Cones and Creameries: 
Kingdom Creamery

Dear Fellow Vermonter,

Vermont is home to more than 6,500 farms, including some 560 dairy farms. And while that number is drastically smaller than it once was when dairy cows dotted much of the landscape, we still have some incredible farms producing truly remarkable products.

One of those farms is Kingdom Creamery in East Hardwick, where the Michaud family has been churning out high-quality milk for three generations. Today, that milk becomes delicious ice cream, packaged under their own name, as well as soft-serve mix that is used at dozens of creemee stands across our state. Kingdom Creamery has truly become a statewide hit.

We sat down to talk with Leslie Michaud, who explained the history of their farm, their decision to take on ice cream production and how they’re working to keep the farm going for the next generation. Read on to hear their story. To share your favorite creemee spot CLICK HERE!!

Sincerely,

(This interview has been edited for clarity and length.)

Q: Can you tell us about the history of your farm? 

My father-in-law was born in Quebec and his parents saw an advertisement in the paper for a dairy farm for sale in Vermont. They came here and purchased one side of the road and their cousins purchased the other side of the road. My father-in-law was just a young boy and he came to Vermont in the early 1950s. He grew up on this farm. It was a maple and dairy farm. When he graduated from high school, the barn burned, and his father asked if he wanted to keep farming and he said yes. So, they built another barn. They had a successful maple business, and dairy. [They] raised three sons here on the farm, and all of them are in still in the dairy business.

Q: Can you explain what it was like getting into the ice cream business as a dairy farmer?

In 2009, the milk prices were quite poor, and we decided we had to do something. That meant to diversify. So, we did a lot of work to come up with a business plan and did market research. We looked at trends and we decided that this area was a little saturated with cheese and that ice cream would be a good option. [Our ice cream production] building was a hayfield, and we built the creamery right here across the road from the dairy farm. Everyone has a part at the creamery in the family, and everybody has to work together.

At one point — through COVID — we bottled milk. We had a home delivery service to keep the business running and help local customers get dairy products. We said we're bringing back the milk man.

Now, a significant part of what we do is we are a wholesale manufacturer of ice cream mixes for other ice cream companies in New England. So there are a lot of other companies that source their base mixes from our milk. Silloway Maple, Elmore Store, Tunbridge Fair, the Orange County Sugar makers — they put their own maple syrup in and use our creemee mix base. 

Q: Your milk is used at many of Vermonters' favorite creemee spots across the state. What goes into making an excellent creemee? 

It does come down to the fat content, but it also comes down to the freshness and the quality of the milk. Milk that has been milked last night or this morning is now being turned into ice cream mix or creemees today. So, it's a pretty short turnaround there. And it is a perishable product, so you have to treat it right. It's all important to make that high-quality Vermont dairy product for our customers and for Vermonters. 

It really takes a lot to make the milk and cream that goes into that ice cream cone. It is a labor of love around here. We work extremely hard to make a quality product. I don’t think people realize what it takes. People just go and buy a creemee for four or five bucks and off they go. And really, we've invested our whole lives into this and it's a lot of work.

Q: Did all four of your sons grow up working on the farm? 
 
All four of our sons are very involved at the dairy and help out whenever they can. They’re committed. They’ve grown up in it. They seem to love what they do. I always wanted to raise my children on a farm, and we're proud of what they know and how they've grown up. Now, it'll be their choice to decide what they want to do in the future. I feel extremely lucky and extremely proud of what our kids have accomplished and what they know about agriculture and the work they put in — not only on the farm, but through 4-H and other agricultural programs. They're very invested, and we're really proud of how we've raised them and the fact that they were able to grow up on a farm here and stay well invested in it.

TO SHARE YOUR FAVORITE CREEMEE SPOT CLICK HERE!