Milk Bottle Collection Spans One County

Milk Bottle Collection Spans One County DAIRY EQUIPMENT & IDEAS Butch Shoemaker has milk bottles from 98 dairies in his collection all from a single county in New Jersey Shoemaker has made collecting tidbits of local agricultural history his pastime About 10 years ago he started collecting milk bottles “I collect bottles and anything that goes with them ” says Shoemaker That includes signs bottle carriers and any information he can gather When he started he thought there were probably 40 dairies that used to bottle their own milk in Warren County He was surprised to discover there were 103 Many bottles were given to Shoemaker once word got out about his collection Some were recovered from a local canal that was abandoned in the 1920’s and served as a garbage dump for years His interest in dairies and locally bottled milk started long before he started collecting As a young boy he delivered milk to 2 neighbors as he walked to the bus On the way home he picked up the empties Eventually he worked for a local farmer who bottled his own milk and had a milk route “If I was lucky at times I could go along and help deliver ” says Shoemaker “While some farmers in the 1930’s and 40’s used any old bottle washed it filled it and capped it others had their own bottles with the name of the dairy on it ” Shoemaker previously self-published “White Township Farms The End of An Era ” It is a collection of stories gathered from local farmers that he wrote down by hand and his sister Sandy typed up Initially they had 100 copies printed He also did a 3-part DVD “A Journey Through the Fields” a narrated description of the farms and their stories Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Howard Butch Shoemaker 71 Free Union Rd Belvidere New Jersey 07823 ph 908 310-5680; h shoemaker71@comcast net

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