Oat Milk & Little Debbie’s

GEORGIA FOLK AND FARM LIFE - My, how times have changed. I ran to the store the other night to stock up ahead of the big ice storm that—by the grace of God—missed us. Turns out, in my part of Georgia, nobody gives a damn about organic oat milk or bromide-free bread. They’ll cuss you clean out if you grab more than two boxes of Little Debbie’s, but they’ll practically help you load your buggy with all the non-GMO kale and bok choy you can push.

That’s the thing about storms—they make you think about what you really need, and how much of it. If we’d lost power for several days, I would’ve welcomed the time inside. As much as I hate oat milk, I prefer it over the unpleasantries of the alternatives, and I had four cartons of the freshest milk one can squeeze from the tit of an oat—though I’ve never seen one. I also had plenty of chicken, beef, and pesticide-free produce to make it a solid ten days.

In a world of backup generators, solar panels, and hand-operated well pumps, it’s funny how a few days without oat milk might break us. I laughed all the way home thinking about how little of what we “need” actually matters. Storms like these are a gentle reminder of what really counts—and what we can do without. If we get another one, just leave me a carton of oat milk and one box of those Little Debbie’s I can hide on the porch.

~Matt Jolley