The return of the milk round: what’s old is new again

Some of us may remember when the milkman would come around on his float (or horse-drawn cart, if you cast your mind back long enough) delivering farm-fresh milk straight to your door. A virtuous cycle, with the glass bottles washed, returned and reused for the next delivery. This small act of virtue was all but eradicated when the milk industry was deregulated in the 1990s and milk was instead packaged in plastic bottles, homogenised for a….well, homogenous finished product (and with it, the loss of that glorious first mouthful of rich creamy milk which had naturally risen to the top!). With the rise of the supermarkets, we traded out this local service for the one-stop-shop convenience of the supermarket, and the lure of lower prices generated by the single-use plastic packaging. Well, as tends to be the case, what is old is new again, and the gentle clink of bottles left on doorsteps can be heard around the countryside.

At Chiddingstone Dairy, we are piloting our own glass-bottle milk round, promising milk that has travelled less than 5 miles from our farm to your fridge. By ordering from a local farm, you are choosing a product that has not been freighted around the country to centralised processing plants and then freighted back out to supermarket distribution hubs, and finally on to the local stores for you to pluck from the shelves, meaning a reduction in your carbon footprint as well as fresher milk. You are also sourcing milk that comes from a single herd which means 100% traceability. Our milk is pasteurised but not homogenised, which means it is less processed and you can once again enjoy that first creamy mouthful from the top of the glass (and accompanying milk moustache).

We are starting with a small catchment area, so if we do not yet deliver to your postcode, please drop us an email as we may expand to your community in the near future.