Not Missing, Just Lonely: Welsh Faces on Milk Jugs

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

Sometimes your local grocery store seems to have everything you want - a loaf of bread, a carton of milk, a potential date. Yes, a potential date - if you're shopping in Great Britain.

In North Wales, five lonely, single dairy farmers have put their pictures on thousands of plastic milk jugs - three women, two men. The stickers ask fancy a farmer? Or in Welsh -

Ms. ELEN MORRIS: (Foreign language spoken)

BLOCK: And they were out just in time for St. Dwynwen's Day, the Welsh version of Valentine's Day. Elen Morris is one of the workers from the Calon Wen Organic Milk Coop, who slapped her mug on the milk jugs.

Ms. MORRIS: So we went to the creamery and we have to have a two-hour induction. We have those safety regulations. And we have to wear those funny hats and white coats and so on. We were basically on this stage in the production line and we put them on manually, those bottles. And we try and keep up with the most bottles.

BLOCK: Keep up with them as they come by on the conveyor belt?

Ms. MORRIS: Yeah. They were going by pretty fast.

BLOCK: It sounds sort of like a Charlie Chaplin movie.

Ms. MORRIS: Yeah, well, I think the workers there were having quite a laugh watching.

BLOCK: Okay. So the bottles go out from the creamery. They go to a store. And say, someone were to pick it up and say, she looks great. I want to give her a call. What would they do?

Ms. MORRIS: In the stickers there is the Web site pishyn.com, and then, you can go to the English version, which is pishynwales.com. They can see our profiles there and they can e-mail us from there. And say something, they can try and set something up.

BLOCK: Well, I think I'm checking you out. I see a photograph. Are you blonde and you have a nice big smile?

Ms. MORRIS: Well, I'm blonde. Yeah.

BLOCK: I don't see what your profile is. What did you say in your profile?

Ms. MORRIS: Well, I'm basically am looking for an easygoing guy, set for a laugh and so on. And basically, I'm 23. I just come back from traveling and just want to relax myself.

BLOCK: Now, Elen, how many people live in your town?

Ms. MORRIS: Around 10,000 in the local town, which is (unintelligible). But in the village, 400 or 500, maybe. Maybe a bit more.

BLOCK: So if you were looking for a date, tonight, say, Friday night, you pretty much know who's available?

Ms. MORRIS: Oh, yeah. I'd say so.

BLOCK: Any idea is the pool is a bit too small?

Ms. MORRIS: Possibly, yeah. That's one of the other reasons we've put - Calon Wen is kind of half (unintelligible) of Wales, and that's one way of sort of trying to get people together and also stay in the countryside, because there's just a lot of migration towards the city where there's more jobs.

BLOCK: What sort of response have you gotten to all this, so far, Elen?

Ms. MORRIS: I haven't had a chance to check my e-mails yet. But the other guys are being asked in about somewhere. I'll be able to check them, hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

BLOCK: You know, I'm imagining a conversation, you know, five, six years from now, well, honey, I met your mom on a milk bottle.

Ms. MORRIS: Oh, my God. It'd be a bit (unintelligible), wouldn't it?

BLOCK: Well, you do what you have to do.

Elen Morris, thanks very much. Good luck.

Ms. MORRIS: Thank you.

BLOCK: Elen Morris works at the Calon Wen Dairy Coop in North Wales...COST:

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