You Know You Are Old When

[jyoutz]

Come to Pennsylvania! Our number of small family-run dairy farms began to dwindle when the generations born before WW2 were retiring and selling off their farms, but we still have enough that it's very common to see those glass jugs in many of our stores. Many of the farms also have their own farm store, where they sell their own products (milk, produce, poultry, beef), as well as the products of usually a half a dozen other local farms. This increases as you head west from the Philadelphia - New York corridor.

My state is a major dairy producer, but not that many small farms. They are large operations that ship milk to the creameries by refrigerated tank trucks, where it is pasteurized and packaged in plastic jugs and paper cartons. Much of the milk goes to the cheese factories. It would be nice to visit the small farm stores in Pennsylvania.

https://dairy.nmsu.edu/documents/nm-dairy-facts_012021.pdf

 

[Oaktree]

Haven’t seen milk in glass bottles in decades.

I hadn't either until maybe a year ago, there was someone returning an empty bottle to the IGA-type market next town over. Hadn't noticed in the cooler before, then again I don't especially like milk so it's not somewhere I'd be looking very often...

 

[masseyrider]

Here in Kanuckistan I haven't had milk in a glass bottle since elementary school when they went to the cardboard containers.
We are talking quickly closing in on 60 years.
I don't have a problem with the plastic bags we have here except that the bags aren't reuseable.
The milk in bags takes place of the larger containers of 4 liters so they are a good size for freezing the garden plenty.
It's a thick plastic and would be great for use in the freezer.
Except, no matter how you wash and clean them the smell of sour milk permeates everything you put in them.
When Ma died I took 3 large garbage bags of these milk bags to the dump. The packrat in her just had to save them.
Even though they were spotlessly clean the recycle place wouldn't take them.

 

[ultrarunner]

Haven’t seen milk in glass bottles in decades.

Real California milk from Happy California cows trademarked free from growth hormones, etc… and in glass.

Growing up we had milkman deliveries but that faded away in the 70’s… still have the porch cooler that was never picked up when Foremost stopped home delivery…

All the kids loved Bud the milkman…

Seems much of what is sold in cartons now sold in ever shrinking cartons… be it juice, ice cream, etc.

At least we still have milk in 1/2 gallon glass.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Remember these?

Well, I intended to post a picture of an old time glass coffee creamer they would give you when you ordered coffee in a cafe, but couldn't fine one that would post.

 

[LouNY]

Growing up at home all we had was raw milk straight from the can or bulk tank. Then into glass jars in the fridge.

Come to Pennsylvania! Our number of small family-run dairy farms began to dwindle when the generations born before WW2 were retiring and selling off their farms, but we still have enough that it's very common to see those glass jugs in many of our stores. Many of the farms also have their own farm store, where they sell their own products (milk, produce, poultry, beef), as well as the products of usually a half a dozen other local farms. This increases as you head west from the Philadelphia - New York corridor.

There are several "farm" stores in this area and two good sized dairys that bottle much of their milk a well as using it for ice cream with their surplus going into the fluid market.

15-25 years ago, was pretty friendly with the lady who ran one of our local dairy farm stores, her husband ran the farm itself. They did and still use those glass returnable bottles, and I remember her mentioning the state or the CDC were making it increasingly difficult for them to continue operations as they always had, requiring the purchase of new equipment and implementation of new processes that made it almost impossible to remain profitable. I got the sense that if they weren't already well-established and already approaching retirement, that they'd have never been able to afford to be in the business of direct retail.

Most of our local dairy farms sell to one of a half dozen larger dairy conglomerations, who combine and process their milk for modern packaging to stores.

Many of the small operations are so burdened by over bearing and rediculous rules and regulations it's a wonder any of them can survive.

My state is a major dairy producer, but not that many small farms. They are large operations that ship milk to the creameries by refrigerated tank trucks, where it is pasteurized and packaged in plastic jugs and paper cartons. Much of the milk goes to the cheese factories. It would be nice to visit the small farm stores in Pennsylvania.

https://dairy.nmsu.edu/documents/nm-dairy-facts_012021.pdf

Most of those trailers are not refrigerated just well insulated and multi chambered as they cannot have baffles to slow down the sloshing as it could churn the milk.
In the past all of the dairys had a refrigerated bulk tank as milk had to be cooled rapidly as it left the cows. The cooled milk was then loaded on to trucks that were doing the farm to farm pickup and then they would go to the various creameries for testing and processing.
It's still similar today except the large farms are using tractor trailer tanks for storage and the tractor brings in an empty trailer and picks up a loaded one.

Yes, unfortunately most of the dairys that are making a go of it are milking well over a 1000 cows. While they are agriculture I also find it hard to give them a lot of support. Many will claim to be family farms, but the family members are often outnumbered by employees. Plus they are incorporated which to me makes them big business.

 

[masscity]

We had 8 milk cows when my Dad bought the farm, he kept them for a few years, he kept the best cow (5% milk fat), sold the others and bought some beef cows.

I drank a ton of raw milk, we made home made yogurt and churned butter from her cream. My Mom made squeaky cheese, I think it might be a Finnish thing, never heard of it anywhere else.

When I went into the Air Force I had to drink chocolate milk, I couldn't stand store bought milk taste.

 

[ultrarunner]

I had to drink chocolate milk too after being use to fresh from the cow milk at Grandparents Dairy Farm.

My cousin shut it all down after many generations. He got a job as a city bus driver and with paid vacation and holiday pay…

Grandpa never had more than 30 milk cows plus the calfs, pigs and grandma’s egg money from the chickens.

Farm to table was the way it was for generations…

7 days a week the milk truck arrived to pick up the full milk cans and return empties.

They grew their own grass and hay, had summer meadows and grandma’s brother in law had a water powered mill to to mill grain…

The mill was removed by the current cousin… removed because the county wanted to make it a historic site and cousin was tired of city people trespassing… at least I saw it in action.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

She?!?

Absolutely!
Here's her yearbook photo. Friends told me she was fired for breaking a boys arm when she was a teacher in Texas!

 

[WinterDeere]

My state is a major dairy producer, but not that many small farms. They are large operations that ship milk to the creameries by refrigerated tank trucks, where it is pasteurized and packaged in plastic jugs and paper cartons. Much of the milk goes to the cheese factories. It would be nice to visit the small farm stores in Pennsylvania.

https://dairy.nmsu.edu/documents/nm-dairy-facts_012021.pdf

We had just one working dairy farm still in my family, when I was a kid in the 1970's and 80's. They did pretty well, with 180 cows and 280 acres, which is big for this area defined by 100-acre Penn's land grants. I remember my great-aunt telling me that the only way they were profitable after the 1950's or 60's was by specializing into boutique products, that it was no longer possible to stay profitable at their small scale on commodity products.

That may explain why the farm stores seem to be tied to the few farms that remain, those just doing bulk work couldn't be profitable enough for the next generation to stay in the business, when the older generation aged out. One of those "Grow or die" situations, for staying in bulk commodity work, the stores bring in a different kind of income from those who value local foods.

A cow plague hit this area in the late-1980's, and my aunt and uncle lost something like 70% of their herd in a few weeks. They were already 70 years old, so took that as the sign to at least partly retire. They kept milking the cows that survived, for at least a few more years, but never replaced them. None of their kids took over the farm, they had already chosen other careers 20 years prior.