Everyday, early in the morning when most of Molendam’s inhabitants are fast asleep (except for baker Aad Brakenhoff, who has already lit his oven) the rhythmical tinkling of a scrubbing brush against the inside of a milk churn can be heard over the canal. Dora, Hendricus the milk farmer’s wife, is giving the empty churns a thorough clean. She rinses them with clean water until they shine and then she places them upside down in the wooden rack in front of the milk shop. Shortly afterwards the clip clop of the Frisian horse, blowing in the freezing cold, is heard as it plods slowly into the street, pulling behind it the flat cart fully loaded with milk churns. The driver yawns, unloads the same number of full milk churns as there are empty churns waiting to be loaded, touches his cap and twitches the reigns. Hendricus hauls the churns inside and get down to work straightaway preparing the orders. He transfers the milk into iron buckets with lids, loads them onto the rack on the front of his bike and starts cycling: fifteen litres for the baker, ten litres here, five litres there. In the meantime the first customers are arriving at the shop. Dora measures the “loose milk” into the required amounts with her quart jug and transfers it into the pans the customers have with them.

A lot of people come to buy milk for making porridge at home, such as the miller, Fransiscus Hermensz, who loves custard and oat porridge, which he calls  "sallefiesallefie". He purchases the oats from the grocer, van Tilborgh. Dora once considered mixing the grains into the milk herself to make porridge to sell ready-made. But her husband, Hendricus, saw this a modernism that he wanted nothing to do with. In the spring he does sell “biest”, the first milk given by the cow after calving. This is wonderfully creamy and many people can hardly wait for the cold December months to pass. But before that Christmas still has to be celebrated.