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The Return of the Milkman

modernfarmer.com

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Re: The Return of the Milkman

#31

Post by rch »

seesawtron wrote: post #12

Have people also started growing vegetables and herbs at home as their creative projects? Unfortunately basics of agricultural farming are not part of school curriculum. I wonder if that was so at some point in the past. Wouldn't it be so great if everyone of us knew the basics of farming like we know basic maths? It could in theory result in growing more plants (good for environment), getting some fresh vegetables o…

The concept of educational community gardens and seed libraries occasionally comes up in conversation about the scope of services provided by traditional (book) libraries. As an example, there's an official program in Boulder already:

https://boulderlibrary.org/seed-to-table/

Re: The Return of the Milkman

#32

Post by bluedino »

disillusioned wrote: post #30

Our local dairy ( https://www.danzeisendairy.com/ ) just started this and my wife jumped on it as quickly as possible. They've already been selling milk in glass bottles since they started selling through grocery stores here about three years ago, with deposits, but now since pandemic, they've expanded to include home delivery routes, and it's pretty great. We can get eggs and milk and bottled cold brew and other goo…

How much is it? I know milk sales are way down in general but maybe on the high end there's some growth.

I assume that in the days of the milkman, it was working class prices, but I wasn't around back then so I don't know.

Re: The Return of the Milkman

#33

Post by TylerE »

bluedino wrote: post #32
disillusioned wrote: post #30

Our local dairy ( https://www.danzeisendairy.com/ ) just started this and my wife jumped on it as quickly as possible. They've already been selling milk in glass bottles since they started selling through grocery stores here about three years ago, with deposits, but now since pandemic, they've expanded to include home delivery routes, and it's pretty great. We can get eggs and milk and bottled cold brew and other goo…

How much is it? I know milk sales are way down in general but maybe on the high end there's some growth. I assume that in the days of the milkman, it was working class prices, but I wasn't around back then so I don't know.

It's expensive.

Each delivery is $9.99, and then the milk is $3.49/half gallon.

Around here (NC), at the local grocer, the store brand "regular" mile is $2.39/GALLON, and even the fancy local creamery sells milk for $5/gal.

Re: The Return of the Milkman

#35

Post by dillonmckay »

seesawtron wrote: post #12

Have people also started growing vegetables and herbs at home as their creative projects? Unfortunately basics of agricultural farming are not part of school curriculum. I wonder if that was so at some point in the past. Wouldn't it be so great if everyone of us knew the basics of farming like we know basic maths? It could in theory result in growing more plants (good for environment), getting some fresh vegetables o…

There are college degrees for that sort of thing.

Re: The Return of the Milkman

#36

Post by dan-robertson »

bluedino wrote: post #32
disillusioned wrote: post #30

Our local dairy ( https://www.danzeisendairy.com/ ) just started this and my wife jumped on it as quickly as possible. They've already been selling milk in glass bottles since they started selling through grocery stores here about three years ago, with deposits, but now since pandemic, they've expanded to include home delivery routes, and it's pretty great. We can get eggs and milk and bottled cold brew and other goo…

How much is it? I know milk sales are way down in general but maybe on the high end there's some growth. I assume that in the days of the milkman, it was working class prices, but I wasn't around back then so I don't know.

I wonder what kind of economies of scale there are. A lower price can surely be charged if everyone in several nearby streets is getting their milk delivered by the same company.

There do still exist places in the U.K. with milk deliveries and it seems to work pretty well. People generally leave out empty bottles in a basket with some dial set to request how much they want.

The idea appeals to me. It intuitively feels less wasteful (but plastic is very low energy to produce compared to glass and it might not actually be that bad to put plastic bottles straight into landfill), and I’m not sensitive to the price or particulars of the milk (except that it is milk and not some kind of white-coloured water). Maybe it would be too expensive still. Or maybe people would care too much about getting certain brands of milk.

Re: The Return of the Milkman

#37

Post by TylerE »

dan-robertson wrote: post #36
bluedino wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much is it? I know milk sales are way down in general but maybe on the high end there's some growth. I assume that in the days of the milkman, it was working class prices, but I wasn't around back then so I don't know.

I wonder what kind of economies of scale there are. A lower price can surely be charged if everyone in several nearby streets is getting their milk delivered by the same company. There do still exist places in the U.K. with milk deliveries and it seems to work pretty well. People generally leave out empty bottles in a basket with some dial set to request how much they want. The idea appeals to me. It intuitively feel…

I do wonder if with modern processing glass is actually worse. All that extra weight and volume being shipped around.

Re: The Return of the Milkman

#38

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

nxc18 wrote: post #14
seesawtron wrote: post #12

Have people also started growing vegetables and herbs at home as their creative projects? Unfortunately basics of agricultural farming are not part of school curriculum. I wonder if that was so at some point in the past. Wouldn't it be so great if everyone of us knew the basics of farming like we know basic maths? It could in theory result in growing more plants (good for environment), getting some fresh vegetables o…

Its been trendy to start gardening since the beginning of covid, at least anecdotally (I've ramped up my container gardening) and from what I hear on podcasts. The 'Victory Garden' in particular is a trendy concept and I'm all for it. My one concern about this as a food source is that if you don't have soil (in other words, you have to buy it and put in containers, then amend heavily) I suspect this is vastly more ex…

Sounds like a pretty good tradeoff to me.

Re: The Return of the Milkman

#39

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

dan-robertson wrote: post #36
bluedino wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much is it? I know milk sales are way down in general but maybe on the high end there's some growth. I assume that in the days of the milkman, it was working class prices, but I wasn't around back then so I don't know.

I wonder what kind of economies of scale there are. A lower price can surely be charged if everyone in several nearby streets is getting their milk delivered by the same company. There do still exist places in the U.K. with milk deliveries and it seems to work pretty well. People generally leave out empty bottles in a basket with some dial set to request how much they want. The idea appeals to me. It intuitively feel…

> A lower price can surely be charged if everyone in several nearby streets is getting their milk delivered by the same company.

And we can optimize it even more if the bottles can be delivered to a storage location that will store the milk for the people in the nearby streets. Also, to make it easier for the milk producers, maybe someone can be at the location and pay the delivery person once for everyone. Then when people come to pick up their milk from the central storage, they can pay based on how much they pick up. We are now very close to the concept of a neighborhood grocery store.

Re: The Return of the Milkman

#40

Post by gumby »

Even though the last dairy in Palo Alto shut down a few decades ago (and we are down to two creameries) milk delivery was revived about 15 years ago. Milk products and eggs. Pretty convenient when you have A teen ager at home, even before the virus.

Plus they are just nice folks. When kiddo was small they took him for a spin on the truck which is designed for quick-on-quick-off so isn’t controlled like a regular vehicle.

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