Tread Heavily

Since Monday was a holiday for me and my kindergartener, my wife and I decided to try and find something around town for us all to do. Something that we haven’t done to death (Fernbank or the Atlanta Zoo,) or wouldn’t completely wipe out our budget for the month. We thought about the Georgia Aquarium, but that was a little bit too crowded to take our kids to, especially on a holiday weekend. So my wife did a little Googling around and found the directions to the Mayfield Dairy processing center in Braselton, GA. It is only around 30 minutes away, and sounded like a fun diversion. We didn’t know anything about the brand, other than the ice cream is very good and the milk is very expensive.

When we got there, it was just about time for the next tour. The plant gives free tours every 30 minutes on the days they are open, and they made the call over the intercom for us to head into the theater to begin the tour.

Once inside, we sat and watched a short video about the history of the dairy and what makes their milk different. We learned about a special processing machine that takes out any non-milk flavor that might be in the cow’s milk. Did you know that if a cow eats a lot of onion grass, their milk will start to taste like it? You do now.

I was pretty surprised by what we found out. The milk is only sold in the Southeast region and only in those places where their trucks can reach in a short period of time. I guess that’s why I thought Mayfield only made ice cream. According to the map we saw in the video, they don’t sell Mayfield in the town in SC I am from.

Once the video was over, we were presented with hair nets that everyone had to wear. We even put one on the baby. I was also given a beard net that I had to wear over my face, making me look like a mix between a surgeon and a duck.

The tour itself was rather short, but interesting — if not a little bit disappointing. I really don’t know what I was expecting, but the tour consisted of walking down the hallway and looking into the big windows at the machinery and workers inside. My kids absolutely loved it and just stared at all of the jugs zooming by and the machines feverishly working to keep everything moving smoothly. I was just expecting a more up-close tour like the one we took in 8th grade of the Adluh Flour Company. That said, I would seriously recommend anyone who is in the area to take the 30 mins to stop by and see the tour and the processing center. The guides were extremely nice and the discount ice cream and milk products can’t be beat. You can get a huge scoop of any of their flavors for $1.50!

Here are some things I found out on the tour and trip:

• Mayfield and other dairies get their milk from co-ops and dairy farmers bring their milk directly in from their farms.
• All of the ‘raw’ milk is stored in big silos.
• They turn away any milk that isn’t below 45degrees.
• Mayfield also processes Wal-Mart brand milk, but doesn’t run the milk through their patented processing, and don’t put the milk in the yellow jugs.
• My 2 year old eats more ice cream than his 6 year old brother.
• Some school districts are moving away from paper containers and going to the little milk jugs.
• I really really really like their Birthday Cake flavor.

I started out this post saying that Mayfield milk was very expensive…so why did I not mind my wife spending the extra money to buy that brand? I guess the tour paid off. I have become a fan of Mayfield milk.

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Filed under: Road Trip, Entertainment, Family