Where Does Your Milk Come From?

We found that the Latteria is close enough for us to walk to from our house!
Sometimes Adam and I walk over in the mornings to pick up our milk. 

      Do you know? Because we do! We, and the local Italians, get our milk from a place called the "Latteria". The first time someone informed me where to get the best (and cheapest!) milk, I was rather puzzled. "I'm sorry, did you say you get your milk from a vending machine??" Yes, I had heard them correctly. People around here DO get their milk from a vending machine! They gave me rough directions and I set out to find this hidden gem.
      For a brief moment, as I was driving down a gravel road around bushes in search of the milk vending machine, I thought possibly this was some sort of joke, but at the end of the road I arrived at a series of buildings, and lo and behold in the front of them were vending machines with a paint chipped sign overhead indicating that I had indeed reached the Latteria. It looked abandoned and old at the time I first went, and I doubted how "fresh" this milk was. However I returned on another day with my husband, and we found the place quite active. We purchased a few bottles from the bottle machine, and then procured milk from the milk machine. Let me tell you, this milk is good! Raw and fresh!

Here is the milk machine!!! Milk here currently costs 80 euro cents a liter.
One puts in their Euro coins and presses the start/stop button as necessary. 

The last time I went there (a few days ago when these pictures were taken), there was a line of Italian locals in front of me, all with the various forms of containers for the milk. The woman in very front had a large wicker basket with various sized glass bottles for her milk. The woman behind her simply had one giant glass jug for her milk. And the man behind her had plastic bottles like mine. It was interesting to see and it made me feel a part of the local culture to be obtaining milk with them.

Next to the milk machine is another vending machine with butter and cheeses made locally, right there on site. And yes, my hubby and I have worked our way down all the cheese options and they are all quite delicious. Our favorites being the various ages of Montasio. (Click here for a brief paragraph about it's awesomeness: Montasio Cheese)

If you walk around the small premise, you can see where all the cows are housed and watch them eat and socialize. I have gotten to watch them be loaded onto the milking station and washed before being pumped. I have also gotten to observe the machines in action as they pump the milk from the cows and move to various locations in the facility. How cool! I feel like I watched the process from start to finish and I know exactly what's in my milk. It's a very rich milk, and if you leave it long in the fridge it will start to separate and need a good shake or stir before consuming again, but this is rarely a problem for us as we go through it quick enough. Since our discovery of the milk vending machine at the Latteria, we haven't purchased milk from the grocery store. This option is tastier, cheaper, and more fun! So why go back?

"Hey, is that ours?"