This has been the most satisfying DIY I've done in a long time and it would have gone over HUGE in the 1930s. But the milkman - is making a comeback.
That's right, I have a milkman. I get milk dropped off, frothy and cold, to my doorstep once a week from a local dairy. Why yes, it is in glass bottles.
Home milk delivery was a Christmas gift from Betty. A dairy in my area introduced the milk in glass bottles service last fall and I started begging for it for Christmas like a petulant child every day for the next 3 months.
Baby wants her bottle.
The dairy (Summit Station Dairy & Creamery) drops my selections off and picks up my washed bottles once a week bringing me closer and closer to my dream of morphing into Laura Ingalls one old timey step at a time.
Here's the milkman's trajectory over history.
Table of Contents
Late 1700s: Family Cows
- If you were a family, you had a cow. That's the way you got your milk - from the cow in your front yard.
- People started moving into urban areas to work in the late 1700s. There was no room for the family cow, so people started getting their daily milk from other people who had cows - the dairy farmer boom began.
- In 1785 the first home delivery of milk took place; it was delivered in metal barrels. Customers would run out with their pitcher and the milkman would ladle milk into it.
1878: Invention of Glass Milk Bottle
- Milk was sold in glass bottles for the first time a year later, in 1879.
1884: It Took Another 6 Years to Invent the Cap
- Henry D. Thatcher introduced a glass milk bottle design with a cap.
- It was named the "Common Sense Milk Bottle". Ever so appropriate.
1930s-1940s: Decline of Home Milk Delivery
- You probably think of the 30's and 40's as the prime milk delivery era but this is when things started to look grim for the milkman.
- Homes and grocery stores now had their own refrigerators that could keep milk cold. This reduced the need for daily milk delivery because households could keep milk cold on their own.
1950s: Plastic & Wax
- Glass milk bottles were replaced by plastic containers and wax paper cartons.
Now: The Milkman Resurrection
- The local food movement, nostaligia and the convenience of online shopping have helped start a resurgence of milkmen & local dairies providing the service again in North America.
Which brings us to right now and my milkman.
At the moment it's still cold out, especially in the morning when the mysterious milkman drops milk off on my porch. But soon it will be warm. And then hot. And then it'll be milk curdling weather and my porch milk will be chunky.
So I made an insulated milk box for my porch and it went a little something like this.
Insulated Milk Crate
If you are one of the 4 people who will make this, note it can also be used for Uber Eats, Skip the Dishes or other food deliveries that need insulation.
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
If you aren't familiar with Skip the Dishes, you can learn all about their hide and seek dinner delivery service.
Get the crate. I used one of the many wood butter boxes I own and it's the perfect size for a milk crate.
Get the styrofoam. Get the vacuum.
Fit one piece on the bottom.
Height check to make sure the bottle has room to stand up.
Add a baby bottle just for fun.
Cut styrofoam to fit the sides, leaving enough room at the top edges to accommodate insulation on the lid.
Add in extra insulation I found in Betty's garage from some meal prep service.
Cut it level with the styrofoam.
Cut another piece of the meal prep insulation to cover the top of the crate.
Cut and measure scrap wood for a lid. Glue and clamp it together. Leave it for the day to dry.
Experiment with making leather hinges. Decide against it.
Try hinges in whatever way they'll work. Yes. Even if that means installing them incorrectly and upside down like this.
Apply white or wood glue to the top piece of cardboard insulation.
Spread it right to the edges.
Close the lid and let it sit for a few minutes until the glue sets a bit.
Open the lid - the insulation layer will now be glued in the perfect position under the lid. Flip everything over so you can add weight to the insulation layer and leave it so the glue can dry for a few hours.
Add a chest chain to stop the lid from opening so far it puts strain on the hinges and soft wood.
Ready to party like it's 1929.
Final Step
The last thing I did was condition the wood with my beeswax & mineral oil Board Butter. You can see the difference it makes on the wood.
It's my preferred finish for raw wood.
The first delivery went off without a hitch. Or a hitching post.
I plan to continue working my way backwards through time with the pinnacle being this Christmas when I ask Betty for a cow.
Now if you'll excuse me I have to go calico shopping. Bonnets don't just make themselves.
I must point out my passion for your generosity supporting people that really want assistance with your subject matter. Your real commitment to getting the solution around appears to be particularly valuable and have truly allowed girls much like me to attain their targets. This warm and helpful advice means so much to me and especially to my office colleagues. Best wishes; from all of us.
SUCH wonderful writing. Thank you. It really did mean a lot on this particular day and after this particular week.
OMG! SO jealous of your cold box!
You rock Karen
I can’t wait to watch you clean up cow poop in your yard 🐄😂
You are too cool for school! Love it.
In a family of six kids, three to a bedroom, there was never any possibility for quiet reflection. It so happened that I was a born insomniac, so I carved out that time for myself. I may have started earlier, but I distinctly remember when I was four-years-old I routinely waited till my two older sisters (the last ones asleep in the house) finally began to snore, then crept out of bed to sit in our tiny living room between the overstuffed chair and the wall. Just to think.
In Southern California, it was often warm enough even in the middle of the night to go outdoors, so I took to doing that and it was much better. Nearly every night I snuck out to sit on our front steps until I heard the milk truck at 4 a.m., with its clinking glass bottles, stopping at houses down the street. That was my cue to sneak back inside and into bed before the adults in the family awoke at the sound of delivery to our house. I did that for years and was never caught.
In the 1970s and early '80s, when our teenagers used up milk like you hope your kids will, we had milk delivery at our home in Northern California. But it came in waxed cartons, and never seemed the same.
Great story! Thanks for sharing it!
I’m dying to see the bonnet🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
We still had home milk delivery in the 60s in Charleston. Also butter and eggs. It was a wonderful service and very healthy and tasty milk. There are very few family dairy farms left to offer such a service. I’m glad you have one.
That's a beautiful thing, Karen! So much nicer than a plastic cooler. Throughout the '90s, I lived in the north of England where milk was delivered daily. I used to love to hear the battery-powered milk float and the rattle-rattle, clink-clink of the bottles each morning. A box like yours would've been handy since there was always a good chance our local birds would peck open the bottles before we collected them.
I live in an extremely hot area of California that gets no rain, so I'm going to make one of these adorable milk crates and use it on the back porch as a side table and cooler for my more adult beverages. I'm redecorating the back porch now, so the timing couldn't be more perfect! Thanks!!!
I didn't even think of that, that's a great use for it! ~ karen
So, you're taking something wholesome and using it for decadence. You're my kind of people. Thanks for the idea, since we don't have dairy deliveries around my home any more, but we do have a perfect place on my patio for such a piece of useful art. Between Karen and you, I sense a lot of these cropping up as summer approaches.