Milk and honey (guilt free)

Most Brits and other folk of Anglo-Saxon stock complain bitterly of the sterilized, long-life milk which tops up cafés con leche in Spain, or, still lukewarm from the supply of Tetra Briks in your larder, provides a suspiciously insipid pool for your flakes to float in. So do I. But what was more disturbing for me was the amount of packaging I started to feel responsible for when I moved to Spain. You can get "fresh" (simply pasteurized) milk in many supermarkets, but it still comes in a carton or a plastic bottle. In a household where two or three liters are absorbed on a daily basis, the guilt factor piles high for someone who "likes to think he is green... at heart."

In the UK, it is still possible to have milk delivered on the doorstep in good old glass bottles, which are collected for reuse the next day. My most recent experience of that, in London, was that what used to be as British as a back-alley dance scene from Billy Elliot had become a pricey "lifestyle choice," basically because very few people were now choosing it. As a consequence, gone was the near-silent, low-emission (it does have to be charged) milk float, that whirring, gently clinking companion of the dawn, and in was a diesel-fueled harbinger of the rush hour. The milk was reliably fresh on the doorstep, but it was hard to feel reassured that the household carbon footprint was shrinking, given the number of miles that little truck had to do to empty its load.

But back in Madrid mivavca has an answer. Straight from the family farm 50 kilometers north of the capital, the company dispenses milk from its own machines. You can buy an empty bottle (glass or plastic) if you come empty-handed, reuse them next time around or bring your own Aquarius container - but make sure it's a liter; that's how this fresh milk comes out when you press the green button: 1 liter for 1 euro.

Fed up with the shockingly low farm-gate price for milk, dairy farmer Álvaro de Miguel decided two years ago to keep back some of his output and take over the whole process himself, from cow to mouth. He got the idea of the vending machines after seeing a similar venture in Italy. But the switch was expensive. The pasteurizing equipment alone cost 30,000 euros, with more money required to fit out a suitable building to house it on the family farm near Navalafuente in the Madrid sierra, where he keeps 200 cows outdoors, except for milking time: "Cows are much better off loose than in closed barns," De Miguel says, adding that most dairy cows in Spain are kept indoors in cubicles all year round as "there isn't enough pasture to feed them outdoors." He means there isn't rich enough pasture to keep a large enough number of cows in one compact space to make the venture profitable, because the wholesale price is too low for farmers, and too low for the poor cows to roam in a field. But milk, however tasteless, is cheap.

Back in the 1960s and 70s, de Miguel recalls, you could get traditonal milk delivered to the doorstep. "We are fighting so that fresh milk makes a comeback," he says. But mivaca is a small enterprise, and there's a good chance you won't have a machine or a supplier (Sánchez Romero supermarkets are a client) nearby. Good luck if you do!

With honey, however, the problem of perishability does not exist, and I have found a supplier where they are more than happy to refill your pot to save on waste. Casa Pajuelo at number 95 Calle Atocha is a buzzing hive of amiability and, more importantly, a place to find a mind-boggling array of different honeys and other natural products such as herbal infusions and spices. My favorite so far is chestnut (castaño) honey, which is almost caramel-sweet like maple syrup. But the 'brezo' is amazing in a tangier way and the Holm oak is another aromatic favorite. All of Pajuelo's inexpensive honeys are delicious and the taste is sweeter still when it feels like you are doing the right thing.

 

Comments

[Publicado por: El de abajo abajo]

@Rosa

A wether gives no milk. They're actually castrated rams.

[Publicado por: Rosa]

Mr. Kinuyo, 1st of all, let me apreciate the way you express your information (already known). Secondly, I'd like to point out that what I complained about was someone else's way to express his opinion, in my opinion, in a totally unecessary rude way.
Wether milk is basic or not, that someone asks for better quality (and less harmful with the environment) in food, should not be used to insult that person.

[Publicado por: Kinuyo]

Rosa, milk is not so basic as you seem to think: hundreds of millions in China and Japan never drink milk nor eat milk derivatives, such as yoghourt, butter or cheese and are adequately fed and healthy. In fact, a certain proportion of people become in adulthood incapable to digest and metabolize lactose, a sugar present in milk, due to a deficiency in the production of lactasa, the enzyme that breaks down lactose during the digestive process. This proportion is of less tan 10% of adults in the north of Europe and climbs up to more tan 90% in some asian and african regions.

[Publicado por: El de abajo abajo]

So gren at heart you might as well buy yaself a cow and keep her company. What? You've already done that? She's Spanish? You married her?

@Go home - You go fuck yourself, wanker.

[Publicado por: Maria]

Yo soy de Madrid, pero desde hace 11 años vivo fuera y después de pasar por Holanda, Alemania e Italia y disfrutar diariamente de la leche fresca y de calidad, cada vez que vuelvo a España me doy cuenta del desastre lechero que tenemos allí. Algunas marcas (ej. Priegola) se salvan, pero el resto.... es realmente un desastre. Muchas veces pienso que en España la gente deja de tomar leche (sola) y miel por la mala calidad de la oferta standard.

[Publicado por: Rosa]

"Go home", esto es una columna personal, no es una editorial, asi que si al Sr. no le gusta la leche, tiene todo el derecho y para eso esta este sitio. Ademas tiene razon en lo que dice sobre la leche. A mi me gusta la leche de Espagna porque me he acostumbrado, pero reconozco que la que tomaba de pequeña (directamente de la vaca en mi pueblo) estaba mucho mas buena. Y es cierto, que ademas se contamina un montón. No es normal que una persona que aboga por leche (alimento básico) de mejor calidad, le digamos que se vaya a su casa. No nos esta intentado vender la suya. No cree Ud.?
Paz,

[Publicado por: Vane]

I like the post! I do not live in Madrid now, but I think is a great idea...and yes...we are far away comparing to other countries in "enviroment"!

[Publicado por: go home]

Yes, yes Spain has all defects in the world. For example we have the nuclear bomb but we are sure this cannot contaminate. And we have several petrol companies that are literally stealing all the oil from third world countries with the help of dictatorships...and...oops, excuse me, did I write Spain in my first sentence? Sorry, sorry, I meant UK. Hypocrites. Brits go home.

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[Publicado por: custom dissertation]

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