Food History Articles and Links

[liuzhou]

There was a stage of my life in which I knew beyond doubt that my career path was to be a milky, driving my cart around the streets in the early hours of the morning ensuring that everyone woke up to find pint bottles of fresh cow juice on their doorsteps. I think I was five-years-old.

 

Somehow I was diverted from that path. Still not sure it was a bad idea.

 

 

Do they still exist anywhere?

 

1923 ‘R. Crompton’ William Again xii. 203 ‘'Ello, kids!’ said the milk-boy.‥ ‘'Ello, Milky!’

 

 

[Maison Rustique]

9 hours ago, liuzhou said:

There was a stage of my life in which I knew beyond doubt that my career path was to be a milky, driving my cart around the streets in the early hours of the morning ensuring that everyone woke up to find pint bottles of fresh cow juice on their doorsteps. I think I was five-years-old.

 

Somehow I was diverted from that path. Still not sure it was a bad idea.

 

 

Do they still exist anywhere?

 

1923 ‘R. Crompton’ William Again xii. 203 ‘'Ello, kids!’ said the milk-boy.‥ ‘'Ello, Milky!’

 

 

 

Yes, I have one. Local dairy, but they also have products from local poultry, meat, veggie and other producers. It is pricey but I treat myself about once a month now.

[chromedome]

Avalon Dairy in BC (founded over a century ago by a Newfoundlander from the Avalon Peninsula) still offers home delivery - in glass bottles, yet - in parts of the province. I can't verify this personally, but when I lived there a friend of mine was a loyalist who would only get her milk from them (whole milk, non-homogenized, where the cream still rises to the top of the bottle). She told me that Avalon pasteurized its milk through an older process that used a slightly lower temperature for a longer time. "Do you remember your mom or your grandmother complaining that milk doesn't sour properly anymore?" she asked.

I did indeed remember my grandmother grumbling about that ("it just rots instead of curdling" was her comment). My friend argued (again, I can't verify this and doubtless someone will correct me) that this corresponded with the changeover to the modern pasteurization method, and that was one of her reasons for going with Avalon. I *can* verify that it was wonderful milk.

 

When I lived in Nova Scotia in the 90s the local dairies still offered home delivery on a limited basis, and Reddit tells me they still do, so I guess the tradition isn't quite dead just yet.

[liuzhou]

23 hours ago, Maison Rustique said:

Local dairy, but they also have products from local poultry, meat, veggie and other producers. It is pricey but I treat myself about once a month now.

 

I remember milkmen offering eggs, but not other groceries. There was a grocer's van which came around later in the day selling bread and a limited selection of vegetalbles, fruit and meat. Sugar and other basics. Then the fish van came by; not every day, though. My family bought anything else from a small shop nearby, giving the owner a list and picking it in boxes up later in the day. The list was almost the same every week.

 

There was no supermarket in town until a few years after I left for London and university at 18.

 

Edited July 21 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

Some milkmen put in more determination than others.

 

 

 

[chromedome]

This one goes back a little farther than most of our links on this thread. It's less about the cooking as such than creating a baseline for other archaeologists to use as a reference point, but still fascinating.

 

One of my fellow vendors at a farmer's market years ago knapped a range of replica flint arrowheads and spearheads, and I've often thought about tracking him down in search of a few flakes that I could experiment with myself just for personal interest. I had a notion to be an archaeologist at one point in my childhood (probably driven at least in part by a show-off desire to demonstrate that I could spell it, as a kindergartner).

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/hand-me-that-flint-flake-archaeologists-butcher-cook-fowl-like-a-neanderthal/
 

[chromedome]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/meet-italian-fruit-detective-who-investigates-centuries-old-paintings-clues-produce-180985227/