Good for farmers and good for the planet, the milk round is back with a 21st-century twist..
IT’s early on a Saturday morning and the air smells intoxicatingly of spring. I’m in the kitchen in my dressing gown, with the window open, waiting for the kettle to boil. I reach for the fridge door reflexively, then I remember. Pulling my slippers on, I race downstairs like a child rushing to the tree on Christmas Day. there, waiting for me on my doorstep, is a cool glass bottle with a foil top.
A couple of weeks ago, after spending my entire adult life buying milk in plastic cartons from supermarkets, I signed up for a weekly glass-bottle delivery. It costs a little more per pint (about a third extra), but I was happy to pay: not just to support dairy farmers and cut down on waste, but to help create a sense of community that can be hard to find if, like me, you live in a city. Dave Cousins, the local milkman, has been doing the rounds of my patch of London for decades.
When I was born in the 1980s, some 90% of the milk consumed by Britons was delivered to their doorsteps. However, three years ago, the percentage had dropped to just 3%. the boom in so-called ‘alt-milks’ (almond, oat, soy) was partly to blame, but, mostly, it was a matter of convenience and price: with a pint of milk functioning as a litmus test for competitiveness, many stores run it as a loss leader, creating a race to the bottom and devaluing milk as a whole.
We all know we should be doing more to make sure producers are properly recompensed and reduce our reliance on planet clogging plastic, but does the milk round really have a place in modern life? Even the phrase feels old-timey, conjuring up images of Norman Wisdom in The Early Bird and Benny Hill being chased down the road.
However, although the latest official figures from Dairy UK are yet to be released, anecdotally, things are looking rosy—and it’s down to a combination of digital innovation and the good, old-fashioned human touch.
Esta historia es de la edición May 01, 2019 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición May 01, 2019 de Country Life UK.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds