True Quality Revival And Ice-Cream [OT]

[++]

Like the almond. Good emergency stuff to have one of the small containers backpacking 'cause it works pretty decently as shapoo and as a soap for people and clothing

[Amy Blankenship]

[++]

Thanks a lot,

Although I have tried making cheese with buttermilk, I never thought of pairing one part buttermilk with four parts regular milk. Going to try it, but reading the blog made me want to try and find a source for the sheep's or goat's whey and uncover the old methods

[Amy Blankenship]

If you make one recipe with sheep or goat's milk, you will have whey as a byproduct. I feed that to the chickens mostly, and cook with it.

[Warm Worm]

Well thanks I guess... I dislike the carob bean gum in there, and there're eggs missing-- I prefer eggs-- so it's assumed that the gum replaces those... It might be that those who are lactose-intolerant may also have trouble with eggs too...

Haagen Dazs makes a green tea ice cream (at least for the Shanghai market) that I quite like and that I had for the first and only time in China's Shanghai airport, of all places. I still haven't noticed it in Canada, although Vancouver does have 'Mondo Gelato' that serves a very close, and maybe even better, approximation. Of course I'm in Ottawa.

Green Bay, ay? More green...

I wonder if it won't become an excuse to charge an arm-and-a-leg for something "new" that, presumably, was once norm...

When you whittle away the intrinsic value of something, and charge the same price, or more for it, or a touch less that still does not reflect the whittles, and/or make it somehow look like better quality, how might that practice affect the cost/price of other things that still have high intrinsic values (and when the competition has little choice if everyone's shopping "Low-Mart")?

Also, how does it affect the capacity to create/offer intrinsic value in general as well as our perceptions or expectations of quality, etc.?

Now that I'm on this line of thought, what do you think of customer-cards that give you discounts, in exchange for knowing your name, where you live, maybe your sex or age, and of course exactly what you purchase? How do you feel about the fact that, if you refuse, you're essentially forced to pay more (while others, who succumb, are paying less), or to shop further away from where you live (and therefore still pay more)?

Gee thanks... Take it away, and then look good by giving it back?

percent each year. In the same

$$$$

Ah, those were the days... ;)

marketing for

You get to buy ice cream from the same company that sells cleaning agents...

"Feel clean all over, and now, even inside! With our new organic ice cream!"

[snipped free advertising for Unilever]

"Unilever's status as a large multinational has attracted a variety of criticisms from political activists. For example, it has been criticised for causing environmental pollution by Greenpeace, for testing products on animals by PETA, and for making use of child labour, among others."

--Wikipedia.org

Looks like Unilever's helping to set an example of how we, too, can all contribute to that special community spirit.

[Warm Worm]

Wow Amy, you have chickens and make your own cheese and are into architecture? Where do all the chicks like you hang out?

[Amy Blankenship]

I'm actually into urban planning. I dropped out of architecture school as a Freshman in favor of graphic design.

Try the pastured poultry and goat lists LOL.

[Warm Worm]

Well that's the thing. Edgar's got a point: Just settle your serious case of ass the hard way, with security guards and cameras and cops and tasers and handcuffs and jail and banishment from Walmart.

The idea goes that, since it's the market that counts, then sneaking things passed people is fair game-- especially if it means added revenue, profit, lower costs, a greater competitive advantage, etc.. If they get caught, then it's crocodile tears, "Forgive us!" press releases and damage-control-consultants/talking-heads, and then people forget (helped along by company/product name-changes and buyouts) and they just make the sneak sneakier next time... A rap on the wrist, and it's back to business as usual... What's one or two people more or less anyway, compared with the majority who got duped. It's the profit! And even the ones who noticed are probably just too preoccupied with life to concern themselves with a "stupid bag of Cheetos". Stupid bags of this and that add up pretty quickly though, and next thing you know, you feel yourself lost in a smokescreen and yet more at the mercy of the marketer/advertiser. Your resolve is weakened along with your addiction to the product.

