Got Nostalgia? Milk Delivery Returns to Perry Hall

Julie Rozankowski is picky about her dairy products.

She prefers the cows to be growth hormone-free and the milk to be minimally processed and sealed in environmentally-friendly, reusable glass bottles—and, on top of that, she wants it delivered straight to her front door.

Too much to ask? Early last month, the answer would have been "yes." But today, Rozankowski enjoys dairy delivery service to her Perry Hall home once a week.

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Kilby Cream, a dairy farm in Rising Sun in Cecil County, recently opened up dairy delivery service to Baltimore County, starting with residents of Perry Hall, and .

"There is no comparison. It's a different product and you just know it's pure and wholesome," said Rozankowski. "We are ecstatic about it. I keep telling everyone about it and people are taking interest."

Rozankowski, a mom who works as a project coordinator for the Baltimore Convention Center, spent weeks trying to convince the dairy to open delivery service to her neighborhood. Previously, it was available only in parts of Cecil, Kent and Harford counties, as well as a handful of towns in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

"Julie was very persistent," said Megan Coleman, who co-owns Kilby. "I figured we would start with Julie and her family."

The Perry Hall community fits Kilby's target customer base—a high population density with a large number of young families.

"That's the kind of area you want to reach," Coleman said.

Products available for delivery include milk varieties (skim, 2 percent, whole, chocolate and strawberry), egg nog, cream, half-and-half, butter, brown eggs and a rotating selection of ice cream flavors.

A half-gallon of whole milk is $3, while a dozen brown eggs is sold for $2.75. Each order also includes a $2 delivery fee.

Items are more expensive than you'd find at your average grocery store, Coleman said, but compared to premium products at , the price is about the same.

But Rozankowski said she hasn't noticed her overall food budget go up dramatically since switching to home delivery.

"The price hasn't impacted us," she said. "I would spend more if I had to."

Rozankowski claims the milk's flavor and texture makes the biggest difference. "Even for 2 percent, the taste is so much richer," she said.

Coleman said customers are willing to pay more for a cleaner taste, thanks to the glass bottle, which is collected by the delivery man, sanitized and reused. This is less wasteful and one of the farm's many efforts toward environmental sustainability, she said.

The nostalgic value of milk delivery is another selling point, she said.

"We do have customers who are old enough to remember when milk delivery was commonplace," Coleman said.

"I heard from a customer who had gotten a delivery ... who said, 'I think it's so cool that I can say I have a milkman,'" she said.

Perry Hall's last dairy farm that provided home milk delivery was , located along East Joppa Road. It closed in 1982 and was demolished in 1986 to make way for .

Maryland's privately owned dairy farms have fought an uphill battle to stay in business over the past few decades, said Brian Spielman, dairy program manager at the University of Maryland's Central Maryland Research and Educational Center in Clarksville.

But rather than compete with larger corporate operations, many of the state's smaller dairies have begun specializing in higher-end products and services, including home delivery, Spielman said.

"It's a lot more work, but they can actually become more profitable by reaching that niche market," he said.

Spielman added that because smaller dairies are regularly inspected and held to the same standards as larger ones, the products are just as safe.

Rozankowski said she feels a responsibility to support a dairy farm located just about 30 miles away, rather than a corporate conglomerate out of state.

"I haven't yet, but I'd like to take the kids up there," she said. "It would be nice for them to see where their milk comes from."

Would you be willing to pay extra to have dairy products delivered to your door? Did you grow up having a milkman? Tell us in the comments.