the return of the milkman

[sheeplady]

My mother's first job in the early 1960s was a bookkeeper for several milk trucks. She left when she saw the warning signs that the industry was fading.

Milk today is nothing at all like what milk used to be. They process milk separating each element of it into vats, then add a select amount of water back into it to make the different "percents" of milk. This process gives milk a different (shorter) shelf life, and instead of "spoiling", (you could use for buttermilk) milk now just rots.

You used to have to specify if you wanted "sweet" milk or "sour" milk. Milk "made" into "buttermilk" just isn't the same. I've made actual butter milk from cream
(as opposed to souring milk) and it is a very interesting taste.

I feel pity for those forced to drink straight from the cow. Milk is one of the things the "modern era" got right.

I think the tastes for modern milk have to do more with the fact that so few individuals grew up on farms. I think it is a matter of early exposure.

 

[Stray Cat]

I think the tastes for modern milk have to do more with the fact that so few individuals grew up on farms. I think it is a matter of early exposure.

That is true, sheeplady.
It's the matter of getting used to a certain taste and texture of milk, and after many years of consuming dairy products made from it - it's hard to get onto anything else.

 

[scotrace]

I can finally get milk straight from the producing farm locally. Still pasteurized, but a huge difference in flavor. It's an Amish farm that directly sells what they produce. Frankly, it's not all wonderful. The chickens are scrawny, the pork extra fatty and chewy. But the cheeses are amazing, and you can buy raw wheat berries and have your flour ground while you wait.

 

[LuvMyMan]

I can finally get milk straight from the producing farm locally. Still pasteurized, but a huge difference in flavor. It's an Amish farm that directly sells what they produce. Frankly, it's not all wonderful. The chickens are scrawny, the pork extra fatty and chewy. But the cheeses are amazing, and you can buy raw wheat berries and have your flour ground while you wait.

Up North from where we live now, is a fairly large community of Amish, they sell some home made items from a small home that is converted for just selling things...it specializes in Pies and Cakes...they bake perhaps 100 of them and sell out in one day. The quality and flavor beats anything you can purchase any place else, and the prices are amazingly low. They also sell furniture that is so lovely and creative, a lot of all natural wood and hand made cushions on chairs, bedframes that are just great looking, dressers and such.

What we appreciate about the Amish, when they make anything, it is done the old fashioned way and done right. They seem to place a lot of pride in their workmanship. And they are so really honest.

Many years ago, Daniel needed a few thousand large in diameter cedar posts for doing a really large split rail fence for a customer he had, the only source was from the Amish in some ways, as the normal distributors wanted way too much per post and did not have enough to fill the order. The Amish made a verbal contract and kept their word, and even delivered the wood to the job site. It was a blessing in so many ways, to know you can do business on a handshake and that was their word. You do not see that hardly ever any longer in how things go.

 

[Stray Cat]

I can finally get milk straight from the producing farm locally. Still pasteurized, but a huge difference in flavor.

Maybe it's just had a quick boil. It's what we do, also. Otherwise it'll spoil quite soon.
So, once you get your fresh milk, you take the amount you need (for example: for making kefir, or "young" cheese), and the rest gets a quick boil - prolongs the use of it.

 

[LuvMyMan]

Maybe it's just had a quick boil. It's what we do, also. Otherwise it'll spoil quite soon.
So, once you get your fresh milk, you take the amount you need (for example: for making kefir, or "young" cheese), and the rest gets a quick boil - prolongs the use of it.

That is really good advice. I hear (never done it yet myself) but that after you do boil it, and it cools down, you can freeze it to help it last longer as well.

 

[Ed]

In my grandparents' day, a milkman, a bread man and an ice man regularly came to their house in a horse and wagon. The horses knew the routes as well or better than the drivers.

 

[KLF]

My parents and grandparents had a lady who delivered raw milk at home 2 times a week some years ago. We used to boil it and keep in the fridge. My granpa used to make kefir from it sometimes. Then I moved away and I start drinking supermarket "milk". After a year went back and I was happy to open the fridge and pour me a cup of real milk. Oh, boy...I had stomach cramps and spent a lot of time in the bathroom after it. My stomach didn't agree with it anymore and I didn't have time to get used to it again, so I stick with the watered-down version for now...

 

[scarletgrenadine]

We aren't able to have milk delivered here, but we drive out to a dairy farm that sells raw milk about twice a month. We've never had any go bad, and I much prefer the taste to pasteurized milk. I usually just drink it as milk, but sometimes we culture it into kefir or yogurt. When we buy low-temp pasteurized milk, it actually tends to go bad quickly, in only a week or so. Anyway, we also like that the milk is not homogenized.