Hook & Son – London

This bottle with its busy frontage reminds me of the ’80s. Perhaps the milk provided to me in primary school was contained in a similar bottle with this particular shade of blue—anyway, enough of that. Besides the nostalgic blue hue, I enjoyed reading the back of the bottle where Jill, the half Holstein Friesian and have Norwegian Red cow is given a shout out. A nice touch.

Hook and Son milk come from Hailsham in East Sussex. Hailsham has a long history of agriculture, and the town appears in the Domesday Book where it is named, Hamelesham. Interestingly in the 13th Century, the town was referred to as Aylesham and later still Haylesham. Fortunately for you and me, the evolution of the town’s name has settled, and we are sure that the spelling is Hailsham. For now.

The ladies that produce the milk spend their lives at Longley’s Farm, an organic farm run by a father and son team. From spring to autumn, the cows graze on the clover rich grass, and as winter bites, they move indoors where they enjoy a diet of homegrown organic grass silage and a mixture of organic sunflower, linseed, pea, bean and molasses. 

I must confess that this bottle and its sister Hook and Son bottles were collected from Borough Market in London, where Hook and Son have a small stand in an area of the market devoted to fresh produce. 

Did you know that Borough Market has existed in one form or another since the 12th Century? I didn’t either, but now we do. Moving on.

///rating.neck.waddled