The best little Creamery around.

Blue Bell Ice Cream: From contented cows.  

By Martha Rogers

Up a little north of Houston in Brenham, Texas on Highway 290, sits a creamery know for its ice cream that comes in some of the best flavors you could ever want. Many states are now familiar with the iconic symbol of Blue Bell Creamery.

Very few people exist who don't like ice cream. Those of us who do like the best with our favorite flavors from Homemade Vanilla to Cookies and Cream, and all kinds of chocolate.

It all began back in the early days of the century when the Brenham Creamery opened in 1907 to purchase extra cream to make butter for the people of Brenham. In 1911 they began to use the cream to also make small quantities of ice cream. 

Eight years later, in 1919, the company came upon hard times and considered closing. The board of directors wanted to keep it open and hired a former school teacher, E.F. Kruse to take over the company. Though only 23 years of age, he would have a profound effect on the company. After he took over on April 1, 1919, he refused to accept a salary for the first few months in order to keep from placing the creamery in further debt. The picture shows some of the early workers and the packaging for the ice cream.

 

Under his leadership, production of ice cream expanded to the area surrounding the town and soon began making a profit. Krause is the one who suggested the name change to Blue Bell Creameries in 1930. The name came from the state flower Bluebonnet, a wildflower seen all over Texas every spring and especially around the town of Brenham.

In 1936 the creamery went from making ice cream by the batch with a 10 gallon batch every 20 minutes. Then they purchased the first continuous ice cream freezer. The new freezer made 80 US gallons of ice cream every hour. The frozen cream ran through a spigot which allowed it to be poured into any size container. 

Then in 1951, Krause was diagnosed with cancer and died within eight weeks. His sons, Ed and Howard, took over the leadership and soon began expansion to other parts of the state.

By 1960, they no longer made butter, instead they concentrated on ice cream only. The company expanded throughout Texas including Houston and other large cities. By the end of 1970, sales had quadrupled and by 1980, they produced over 10 million gallons of ice cream per year. 

Then the company expanded to Oklahoma and then throughout the South Central and Southern United States. They even built a plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in 1992 and a third one in Sylacauga, Alabama in 1996. It seems that once a creamery is established within a marker, word-of-mouth ensures more sales.

In order to expand like it did, Blue Bell thoroughly researched new market to make sure that all employees in new markets would be fully trained in Blue Bell practices in order to uphold the product quality expected of the company.

In the early days, deliveries were made by small trucks outfitted to keep the ice cream frozen.

Today, semis can be seen on the highways

taking Blue Bell all over the country. One of 

their slogans is they sell all they can and eat the rest.

Tours of the creamery in Brenham are available, and they have a country store on the premises. Here is a picture of that creamery and a sign directing people to the tour. I have been on that tour, and all I can say is that at the end, I had my fill of ice cream, but still bought more to take home.

      

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the problems and recalls in 2015. The recalls eventually shut down production and resulted in job cuts and furloughs. Because of a contamination by Listeria, they shut down and began a cleanup procedure that followed federal and state guidelines. After three months, the company began production on a limited basis and returned its products to freezers in Texas and Alabama. They were part of a five-phase plan to get back to full production which they ultimately accomplished.

In front of the creamery stands a statue depicting icon seen on all cartons, trucks and signs advertising Blue Bell. 

Children love having their pictures made by the statue, and they are even allowed to climb up on the cow's back for pictures. A lot of children with smiling faces on school tours fill the area every year.

Wouldn't a bowl of your favorite ice cream taste good about now? 

What's your favorite flavor of ice cream? I'll take anything with chocolate in it.😊

Martha Rogers is a multi-published best-selling author of over sixty novels and novellas. She is a member of ACFW, CAN, and AWSA. Martha teaches a Sunday Bible class for senior women and is a retired English and Home Ec. Teacher. She lives in Houston with Rex, her husband of 62 years. 

Foods From Our German Heritage

by Martha Rogers

Several years ago I became interested in genealogy and discovered that both my paternal and maternal grandfathers were of German heritage. I should have suspected as much when I was younger as my maternal grandmother made sauerkraut from scratch and it created the most awful smell in the house. Half the time I went to a friend’s house for dinner. Of course it was always served with bratwurst.

However, she made a German Christmas Fruit Cake that I absolutely loved.

When I visited Fredericksburg, Texas, I discovered many dishes my grandmother made were of German origin, but we called them something else in our house, and most of them were much better than that sauerkraut. I learned more about foods like Gugelhupf, Spaetzle, Lebkuchen, German meat balls and dark rye bread. My maternal grandmother, Mimi, made these but I knew them simply as bread, dumplings, ginger molasses cookies, and black bread.  

Although Germany and Austria are two distinct countries, the early immigrants from either were called Germans by their neighbors here in America. The first Germans to arrive were Mennonites brought here by William Penn for his colony. Not far behind them came the Moravians and Pietists and other religious sects. By 1776 Pennsylvania was nearly half German and Austrian. They established settlements that became what we know today as the Pennsylvania Dutch.

By 1830, Germans had begun to cross over to America by the thousands. Between 1830 and 1930 about six million immigrated to America. My great-great grandfathers were among them in the early 19th century.
My latest release, Love Stays True, is loosely based on the love story of my great-grandfather and great-grandmother in Louisiana. His father came to Louisiana from Pennsylvania in the early 19th century. The German name was Weissermann which was translated to Whiteman for easier spelling. 

When I visited in Germany in 1996, I went to Munich, Augsburg, and Oberammergau. We ate at a Rathskeller which is a restaurant or bar. I found the foods there were absolutely delicious, especially the desserts.

 Dishes like apple strudel shown on the left, wiener schnitzel, German potato salad, and springerle were embraced by those who lived near or in the German colonies.

 The Germans loved their sweets. The Sacher Torte, Dobos Torte, and the Linzer Torte are prime examples as well as Black Forest Cake and Pfeffernuesse cookies shown below.

In the Pennsylvania Dutch region and in areas where we still have communities with a rich German heritage, we will find foods made from original recipes handed down through the generations. I found two of Mimi’s and I share the fruit cake one with you today. It is much more moist and more like cake than traditional fruit cake.  

German Fruit Cake
3/4 cup butter                           3/4 tsp. soda                                        Cream butter, sugar and eggs until
2 cups sugar                             1 cup buttermilk                                    light. Sift dry ingredients together.
4 eggs                                      2/3 cup cherry preserves                       Add to creamed mixture
3 cups flour                              2/3 cup apricot preserves                      alternately with buttermilk to which
1/2 tsp. allspice                        2/3 cup pineapple preserves                  soda has been added. Fold in re-
1/2 tsp. cinnamon                     1 cup chopped pecans                          maining ingredients. Bake in two
1/2 tsp. nutmeg                         1 tsp. vanilla                                         greased and floured 9x5x3 inch pan 

                                                                                                            or one large tube pan. Bake at 325
                                                                                                            degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Cool in pan
                                                                                                            15 minutes before removing.

If you'd like recipes for any of the others, let me know. If I have it, I will send it to you. 

Martha started late in life but now has multiple novels and novellas in print. She lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and is active in their church where she sings in the choir and teaches a class on Sundays and he serves as a deacon. She is a member of ACFW, The Woodlands Chapter of ACFW: WOTS and IWA! She is Co-Director and a regular member of the faculty for the Texas Christian Writers Conference held in Houston each August.