I’ve had a good start for the current year of 2023.
I was invited and I attended the creamery association every decade meeting in the third year of the decade prior to high noon the 31st of January.
Translated to the exact date of meeting high noon, January 2, 2023 for this decade.
The qualification to be invited was to have delivered milk to one of, at that time, creameries business in Minnesota counties of Steele, Waseca, Mower, or Freeborn. Through my parents and grandparents I’ve helped deliver milk to the following creamers, Otisco, Lemond, St. Olaf, Berlin and Hope.
This decade's meeting was held in “Mas-Cow,” MN. The reason the meeting was held there was a “Play on words,” and “That’s no bull.”
Much reminiscing was done as each attendee was asked to tell at least one true factual event of a creamery they had delivered milk to.
Following are the true factual stories I told:
After delivering milk to the creamery in Hope, my Irish grandfather took me to a tavern in Hope. There I learned how to sprinkle salt from a bar salt shaker into a niche formed by your thumb and first finger to add a little salt to your tap beer as you drank it!!
When we delivered milk to the creamery in Lemond, it was a must to time it such that the Lemond grocery store was open to get an ice cream treat.
The creamery on the shore of St. Olaf Lake suddenly lost it’s boiler in the middle of the winter. Milk was hauled to nearby creameries until a new boiler could be installed. The new boiler was installed and St. Olaf Creamery now
had an extra non-working boiler. Being as how the board of directors were very sharp Norwegians, the extra non-working boiler problem was solved very easily. It was hauled out on the ice at St. Olaf and left there. The generator now rests on the bottom in about 18 feet of water on state owned land.
As time went by the dairy industry went through many changes. Of all the old creameries in Minnesota, I’m aware of only one currently operating and that is the Hope Creamery owned by Victor Mrotz in the making of the very popular Hope butter.
Many of the creamery buildings were converted to other uses. For ex-
ample: a restaurant, a home, some type of supply store, a storage building, a museum, a repair store etc. For example, Otisco Creamery was at one time a very nice supper club. (I’ve attended new Richland class reunions with the waitress being my sister-in-law in the former creamery in down-town Otisco.)
My norwegian grandfather had the unusual ability to find the exact spot where he unwanted to fish on the St. Olaf Lake. He could find the sunken boiler by using where two trees on the shore, one from the north, one from the west, made an imaginary right angle to locate the boiler. Many times we only kept the bigger fish.
P.S. In case you’re wondering the time of the creamery association meeting being prior to high noon in January was:
Dairy farmers were the least busy at that time.
Big overalls never got tight around the waist with a full tummy.
A full tummy nap was 3-4 p.m.