woodside farm creamery tour

This past Sunday (July 18th) was National Ice Cream Day, the only day of the year that Woodside Farm Creamery in Hockessin, DE opens its doors for tours of its dairy operation. Woodside supplies our favorite ice cream parlor in Wilmington, Sweet Lucy's among many others, so the kids were raring to go.

The farm has been run by the Mitchell family for over 200 years. The main house oozes old-fashioned charm. I find myself engaging in 1940's farm life fantasies involving chicken coops, baking pies, canning and sewing play clothes out of calico for a passel of barefoot children. But I digress. I'm sure it's a boatload of backbreaking work running a dairy farm with no time for baking pies or crafting.

Emma did some sketching of the animals.

The milk for the operation is supplied by 30 jersey cows. Jerseys give the creamiest milk. These little guys are the calves.

The milking process was intriguing to the children. It takes about 6 minutes to milk a cow using the milking apparatus. Each Jersey cow gives 20or 30lbs of milk a day which sounds like a lot to me, but apparently is about half of what Holsteins give.

The farm doesn't advertise itself as being organic, but it uses a number of sustainable practices. The cow manure is composted in this 5000 gallon drum and used to fertilize the orchard, alfalfa, clover, & rye grass. To keep the flies down, special tiny wasps are introduced as a form of biocontrol. The wasps attack the fly pupae and are supposedly not very noticeable to humans or livestock.

Best of all, this past year the farm installed a huge array of solar panels to run its refrigeration. There they are in the distance. CMI Solar Electric did the installation. They also do residential work. Another fantasy of mine is to cover the whole south side of our roof with solar panels. Someday...

 

The ice cream machine. Not as big as I was expecting, but it does the job apparently.

Oh the flavor choices! "Dirt" (has gummi worms in it), Bacon (?), Black Raspberry (had it- mmmmm), Birthday Cake, and the list goes on.

The most popular flavor is vanilla- by far, they say. Even with all those choices, that's what the kids want- with sprinkles of course.

making it in the usa

In my 20-year career in the apparel business, I witnessed the complete and total shift away from the manufacturing of fabric and clothing in the USA to making it all in the Orient. When I was first starting out, you could actually "run downtown" in New York City to check up on your production run. There was no placing of orders way  before knowing how much you sold, no predicting trends a year ahead, no international flights or FedExing. Now that's just the way it's done. Now it's a novelty if an article of clothing is made here.

With all the wastage involved, shipping costs, and duty rates on top of it all, it boggles my mind that it's still cheaper to produce things overseas. I guess the savings involved in using cheap labor just trumps everything. Third world countries don't provide health insurance or living wages to their workers and labor is still a chunk of the cost of an item. If a company has a conscience and doesn't want to buy into all that, do they just price themselves out of the market? I don't think most companies even question it anymore. But if it were me, I'd think it would be worth it to take a second look at producing in the USA again.

And, well, it is me! That's why my tiny little company is thrilled to be doing business with American Apparel. They are actually producing here in the USA, paying their employees decent wages, providing health insurance and good working conditions, exploring organic fibers, recycling their scraps, and making a decent, price-competetive product. They pay $12 per hour to start (and that was a few years ago- it might be more now), while a 3rd world factory might pay $1 per day for similar work. Yet, American Apparel has found a way to still be price-competetive on the most price-sensitive item in the market: the tee shirt. No duty payments, or overseas shipping costs might have a little to do with it. Having a vertically integrated business might have something to do with it (no middlemen or extra mark-ups along the way). What's not to love? Ok, so they've been busted for using illegal aliens, but who hasn't been in LA? At least they were paying them fairly. So they've had a few racy ads- whatever! Read more here.

I just received my first batch of tee shirt blanks from American Apparel and found them to be of excellent quality and fashionable fit. I still can't believe they support us little people by providing a pricing structure that allows for no minimums! I ordered a dozen total tee shirts divided between a few colors and sizes.  I spent all last weekend appliqueing my little heart out and I couldn't be more pleased with the end product! The tees are listed in the shop already.

Eat your heart out Fruit of the Loom!!!

the packaging dilemma

It's getting down to the wire now with the Etsy shop opening. I'm sticking with the January 15th date, although it looks like my selection won't be complete. I don't think my t-shirts will arrive in time, but that will give me something to list the following week.

Time to think about how to package and mail stuff in case I actually sell something. It really is a dilemma. Most clothing companies have gone to recyclable plastic mailers made of partially recycled material. The advantages are the cheapness, lightweightness (reduces shipping cost), and waterproofness. Then even though the outer packaging is waterproof, the clothes inside are individually bagged in more plastic. I know why they do it- to keep them clean during the picking process in the warehouse- but I still don't like it. "Recyclable" is somewhat of a loose term when it comes to plasticy substances if you ask me. The Lands' End mailer I am examining right now has a #4 recycle symbol on it. Here in Delaware only #1 & #2 plastics are taken. #4 goes straight to the landfill.

If I went this route, Uline makes a tear-proof polyolefin mailer that is a very cheap option at $24 for a case of 100 12x15 1/2 mailers. I'm just not ready to give up on something more green yet.

In my searching, I came across a plastic mailing product that is actually biodegradable. Now we're talking! EcoEndure is onto something. Their polypropylene is molecularly altered to degrade over time. Bacteria can actually break it down! It is certified compostable! A pack of 25 8 1/2 x 11 mailers is a doable $12.60, but there are two problems: they are clear and 8 1/2 x 11 is the biggest size. They are meant for mailing booklets and papers. I can't see mailing clothing in a clear mailer. Now come up with a bigger, opaque version, and that would be exciting! That is, if people actually composted them and didn't send them to the landfill anyway.

I'm seriously considering CareMail mailers . They are made from unbleached 90% recycled paper that is 50% post consumer which I feel is "less bad" than the standard plastic variety and I like the way they look. They claim to be rugged and are cushioned too. They can be recycled yet again with your mixed papers. Maybe the mailers would be durable enough to be used multiple times- you wouldn't do that with the plastic ones. It would be even better if they were compostable, but the two real problems I have with them are the price- $1.15 each if you buy 25 of the 10 1/2 x 14 3/4 size and the fact that they are not waterproof. I was trying to avoid having to use a plastic bag inside, but maybe that's not such a huge concern. It would have to be pretty wet to soak through the package. The mailman would have to leave it on an unsheltered porch during a storm. Don't most people have a storm door that packages can be tucked inside of?

Probably the most green thing to do would be to just reuse boxes I already have. I ordered a couple of small fabric pouches from Sweet and Light recently, and Jayne mailed them to me in a flattened cereal box turned inside-out and taped around the edge. I don't know if most people would find that cute, but I appreciated it enough to start saving some cereal boxes myself. I like the looks of the Care Mail mailer better, but you can't beat the price of the cereal box! She did use a small plastic bag inside for protection, though, so I'm back to how to deal with the water resistance problem. I guess I could use grocery bags, but they are so trashy. I'm trying to be an upscale yet green brand here!

I'm open to suggestions. Please comment if you have any!