Editorial: Clink of nostalgia may soon return to the street

Back in the day milk men would deliver glass bottles of milk right to your door. Photo / Archive

The rattle of the home delivery milkman's glass bottles used to be a regular sound on urban streets.

So too was the clink of the milk money we'd leave for the delivery boys and girls who ran the streets with a trolley piled with crates.

It seems inconceivable now that we would leave money in our letterboxes, or on the ground, trusting that no one would steal it. But then cartons and plastic took over. They didn't rattle. Times change, home deliveries stopped.

Hukerenui farmer Chris Lethbridge has gone retro though and started bottling milk in glass again.

It comes straight from the vat on his Hukerenui dairy farm and he is hoping sales will soon reach 1000 bottles.

It's unpasteurised, unhomogenised and is a family bottling venture with his wife Pauline and three daughters.

"We wanted to get back to glass because people love it," Mr Lethbridge said. The milk is filtered before bottling and there are sanitation rules.

Mr Lethbridge is making two deliveries weekly to Whangarei business premises.

In March 2016, the Ministry for Primary Industries is expected to relax rules around farm-produced milk of this type.

It could allow home deliveries. In which case, Mr Lethbridge could be responsible for a full circle trend back to glass. Retro milk - cool!