We’ve had an email from Katharyn:

Can you tell me what alternatives I have to plastic milk bottles from the supermarket? I tried to get a milkman to deliver but they told me I don’t get through enough milk to warrant them adding me to the route but I seem to generate lots of empty milk bottles! I can recycle them at the supermarket but I would rather not use them in the first place.

I think the milkman – with their reusable glass bottles – is probably the best route here to go down here – such a shame they won’t deliver. How about talking to your neighbours to see if you can up the order?

Some local wholefood stores also stock milk in glass bottles – talk to them about whether you can return the bottles for reusing or whether they should be recycled with other glass bottles.

If you have to keep using your supermarket, buying in bulk would reduce the amount of plastic used per pint but then you’d have a lot of milk to get through. Milk can be frozen but it can be a little separated on thawing – perfectly fine for cooking with but a little less palatable on your cereal. Any advice on freezing milk?

Any other suggestions?

It was my birthday (the big 3-0) last Monday and because I’m wild and exciting, I decided I’d like to spend the day making cheese. I’m determined to get quickly confident with soft cheese so I can move onto hard cheese as soon as I’ve got a room they can be stored in for 12 months (*insert misc house-moving grumbles here*).

I planned it out carefully to make sure we used up everything as efficiently as possible – we started making butter and used the leftover buttermilk to make buttermilk cheese (which was interesting because it was slightly sour), and I’d planned to whey ricotta from the whey leftover from the paneer and lemon-flavoured soft cheese making but there just wasn’t enough milk solids left to do it justice.

What else could I do with the watery whey? I’ve heard it can be a good protein drink for bodybuilders or people who just want to, um, build up their bodies — I tried to give some to our poorly-sick cat to help her bulk up but she was more interested in the leftover cream.

As I said, I’d like to conquer cheeses so will be producing a few litres of this a week – any suggestions? Recipes? Other ideas?

Some weeks, for example if we’re in the mood for cereal, we use up all the milk pretty much the instant we buy it but other weeks, it sits there, only being used on the rare occasion that someone drinks a cup of black tea then eventually goes off.

So in those wasteful weeks, what can we do with it when it’s on the turn? I mean, in the post-fresh, pre-cheese-ish stage.

Any ideas?