The Only Important Post On This Blog

"THE CREAMERY in 1892 offered America's first collegiate instruction in ice cream manufacture, a program that has helped to make Penn State an international center for research in frozen confections. The original Creamery Bldg (1889) housed the nation's earliest extension courses in dairy science. The Creamery moved to Patterson Bldg (1904), Borland Lab (1932, expanded 1960), and the Food Science Bldg (2006), where it was renamed the Berkey Creamery in recognition of philanthropic support."

Yes, that's right. Berkey Creamery, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, has made Penn State an international center of ice cream. This is the kind of Penn State history that we're all really looking for.

The Creamery was first founded in 1865, which is the same year the Civil War ended, which is a really weird timing to think about. When first created, the Creamery was housed in the College Barns, which were a set of actual barns behind Old Main. At the time, Penn State was still primarily an agricultural college, which was the reason for the Creamery's creation in the first place, so the milk that was used and processed at the Creamery came from Penn State's own herds of cows. When the Creamery got its own building in 1889, it started offering "short courses" in dairy, where prospective students could spend about a week learning the basics of dairy work. The short courses soon became wildly popular, to the point that dairy farmers from all around the area began offering milk from their cows when Penn State's cows couldn't keep up with demand.

It must be realized that at this point in the Creamery's history, ice cream wasn't even being produced. The Creamery's primary function was to separate milk from cream and process both of these, hence being called a creamery. Ice cream wasn't sold until 1896, and the Creamery offered its first short courses in ice cream production in 1925. Of course, both became popular very quickly when introduced, because even back then, everybody loved ice cream.

(compliments of Penn State University Archives)

Even as Penn State began to refocus away from agricultural studies and towards new fields of study that were becoming more prominent in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Creamery remained a strong and important part of Penn State. The location did take a while to settle down, though. From its first building, the Creamery moved to the Patterson Building in 1904, then to Borland Laboratory in 1932 (shown in the above picture), and finally to its current location in 2006. This is when it got the name of Berkey Creamery, after Earl and Jeanne Berkey, two former dairy workers who donated $3 million for the new building. The story goes that Jeanne was a dairy science student at Penn State who interned at the dairy plant owned by Earl's family. They got married, ran the plant for years, and decided to give back to the university which played this part in their success.

While shifting around the Penn State campus for all those years, the Creamery never stopped growing. The official website for the Creamery offers plenty of numbers which are interesting if you like numbers. For example, the website says that during the 1980s the Creamery was using 3 million pounds of milk every year. Even considering that nobody normally tries to measure milk in pounds, that is a simply enormous amount of milk, and the amount only increases as more and more people come to Penn State in search of the Creamery's delicious dairy products. And they do come to Penn State, as no other college has a creamery the size of Penn State's.

(compliments of Ben & Jerry's)

The Creamery's impact on the production of dairy outside Penn State must also be acknowledged. Perhaps the greatest thing to come out of the Creamery was the training of Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who would go on to create the popular ice cream company Ben & Jerry's. Both of these entrepreneurs, unable to find success in normal schooling, took part in the Creamery's correspondence courses on the basics of making ice cream in 1977, This led directly to their foundation of Ben & Jerry's, which is now one of the biggest ice cream companies in the world.

Research done in the Food Science Department has led to advances in the production of ice cream and introduction of new flavors that have affected the world market for ice cream and other dairy products. And Penn State alumni and short course students hold positions in ice cream makers throughout America and beyond. So, next time you take a lick of your favorite ice cream flavor, even if it's not one that came right from the Creamery on campus, you can be pretty sure that our Creamery was responsible for getting that delicious creamy goodness into your face.