• Rachel Mullis
• Peter Carreiro and his Rise 'n Shine delivery truck

Peter Carreiro roared up in a white refrigerated truck, its sides emblazoned with his company's colorful logo: "Rise 'n Shine ...it's the milkman."

It was a gray morning in February, and I was joining business owner Carreiro to deliver milk the old-fashioned way: in glass bottles, to people's doorsteps.

Home milk delivery reached its zenith well before World War II. The COVID-19 pandemic fueled a boom in home delivery services, but interest waned as businesses reopened. Standing udderly apart is Rise 'n Shine, which has reliably served customers in a dozen-plus towns in and around Chittenden County for almost 20 years.

The back-in-time vibe was strong as we hit our first delivery stop: Officers Row, a huddle of historic brick condos in Colchester's Fort Ethan Allen complex. Carreiro hopped out, grabbing apples, cheese, bagels, frozen veggies, even a package of recyclable paper sandwich bags.

Then he pulled out a bottle of his signature product: milk.

"We have really good milk, and it's the same if I deliver it in plastic or glass," Carreiro said. "But our customers want the glass ... It's just a really wholesome thing."

• Rachel Mullis
• Peter Carreiro delivering food

Rise 'n Shine's milk supplier is Hatchland Farm, a family-run dairy producer and bottler just across the state line in North Haverhill, N.H. It's the closest purveyor of glass-bottled milk that can meet Rise 'n Shine's demand. (A typical customer receives a combo of five glass bottles of milk, cream or chocolate milk per week — more than 250 bottles per year.) And customers rave about the taste.

"This milk actually tastes better than store-bought milk. I don't know what they do differently, but ... it's the real deal," said Max Diem, an Essex Junction customer, as he stepped outside to grab the week's delivery from an insulated cooler he'd put on his front porch.

Carreiro's truck was also stocked with products from Vermont brands such as Klinger's Bread in South Burlington, Cabot Creamery in Waitsfield, Misty Knoll Farms in New Haven, Champlain Orchards in Shoreham and Lewis Creek Farm in Starksboro. Customers can order what they need for the week online, up until the night before delivery.

"It's nice to have [food] dropped off, because these are staples," Diem said. "We used our last egg this morning, and boom, we've got another dozen."

As we continued along the route and navigated icy driveways, Carreiro deftly ran crates of milk and groceries up to front-door coolers. Before leaving, he retrieved the empty glass bottles from the prior week.

"Let's see when it was made ... 1980," he said, showing me the date stamped into one of the bottles. "This company is not even in business anymore."

I was staring at a milk container older than me. It was a reminder that, aside from tasting better, this glass-bottled milk is also less wasteful.

"I have this grandnephew who is very close to us, and every time I throw away plastic ... like, this thing's going to be around past his lifetime," Carreiro said. "We try to use things that are either reusable or recyclable."

If you're not in the market for milk delivery, you can sample the goods at Rise 'n Shine Farm in Charlotte. The former gas station along Route 7 is now a seasonal farmstand guarded by ducks and goats. Carreiro and his wife, Dale, plan to sell homemade creemees there this summer. They won't come in glass, but the milk they're made with sure will.