savings. Obviously, I questioned the penny-saving thought about buying milk that you would have to throw out. One person couldn't drink a whole gallon of it before it started to smell, could they? and they certainly couldn't drink multiple gallons of it! But what I learned - though have never actually followed-up with any type of confirming experiments of my own - is that you freeze it. Frozen, expired milk. Hmmm. It makes the hormone-free stuff sound all the more worth foregoing the orange juice!

Since I'm blogging about the local grocery store, here's a few more snapshots just in case Genevieve is feeling any nostaglia for the good ol' AC........

[In a world of utopian cartwheels, my friends, I'd find a way to persuade blogspot to play Paul Basile's "You Can Get Anything You Want at the A.C. Superstore" while you read this entry. Alas, I can't. But here are some songs that will always remind me of one good coffeeshop and how great a winter Saturday night can be. For those that didn't make it to a Saturday night @ the Coffeeshop, I have no qualms recommending the c.d. for "Montana Sleeps" alone.]