Getting Cozy: National Dairy and National Pollinators Month

We are going to the farm! June is National Dairy and National Pollinator Month.

National Dairy Month, opens a new window started out as National Milk Month in 1937 as a way to promote drinking milk. The goal was to increase consumption of milk during the summer when there was often a surplus. According to the USDA, opens a new window, milk is an important part of a healthy diet:

• Intake of dairy products is linked to improved bone health, and may reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
• The intake of dairy products is especially important to bone health during childhood and adolescence, when bone mass is being built.
• Intake of dairy products is also associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and with lower blood pressure in adults.

Of course, if we are thinking about dairy, my mind goes straight to cheese, and the Cheese Shop Mysteries by Avery Aames.

The Long Quiche Goodbye

We also celebrate pollinators in June, but especially during National Pollinator Week, opens a new window June 17-23. Pollinators, opens a new window include the hummingbirds, bats, bees, beetles, butterflies, and flies that carry pollen from one plant to another as they collect nectar. These hard-working animals help pollinate over 75% of our flowering plants, and nearly 75% of our crops. We may not notice them, but without them we would miss many fruits, vegetables, and nuts, like blueberries, squash, and almonds . . . not to mention chocolate and coffee…all of which depend on pollinators.

For chocolate I will always be grateful, and JoAnna Carl's Chocolate Shop Mysteries are always delicious, and we are all so excited that the series is returning with a new book in November!

The Chocolate Frog Frame-up

Check out one of these cozy mystery series about dairy farms, bee keepers, and other agricultural pursuits and the "fruits" of their labor.

Cranberry Cove Mysteries. Monica Albertson comes to Cranberry Cove—a charming town on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan—to help her half-brother Jeff on his cranberry farm.

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