Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Milk(y) Way

Sage likes to have a glass of milk every couple of days. Hands down, this has been one of our greatest challenges: keeping milk cold. Without access to electricity, our refrigerator will not work. Our cooler keeps things cold enough for a few days, but there are other issues. I started with a plastic half-gallon container. About half of it soured because I don't drink the stuff and David only does with cookies. We haven't been eating many of those, either. I scaled back to smaller packaging, but mostly they are paper-based, and become waterlogged as the ice melts and everything dives into the icy soup. Quickly the paper breaks down, creating a milky frothy mess in the cooler. Then I tried individual sizes in plastic containers. Worked great, except the caps are not water-tight. No matter what, the milk spills or spoils. Not green...or economical. Powdered milk, you're up. Dazzle me.

2 comments:

  1. Off the top of my head I'm thinking (1) you could put the paper based products in a ziploc bag to avoid breakdown. (2) I have been very impresed with Thermos brand products. They hold temperature very well, especially if they are pre heated with hot water or pre chilled with ice water. They are also very water tight. You might have to buy more than one to transfer the milk into, but they should fit in the cooler nicely. I have been using a small thermos in Hayden's lunch box this year to cut down on lunch trash and it has kept food very well.

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  2. Buy a cow....

    ...that's all I've got. :)

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