Npr has the story on the Milk Not Jails program, created by Lauren Melodia in upstate New York. This non-profit's goal is to simultaneously employ ex-convicts and help out local dairy farmers, the combination of which will ideally boost the local economy overall:

Milk Not Jails' first complaint is that Dean Foods, a powerful food company that controls the majority of milk distribution in the region, has left many small farmers with few options but to sell to them. Sen. Bernie Sanders from Vermont has called Dean a "milk monopoly."

So Milk Not Jails is offering farmers another option: Sell their milk directly to buying clubs in New York City.

So where do the prisons and ex-cons come in? Milk Not Jails plans to recruit ex-cons who can't get a break to drive approved dairy products down to consumers in New York City.

Kitchen Careers sits down with Peggy Smith and Sue Conley of Cowgirl Creamery and asks some well-chosen questions. It's clear that these ladies have knowledge enough for all of us and more:

Cookie Monster has long proclaimed that “C is for Cookie.” Do you think he might change his mind with a sampling of artisan cheese?

Peggy: That is a great question! I think Cookie Monster would take on an all new personality when sampling artisan cheese. Why is he always so grumpy? I think artisan cheese would mellow him out.

Sue: Yeah, I agree. Maybe he could even meet a Cheese Monster and they could hook up and teach him about the wonders of artisan cheese that way.

Read more

Sometimes the strangest combinations create the best dishes. Homemade mac 'n' cheese stuffed in a taco shell over spicy meat is bound to be a winner with at least a few crowds. What's nice about this recipe too is that you can make it all from scratch or take a few shortcuts if you're in a rush. Enjoy!

I got this idea when eating at a local buffet, after combining these two delicious meals into one, I just knew that I had to come up with a recipe of my own.

Get the recipe here.

Photo by Bobby at BlogChef

Looking for something irresistible to bring to parties and potlucks? This pimento cheese dip/spread/yummy goodness fits the bill for us.

For me, I spread it on a pretzel roll with a hot dog and caramelized onions. Shortly later I found myself spreading it on pretzels, and crackers. It was soon to run out, and probably the best as it has this addicting flavor. A bit of that garlic bite with the tanginess from the mayonnaise, and that wonderful Wisconsin cheese flavor, and well, let’s not forget the pimentos which are those wonderful cherry peppers.

Get the recipe here.

Photo by kthread

This is an unexpected stat, but apparently Domino's Pizza is a big deal in Japan. During Christmas, no less. Gawker's got the numbers, but we want more info:

In Japan, your average Domino's Pizza outlet has 50% higher sales than a U.S. outlet.

Read more
Photo by The Pizza Review

Amber Massey, dietician and blogger at Chocolate & Broccoli, entered a Cabot Creamery contest to create a new recipe featuring their reduced fat cheddar. And what did she come up with? A delicious combo of cheese, whole grain waffles, and chicken sausage.

So here it is- the dietitian’s version of a Chicken and Waffles. I added the perfectly shredded cheese to the batter, along with some cooked and crumbled chicken sausage and a kick of spice from fresh jalapeno.

Get her recipe here.

Photo by Amber Massey

What a great use for your nutty, caramel-y block of Gjetost! Paired with sour cream, it's a match made in salty-sweet, creamy heaven.

This is a very easy pie to make; our crust is a no-roll variety and our quick streusel topping is made with crunchy flake cereal.

Recipe Here

Photography
 by
 My Gourmet Connection

Thanks to Syracuse Fiber Recycling, local cows are comfortable resting on their beds of waste paper. Not only do comfortable cows mean more milk production, but the bedding is environmentally friendly to boot.

That’s 1,400 tons of fiber rejects and fiber residue that isn’t clogging a landfill.

“We ship 75, 72-yard loads a week to farms,” said Martin Kubacki, one of the company’s two partners.

“Farms all over New York state and some in Pennsylvania use our bedding,” he said, more than 75 farms all together.

Cow bedding is important to dairy operations because if cows are comfortable, they will produce more milk, produce longer and be healthy longer, said Shawn Bossard, farm manager at Morrisville State College.

Read more

Photo 
by
 Victoria Harjadi


Thanks to the world-class plant breeders at Cornell University, a highly-digestible alfalfa strain will allow dairy cows to produce up to 3.3 pounds of milk a day. This could mean an extra $20,000 a year for a dairy farmer with a herd of 113 cows, the average in New York, not to mention more delicious cheese for us!

The secret to N-R-Gee is a lower percentage of indigestible fiber -- which fills a cow's belly but passes through as waste -- and a higher percentage of carbohydrates and pectin, which cows can convert to milk. With less fiber taking up space in all those stomachs, cows can eat more of the high-quality alfalfa and produce more milk.

"More intake and more digestibility: those two things combined, we think, are going to make a pretty significant impact for the dairy industry," Hansen said.

Read More


By tackling the challenge of milking a sheep, Wendy Almeida and her family gain a greater appreciation for how much work goes into producing each gallon of cow's milk they receive.

We’re not sure what exactly happened to Minnie’s udder but it is mastitis-like (without the fever) and milk is not flowing out correctly. So my daughter and I have been learning on the fly how to milk a sheep as best we can to get things working again.
If you’ve never milked, let me tell you that it’s not easy for the novice. Truly. It requires a special technique that takes a while to master. With a dairy cow you have a handful of teat to hold, but milking a sheep is a challenge because there isn’t much to grab on to. Factor in a blockage that creates pain for the animal, along with the lack of a milking stand and no experience milking (animal or human) and you’ve got quite a task on your hands.