Many readers of this magazine will remember the days when every town and many villages had their own bakery, butchers and virtually all had their own milkman who delivered milk that had been produced by the local herd of dairy cows that very morning.
 
In the course of time many of these aspects of life have disappeared - in the name of progress, or so we are told.
 
However, the need to diversify and produce additional income streams in recent years has resulted in the return of locally sourced fresh milk - just the way it used to be.
 
I refer of course to the milk vending machines that are appearing on the roadside in a number of places across the county - and doesn’t the fresh milk that is dispensed from them enhance the taste of your morning cereal or porridge and the custard that it makes is just so much better.
 
I have to confess to being a long time convert to buying milk from these roadside vending machines and to that end I keep a couple of litre sized glass bottles in the car boot ready to be filled when I next pass a machine.
 
Delicious milk shakes are also available for those who prefer flavoured milk and on many of the occasions that I have called in for a fill up there is a family selecting their favourite flavour of milk shake.
 
The vending machine that I most frequently use is located at West Lyng alongside the A361 outside of Stagg Farm, where the herd of cows who produce the milk are sometimes to be seen causing a brief delay to the traffic, as they make their way from the fields to the milking parlour which is situated close by.
 
The vending facility at Stagg Farm is just one of the various locations where Milk from the Moor is available and another that is very popular is located in Clarks Village at Street.
 
Milk from the Moors is the brainchild of Fowlers Plot Farm at Chedzoy who back in early 2019 looked into ways of selling their milk direct to the public in order to try to cut out the middle man, increasing the amount they were paid for their product.
 
Then when Coronavirus came along the reduction in demand from the hospitality sector meant that they had to throw some of their milk away, and it was this that led them investing in a milk vending machine to sell direct to the public.
 
From this beginning Milk from the Moors has grown and there are several outlets around the area.
 
So why is it that Milk from the Moors tastes so much better than what is bought from the supermarkets?
 
It is not heavily processed and is gently pasteurised to kill any bacteria and non-homogenised so the cream rises to the top just like it should do, and always used to!
 
Quite apart from the taste, the milk is fresh from the cows on a daily basis, there are zero food miles and coming from just one source is completely traceable. In addition, the milk is sold in reusable glass bottles so no recycling issues.
 
In addition to Milk from the Moors there are a number of other dairy farmers who are selling their produce direct to the public from vending machines all across Somerset so why not find out where your nearest is and start to use it.