Cake, cereal and conventional cow’s milk.

 Listening to BBC World Service recently, I was informed that Britons eat far too much cake at work.  Too much cake at work?  Can this be true?  The suggestion is made that fruit, nuts and cheese be offered instead of cake; a birthday cheese?  An idea which may not go down well with people wanting to avoid fat in their diet. And try sticking candles on a wedge of cheese.

At the moment cake features high on the menu of what might pass for supper time at the Trash Palace.  The blame is placed squarely on the festive season and particularly those shops (you know who you are) selling such delicacies as mince pies and dastardly, dark fruit Christmas cakes.

Cereal came in for some criticism on the same program, in particular the amount of cereal consumed by British children at breakfast time.  While breakfast is often touted as the most important meal of the day, there is no doubt the amount of sugar in packaged cereals is very high and as a result much loved by children with a sweet tooth.

Examine any packet of sugar cereal, especially those where Milo and cocoa and fruity-loopy-frosty words are boldly displayed on the packet.  Simply reading the sugar content label is enough for instant cavities to form in your teeth.  And while all this may be financial music to the ears of some dentists it is going to be costly to parents who find they are faced with huge dental bills and a painful outcome for the small person sitting in the chair.  Sugar is both seductive and addictive; adults are often just as attracted to the taste of sugar as children.

And now for conventional cow’s milk.  I wouldn’t have a conventional cow’s milk dilemma if I wasn’t clearing up the clutter – in this instance paper/magazine clutter.  Here I was thinking a conventional cow was one that roughly filled the cow criteria of having four legs, a head, a tail and all the workings within and without that lead to milk production.  Further research (read time spent poodling around on Google) on this topic tells me I need to be thinking about the milk word, not the cow word. 

The battle is between conventional cow’s milk and organic cow’s milk; conventional cows might be classed as grain fed and pastured on grass onto which large quantities of fertilizer have been applied.  Organic milk is classed as coming from cows where less fertilizer is applied to the pasture and there is less reliance on high volume production breeds. 

At the Trash Palace, until a substantial increase in price occurred early last year, organic milk was the first choice of the Head Chef in the Soup Kitchen. The prime reason for this choice was not the organic classification but the fact the milk was non- homogenised.  The Head Chef insists the taste is better and all this spinning and whirling and general mucking about with the milk when it is homogenised, makes the milk taste bland.   And while the increased cost has seen the former first choice milk now sharing equal  purchase ranking with other locally owned and produced milk, it is still rated as best of all.

A bunch of  my favourite conventional cows, borrowed for the occasion.