Notes from Barb: The Evolution of Milk

Horse-drawn Milk Cart circa 1908

A couple of days ago while buying gas at a convenience store, I saw a truck unloading stacks and stacks of 2% milk cartons. I commented at how many people must be drinking that awful stuff so the proprietor told me that 90% of his sales were of the 2% milk. How tastes have changed in not too many years! As a child we got milk from a Hermantown dairy farmer who drove a small horse cart . . . his name was Mr. Krause . . . and we furnished the container for him to ladle the milk into. He had a dipper in the cart and when we brought out the pan, he poured the milk into it. (People did not think in terms of germs like they do now.) The milk was then set on the table for the cream to float to the top when it was scooped off for coffee cream. A piece of cheesecloth covered the pan to keep out flies or dirt. After it was skimmed, it was put into a pitcher for family use.

When we moved up on the hill, we could not get service from Mr. Krause so got a new milkman who delivered the milk in bottles . . . 4.5% butterfat! People wanted the "best" and that was rated by the butterfat content. Since the cream always rose to the top, it was just plain decency that demanded that the first to pour milk always shook the bottle so the cream was evenly distributed. Rotten little kids often sneaked off the cream for their cereal. But with three kids in our family, we all watched each other so the chance to cheat did not happen very often. In winter when the milk froze in the bottles, the cream rose up out of the top with the little paper cap sticking way up there. Often I took off the cap, licked the frozen cream a few times and replaced the cap! Real ice cream, that was! And extra good being ill-gotten gains.

Then came pasteurization which made the milk sanitary . . . and drove a lot of dairy farmers out of business as they could not afford the equipment. We had friends who had a farm in Hermantown where we were welcome for a week in the summer. After the milking, the milk was taken by horse cart to a corner cross-roads where the cans were put on a stand to sit in the sun until the Bridgeman-Russell Creamery truck came to pick it up. Needless to say, milk soured quickly . . . and every mother knew how to make cottage cheese at home. So we all also knew what "curds and whey" from the Little Miss Muffet poem was. And Miss Muffet didn't eat so well on her little tuffet if she had to eat that stuff.

Next came homogenized milk . . . which is easier to digest but alas, no cream floats at the top to be siphoned off for a treat. And now they no longer say "butter-fat" but just "fat" and since no one wants to be guilty of drinking FAT, it may seem OK to drink fatless milk! But take it from me, that drink tastes like water that has been tampered with! I gave up caffeine for my health and quit over-salting foods . . . but I draw the line at creamless milk. Taking the "fat" out leaves all this cream for making butter . . . but everyone eats margarine now, too, for their health . . . and the government stores the butter. Somehow it doesn't make sense when cream and butter tastes so good! What is this world coming to??? Health?