Persons attempting to find a "text" in this [story] will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a "subtext" in it will be banished; persons attempting to explain, interpret, explicate, analyze, deconstruct, or otherwise "understand" it will be exiled to a desert island in the company only of other explainers.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR - Wendell Berry's introduction to Jayber Crow.
This article was posted to Jayber on 10 March 2006 by to the following categories: Feature, Stories.
An audio version of this article is also available.
Growing up, due to my parents' responsible frugality when purchasing "dairy", my family saved gonzo moola while my knobby knees suckled instant non-fat powdered milk. Cousin, this is my story.
Usually Mom purchased powdered milk in bulk from the local co-op but occasionally we got a gallon of skim from Red Owl to mix with the powdered milk to make it taste more like, well, you know, milk.
Financially, I've never fully appreciated the benefit of using powdered milk, but according to Hillbilly Housewife, the average price for a gallon of milk these days is $3.50 - $4.50 and the reconstituted variety will likely set you back less than 2 singles. Hek, even if you're a Green Bay hippie living on a Wisconsin dairy farm, you'll still cough up 2, possibly even 3 fazolies for 4 quarts of genuine moo juice.
I remember waking up as a teenager, slamming a couple bowls of Cheerios combined with a half-cup of sugar in a puddle of semi-opaque faux-bovine-extract, and absolutely loving it.
Every once-in-a-while, however, as I was inhaling my AM sustenance, I would get a chunk of non-dissolved flour-like soggy-powder lodged in my fangs and would simultaneously rub my eyes, grimace, and clench my butt-cheeks. Blech, I can taste it now.
I don't know much about the health benefits or nutritional concerns at play here, but I can say that I've had powdered milk for more of my life than real milk and I still have all limbs and organs intact. For that, I'm truly thankful.
poor baby…..
Now the secret is out for all you friends who tease me for nibbling on my dry cereal.
I wonder if Mom and Dad still have the brown Tupperware gallon-size pitcher we used to mix up this stuff. It seemed like no matter how vigorously you shook the pitcher, there were always globs of milk chunks clinging to the lid and sides of the pitcher.
I remember going with Mom to help her work at the co-op so we could purchase the milk even more cheaply. I think we had to walk uphill both ways.
I saw another use for powdered milk…
But is it good on Cheerios?