For three years my daily commute took me past what I assume is the Battenkill Valley Creamery in Salem NY. They have many, many cows, and I often got stuck behind the crusty, old honey wagon loaded down and on its way to deliver liquified cow shit to sprinkle on the neighboring fields. The smell is not to be believed, but it’s grounding nonetheless.
Beside housing cows, it never really occurred to me what went on at that farm. But, that changed last night when I saw these old fashioned glass bottles in Romas, a food importer and Italian deli in Saratoga. I bought one, of course, and felt like I was doing good in the process. I smelled the shit, now I will drink the milk.
Everything about glass milk jugs makes sense—well, with the exception of the weight, breakability, cost, and the milk’s susceptibility to Vitamin D damaging fluorescent light. But, it tasted so delicious and creamy. For a moment I was so overcome that I thought I could speak French and tried to summons Eli—I failed embarrassingly, but Carey was asleep so no laugher ensued.
Growing up, I was jealous of the few remaining customers living on my street who got deliveries from the milk man. He had a white uniform, vintage stick-shift milk truck with suicide doors, and the baskets of jars. But, my mother contributed to his demise and bought milk at the grocery store for a tenth of the price—how could she?
-Rob
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you could photograph the phone book! ;0)
pretty milk!
Cute! 🙂
I live down the road from the creamery. It is so awesome to be able to pop in to buy fresh milk and eggs. They even have cheese (though not made there, it’s Cabot) and locally produced yogurt. Also local maple syrup and homemade ice cream. Such a fantastic addition to the local scene 🙂
thanks for the info! I will have to stop in—especially considering I dropped six eggs breaking them all while I tried to take the milk pictures!
I highly recommend their chocolate milk. Its very decadent and sometimes would prefer that for dessert over a glass of wine *gasp*
That place is a total factory farm. The only difference between that farm and a steroetypical CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) is the glass bottles they distribute their milk in. The dairy barn looks like a warehouse, with 300+ dairy cows locked up inside it, never seeing the light of day. Disgusting if you ask me.
You’re probably totally right!