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The milkman, Hurtle Tiller, a dairy farmer whose farm was virtually next to the township of Crystal Brook, delivered milk twice a day seven days a week rain, hail or shine.
He had a quirky habit of yodelling at the front door after measuring a few pints of milk from a two gallon can into our billy, to indicate that the milk had arrived in time for breakfast.
It would have been only an hour or two from the cow to our billy and the milk was still warm when we poured it on to our Weetbix or Cornflakes. (That's right, Weetbix or Cornflakes were around even then in the early 1950's.) And, of course, there was a generous amount of cream on top of that beautiful rich Raw Milk.
Thanks go to Ruth Combe for the photograph of her dad's milk cart and the snippets of history that she recalled from her early years in Crystal Brook. Ruth still lives in the mid-north at Laura, where she and her husband Warren purchased their first 30 acres, starting off as dairy farmers way back in the early 1960's. At that time there were 40 dairy farmers in the Laura district, but sadly, today none of those businesses remain. Their milk was then either delivered to the local Laura residents, or went to the local Golden North factory.
Golden North's milk now comes from who knows where? Those 40 Laura dairy farmers have all been forced into closure since the 1994 deregulation of the dairy industry, and the subsequent dominance of the two supermarkets. Some surviving dairy farmers in other regions are struggling to run a viable dairy farm with herds of more than a thousand cows.
The Use By dates on the myriad of varieties of milk also tell an interesting story. If you happen to walk past the dairy cabinet in an Adelaide Supermarket, keep in mind that all pasteurised milk is currently manufactured with the use by date 16 days forward. See if you can spot any product (Home Brand included) with better than 11 days to its use by date? If you can, it will be very much a rare occurrence. This means that it now takes at least 5 days to get the milk from the processors on to the shelf for you to buy.
Raw milk the old fashioned way from Moo View, gets to you in metropolitan Adelaide almost as fresh as Hurtle Tiller's did way back in the 1950's. Back then refrigeration was almost a luxury. Milk was not refrigerated by the dairy farmer, but today, Moo View Raw Milk is kept refrigerated from the udder to your fridge and it is exactly the same product that Hurtle delivered in Crystal Brook all those years ago. Back then the milk only had to last a day, but today with the aid of good refrigeration, it lasts better than a week. So why kill off all the goodness with pasteurisation?
Our customers here in Adelaide have now had access to Moo View Raw Milk for twelve months and there are many happy families who enjoy milk the old fashioned healthy way. There is really nothing quite like it. Our son Craig and his wife Olivia and their large family, Abbie (our daughter), Lesley and I (Peter) all drink Raw Milk. It has given me a new lease of life.
Find out more about Moo View and their Cow Share Program so that you can turn the clock back and feed your family with Real Milk, just like previous generations enjoyed in the good old days.
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