Cream Cup Dairy ice cream. File photo by Pat Stinson.
By Pat Stinson
BEAR LAKE – Cream Cup Dairy, owned by Ted and Kaylie Brown, has been awarded an innovation grant from the Dairy Business Innovation Alliance (DBIA), a partnership between the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association and the Center for Dairy Research.
A press release from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development stated that DBIA announced 41 grants totaling nearly $4 million for farmstead operations and dairy processing businesses across the Midwest.
Cream Cup Dairy is one of three Michigan companies to be awarded a DBIA grant.
According to the MDARD release, the goal of DBIA’s Dairy Business Builder grant program is “to help support small- to medium-sized dairy businesses to diversify their on-farm activities, create value-added products, enhance dairy by-products, and create or enhance dairy export programs.”
“This was the third time I applied,” Kaylie Brown said of the grant program. “We did ours (grant writing) for ice cream expansion, for a new ice cream machine so we can expand some flavors.”
She explained that Cream Cup Dairy currently offers three flavors all year, with seasonal additions of pumpkin in fall and peppermint at Christmastime. The new machine will enable them to adjust the air content of their ice cream, which changes its density. She said the award monies will also go toward a new pasteurizer.
Brown added that the dollar amount of the award has yet to be determined, dependent upon approval of the cost of the machines they hope to purchase.
Already dairy farmers, Brown said she and her husband purchased Cream Cup Dairy from David and Cheryl Miller in May 2023. The Millers owned and operated the business for more than 25 years. Currently, the Millers milk 18 cows at their farm on Feldhak Road for the Browns, and Brown said that number increases in summer to 20-22.
The Browns began constructing a building last fall to house a new milk production facility. The building is located next to Brown’s Poplar Ridge Orchards’ farm store at 12482 Milarch Road. The store, run by Ted’s mother Lauri, sells the family’s farm-grown fruit and produce, meat, honey, Lauri’s famous pies and the couple’s ice cream ⸺ hand dipped cones and cups, as well as pints and quarts.
According to Lauri Brown, the store will continue to offer “one-stop shopping” for both farm and dairy products. (Read “Brown’s Popular Ridge Orchards opens new Bear Lake area market”, Freshwater Reporter, Sept. 20, 2023.)
No firm date to begin dairy operations at the new location has been set.
The couple’s plans include moving the cows to family property located about a mile away from the new facility. Kaylie Brown said the new building has numerous windows and viewing rooms, and visitors will be able to watch cows being milked by a robotic milking machine and follow the entire milk-making process, including bottling.
“We hope to eventually do wagon rides and offer tours,” she added.
Cream Cup Dairy delivers milk and milk products to 30 retailers from Montague to Traverse City, supplying five Spartan stores, Goodwill, schools and more, according to Brown.
DBIA will be launching another round of the Dairy Business Builder grant in February 2024. For more information on the grant opportunities and DBIA, visit their website.
Read more about Cream Cup Dairy on page 5 of our March 11, 2020 full issue found HERE.
1 Comment
I have been looking for real quality milk for a while and found it at an Olson’s in TC. I am so excited, it tastes amazing and my kids are obsessed, worth the price!