Seems that changing some market practices is orders of magnitudes worse than pulling teeth. Markets and market practices shouldn't be working like that. The speed at which they self-correct best be most swift if they are to exist in any sufficient capacity at all.

[++]

Good post, WW,

Almost everything I don't like about our great American society today has to do with the substitution of situational ethics for real ones, i.e. the denigration of the real deal America with the "only if and when I want to" could be anywhere America.. The real ethics usually have the forbidden word "morals" implicit in them. I wouldn't injest even the one bagga chips.

[George Conklin]

Maybe you should tell us what your morals are. You have demonstrated none of them here.

[Warm Worm]

I just downloaded Gary Numan's Cars. Ahh... I just love the soaring synths part that begins a third of the way through. It got me into electronic music composition.

[George Conklin]

What does that have to do with morals?

[Warm Worm]

Of course. ;)

[Warm Worm]

I think I was listening to it while reading your post.

[drydem]

My favorite ice cream shop in the DC area

The Silver Spring, MD shop is located on an old mini strip mall along Georgia. The Beltsville, MD shop is also located along an old commerical building. The main architecture or urban profile might be - inexpensive retail commerical site next to busy U.S. Road. Also both store face the roadside an have a significant roadside signage exposure. There's no place to really eat outside, the side walk space is limited, parking space is pretty meager... but the ice cream is really great. ISTM that major site selection factors were

1) a low cost per square feet of retail space and 2) a signficant amount of roadside traffic by the stores ( which would generate significant store front signage exposure).

One of the most powerful retail tools is commercial signage exposure infront of a business.

[Amy Blankenship]

Depends on the kind, sex, and the quality. Dairy goats cost more than most meat goats. But a good dairy goat can produce roughly 6 times her purchase price each year in milk, plus 2 kids a year. If those kids are female, you then have made your purchase price 8 times a year. If you can keep your expenses reasonable, it's a hobby you have a good chance of doing better than breaking even.

I haven't decided what I'll do when I get ready to replace the laying flock. Maybe we'll eat them, or maybe sell them cheap to someone who doesn't care they're not laying every day any more.

-Amy

[Amy Blankenship]

In my area of the country, a dairy kid will go for about $150 (but that also has a loose presumption that it is not weaned yet and that can be a lot of work). However, the breed that does best here, Nubians, doesn't do well up North, so you may have a different experience. A goat already milking will be $400+, but then you know exactly what you are buying in terms of production. A gallon of raw goat milk here goes for $8.

Don't forget fertilizer. That's actually their main use here.

You may find that changes when you have hens. I might have said the same once. I will say that eating a lot of fresh farm eggs results in a fresh, toned complexion without the beauty products. Most of the little lines and things I had before getting chickens filled out when I started eating a lot of eggs. I initially lost about 5 lbs on eggs, too, but that came back.

I don't know if I will be able to either. So far our murdering hen is still alive, so we'll see.

Game chickens don't make very good pets. Sex links (which are basically cross breeds bred for egg production) are an attractive red and white. Cochins are just funny to watch run around and make good mothers if you like to have the occasional baby chick around. They're not stellar producers of eggs, but decent. And they come in a variety of colors and patterns. We have a white rock rooster, who is magnificent and a great guardian of the flock. He's even a decent pet, though he's not terribly interested in being picked up and petted.

The chickens themselves are not. The housing is where the investment is. But I suspect you know how to solve that.

Cochins kind of look exotic, but it's totally cute to watch this round bundle of fluff bouncing from left to right as it runs.

-Amy

[Amy Blankenship]

You don't want Banty anything. I was talking about full size Cochins. Banty is actually a size, and most breeds have a banty size. I can't speak to Cochin roosters, but the hens are cool.

I'm constantly amazed that the cops don't have better control over these dogs that are, in effect, weapons.

-Amy

[George Conklin]

You are going to eat the ridge runners? Old laying hens? Boil them until the bones get soft and the meat is still tough. Been there, done that.

[Amy Blankenship]

You have to either age them a few days or brine them...