The following is part of an ORGANIC JOURNEY GUEST POST SERIES, written by Amy a long time helper behind the scenes of Southern Savers.

Update:  After much searching and math figuring (not always strong at conversions) y’all are right that the 8 oz by volume and 8 oz by weight are the same.  The only frustrating part is even the lady at Kraft said they were different sizes… maybe we all need to brush up on conversions.  We will cover soon though why you really don’t want to buy pre-shredded cheese for other reasons.

I heard from a friend of mine a few months ago that there is more cheese in a block than if you get the same amount of cheese shredded.  This baffled me for months (yes, I get hung up on weird things!), I stood in the dairy aisle pondering how 8 ounces of shredded cheese could be less than 8 ounces of block cheese.  It is the same amount, right??  Because I trust this friend, I started buying block cheese (unless there was an amazing deal on the shredded that didn’t apply to the block).  Today, I got tired of wondering and decided to get to the bottom of this.

I took my block of cheese and shredded it.  Eight ounces yielded 3 whole cups of cheese!!  This is 1 cup more cheese than if I had bought the same eight ounces pre-shredded.  That’s a huge difference in cost!  You get 50% more for the same price.  Wow.

But I was still confused.  I called a leading cheese manufacturer and asked them about their labeling and the light bulb went on for me.  Shredded cheese is measured in volume.  Block cheese is measured by weight.

All this thinking about cheese has made me realize that the next step for my family is the whole wide world of dairy.  I am stepping in with fear and trembling (of how my pocketbook might be affected by my discoveries!), but I am ready to learn more.

So as I start researching, tell me what you are wanting to learn about going organic in this world of dairy?  What is your family doing now and loving?