My Grandmother told me that the first year of making ice cream was a learning experience.  My Grandfather built up an inventory of ice cream, which was sold on the 4^th of July.  With this money, he built a new creamery on Green Street in downtown Athens.  Not only did he make ice cream, but he installed the first milk pasteurizer between Knoxville and Chattanooga.  The high quality of both his milk and ice cream made the business successful from the start.  The ice cream business covered East Tennessee, Western North Carolina and the North Georgia mountains.  Customers dipped bulk ice cream and sold novelties.  The milk business was much more localized – mainly glass quart bottles for home delivery.

My Grandfather was both a successful farmer and business man.  He was also a generous person, who gave away buttermilk and other items to people during the great depression.  By the time of his death, the farm had three large dairy barns and over a hundred Jersey cows.  The creamery also purchased milk from thirty-four other farms.  Daily milk processing was over four hundred gallons and annual ice cream sales were over 60,000 gallons.  Weekly payroll was nearly $500 for the thirty employees.  There were five ice cream trucks and three milk trucks.

We’ve already mentioned eating ice cream at the St. Louis fair as a reason for getting into the dairy business, but something else he did changed the focus of the family farm.  You see, my Great Grandfather’s principal business was horses and mules.  My Grandfather came home from college with a Model A Ford!  Time to focus on Jersey cows and the dairy industry. 

Hi, I'm Tiffany, and I work in Consumer Affairs with Jan.  One of the best parts about my job is hearing funny stories from Mayfield fans.  You never know when you're going to hear one that brightens your day and maybe even add a little laughter.  I recently received an e-mail from a customer who was looking for Hog Heaven.  Unfortunately, it is discontinued and I had to break the bad news to her.  Fortunately though, she took the upset in stride and her response back to me was a story that I want to share with you all...

I must run with Ice Cream aficionados!  My son, when he was about 15, told me to speed up to catch up with a Mayfield truck.  He climbed up out of the window and yelled "Pull over.  I've got a spoon and I'm not afraid to use it!" while he pointed his spoon at them!  Then one day, my friend and I pulled into a gas station where we saw a Mayfield truck, and (although she is tiny) she said "Pull up by him, I am pretty sure we can take him!"  I wondered how many people think the same thing when they see a Mayfield truck.

We wonder too!  Do you get an overwhelming urge to do something silly when you spot one of our bright yellow trucks?  Tell us your story.  We would love to hear it!

Tiffany

Put Your Best Dairy Recipes to the Test in the Mix It Up With Mayfield Recipe Contest

The Mayfield Recipe of the Month Club is your best source for creative, easy recipes that satisfy your family and always include delicious Mayfield dairy products.

Now, you can join the club and enter your best dairy recipes for a chance to win fabulous prizes for the discerning home chef.

It’s the time of year when I get real excited here at Mayfield. New items? Producing new commercials? The launch of feature flavors? Well, “yes” to all the above, but the real source of my fervor is…the Super Bowl!

Since 1979, I’ve made attending the World Championship my goal and annual vacation. Following Super Bowl XL last year in Detroit, I’ve been able to say I’ve attended in person half of all Super Bowls ever played. Ranging from SB XIII, where I saw Terry Bradshaw carve up the Dallas defense to last year’s magical run of the Pittsburgh Steelers, these games have provided this sports junkie with a lifetime of memories.

As a graduate of the University of Tennessee, I’m especially jazzed about this year’s matchup because it features former Volunteer Peyton Manning. Manning will always be the “favorite son” of Vol fans because he opted out of entering the NFL draft after his junior season. Keeping my fingers crossed for him.

See you in Miami!

Alan

The founder of Mayfield Dairy Farms is my grandfather and I want to share with you a little bit about him in my next couple of blogs. I hope you enjoy…

Even though my Great Grandfather (1853-1941) may have sold milk and butter as early as the 1880’s, it is my Grandfather, T. B. Mayfield, Jr. (1888-1937), who we consider the founder of Mayfield Dairy Farms.  I never knew my Grandfather, as he died young, before age fifty, which would be twelve years before I was born.  I’ll try to relate what I do know of him, from memory of things my Grandmother said, and from some of my Father’s remembrances and writings.  There are very few pictures of my Grandfather, and those we have shown him always wearing a hat.

T. B. Mayfield, Jr. (Brient) stood 5’10 ½”, medium build with grey eyes and dark brown hair.  I know from my Father’s writings that “he studied mechanical and electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee.  He understood how simple machines worked and he could fix almost anything.  He was a great teacher who taught several ordinary workers to be good mechanics.  He loved Jersey cows and, while showing Jersey cows at the St. Louis Fair around 1910, he ate his first ice cream cone and decided he wanted to be in the ice cream business.  He had a great vision of the future, which included a 4-lane highway from Knoxville to Chattanooga and how Athens (down in the country where the cows are) was the right location to serve these growing markets.”

During the period from 1910 to 1923, my Grandfather was a partner with his father and together they farmed the 824-acre family dairy farm.  He married Goldie Denton Mayfield (1898-1993) in 1918 and they had four children – two boys and two girls.  In 1913, he built a spring house that used a constant flow of cold spring water pumped by a hydraulic ram.  (This was before electricity was available.)  At age 35, in 1923, he purchased an existing ice cream business that was located in the Athens Ice Plant.

Eddie here. You usually hear about how Mayfield products are made from me, but I’ve got something a little different for you this month. Don’t worry, that inside look into life as a plant manager is not lost forever, I just wanted to give you a glimpse into my life as a…

I was inspired by a book called Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer about his climb up Mt. Everest. Yes, inspired to climb a mountain and not inspired to avoid climbing a mountain! So, with that inspiration, I set out to climb Mt. Rainier. At 14,411 feet, Mt. Rainier is the tallest peak in Washington and the most heavily glaciated peak in the contiguous United States. Yeah, and pretty dangerous, too!

Well, I wasn’t going to do this alone, so I shared my goal with Scott Watson and got him suckered into it. We have more in common than just both being plant managers for Mayfield! We began by training in December 2003 by running, weight training and taking long hikes in the Smoky Mountains carrying 45-pound backpacks!

It was on May 12 that we arrived in Washington. The next day, along with 12 other climbers, we began our hike at 5,000 feet. With a deep snow and a 30-degree pitch up the mountain, the journey of 4.5 miles took six hours. When we reached the base camp at 10,000 feet, 11 climbers decided to continue the climb. Stay tuned to see if Scott and I were among them…

Eddie

                         ME                                       SCOTT

If you like coffee flavored ice cream, you should try our new one.  It’s called Coffee House Fudge and it’s only available in our Select 2-piece package.  This product is actually a reformulation of our old Jamocha Fudge, except with a much better flavor.  It took some tweaking, but with the help from our friends at Virginia Dare we finally came up with the combination of coffee flavors that we were looking for.  It’s simply a smooth coffee flavored ice cream with a ribbon of chocolate fudge running through it. 

Scott

Holy Cow!  I just did a blog last Friday and something newsworthy is happening today.  I usually post one blog a month, but this is sort of special.  There is a study being released today about eating trends.  It made sense to write something about it since it mentions milk. 

To prepare myself to write about this, I went to the website.  It covers consumption trends and the fact that 22% of the calories we consume are liquid.  It goes into great detail and has some very interesting information.  My conclusion is that those who are interested would be better served if they went direct to the website instead of me trying to repeat what is there.  The website is www.thinkaboutyourdrink.com.