In decades past, home delivery of dairy products was the way of the world. At night or early in the morning, the milkman would come to the door and drop off your supply of milk, and possibly eggs as well. With the advent of convenient and somewhat cheap refrigeration, all of that changed. Milk didn’t need to be delivered daily, as it wouldn’t spoil as quickly when kept cool, and slowly the milkman was relegated to the history books. While some communities around the country still have milk delivery, Louisville’s last milkmen vanished in the 1970s - but one company has brought the model back - Ehrler’s Micro Dairy.
Ehrler’s Dairy was a Louisville-based company with a history going back all the way to 1867. The Ehrler brothers, one of whom owned a dairy farm, and the other a truck, partnered up to deliver local and fresh dairy products, and continued to do so up until the 1970s. After a forty year hiatus, Bob Ehrler resurrected the business as a distribution company for local artisan producers of dairy and other perishable goods. “We started out in June 2012 with about nine customers,” he says. “Now we’re up to around 250.”
Signing up for home delivery is simple - on you can create an account, store a credit card number for recurring billing, and create a weekly order that shows up in the wee hours of the morning on the day your area is scheduled. Ehrler and his team work tirelessly to stock up weekly and distribute Wednesday through Saturday, hitting the east side of Louisville, downtown and part of the south side - and even going as far as Oldham County. The deliveries happen overnight, with the team starting at 11 p.m. and ending by around 7 a.m. the next morning. Your order arrives in a cooler left on your porch, which you leave out the following week for retrieval.
Ehrler’s stocks an impressive array of products - from milk to selections from Lotsa Pasta, Blue Dog Bakery bread, coffee, and a variety of artisan cheeses. “We want to be the distributor for small scale, artisan and locally produced products,” Bob says, and it shows. By bringing back a classic tradition like home dairy deliver, Ehrler and his team are bringing back a part of history - and where better to do in than in Louisville?
Photo courtesy of Ehrler’s Micro Dairy
