Memory Lane Creamery is a family affair

An open house July 13 at Memory Lane Creamery, 3291 Pleasant Hill Road, was a reminder to owner Judy Allen of just how far her business has come in such a short time. That would be since last October, when deliveries of milk to area businesses started after friends had sampled some of her milk varieties during last year’s Albany Independent Fair.

During the open house, which featured homemade ice cream with a distinct orange flavor, one of her main helpers, Brent Nicholson, finally put up a business sign by the road. It signaled that the creamery, inside Athens and Alexander Township, is here to stay as it grows bit by bit.

Memory Lane Creamery sells many different kinds of milk including regular whole milk and PET milk, with sizes going from a pint to a half-gallon and a gallon. And although ice cream was a one-time offering during the open house, she sells equally tasty flavored milk including strawberry and orange, which Judy said are quite popular, along with vanilla, chocolate and cookies and cream.

Offering so much to customers is something she said her parents — her dad, the late Bernard Allen, and mom Loretta — always appreciated, as part of the southeast Ohio dairy community. Her parents were farmers on Fisher Road in Athens, with her dad hauling milk for much of his life.

“Basically, this creamery is in memory of him,” said Judy, who has been a personal banker at Hocking Valley Bank in Athens for 44 years.

But Memory Lane Creamery also speaks to reverence for others whom Allen and her family hold dear. One was her younger brother, the late Bruce Allen, a farmer and truck driver. Her other brother, Boyd Allen, owns one of just two dairies that continue to survive in Athens County, she said. His dairy is located in Albany.

The county’s other dairy was owned by Scott and Pauline Ervin, located on North Blackburn Road. They have passed on but the family connections are still close. Allen buys milk from the Ervins’ sons, Brad and Scotty Ervin, who have 65 Holstein dairy cows as their family dairy continues. Brad’s daughter Abbi is an Athens High school student in her last year of FFA membership as she learns the family business. Allen has been her 4-H adviser in past years, and Allen is still advisor to the Green Acres 4-H Club. Her members show animals such as dairy feeders, rabbits and chickens.

Allen and her family were also close to a farming family from Millfield, the Russell family. Although dear friends Riley and Evelyn Russell have passed on, their grandson, Christopher, helps operate Memory Lane Creamery.

And so do Allen’s family members. She has two sons, Jeff Brooks and Justin Brooks, and Jeff’s children help with the creamery. One of them, Tyler, 18, is a recent Alexander High School graduate who will be attending Ohio University to study biology. He is her main delivery driver, as is his friend, Brooklyn Watkins, a senior at Alexander High.

Allen’s 9-year-old granddaughter, Ella Brooks, helps at the creamery, as do several friends such as Marleisa Boivin. Given her full-time work schedule at the bank, Allen offered, “It would be very hard to do this without all of them.”

Milk deliveries are made once or twice a week to numerous businesses with a wide delivery area spanning from Rio Grande and Pomeroy to Wellston, Athens, Stewart, Tuppers Plains, Nelsonville and Logan.

Memory Lane Creamery makes efficient use of a building for milk production that does not appear from the outside that it could hold so many machines so spaciously. One large holding tank sends milk by hoses to a pasteurizer machine that heats the milk up to 155 degrees. When the temperature reaches 100, flavoring is added. A second holding tank collects the pasteurized milk and sends it on to a bottling machine and then into cold storage.

Basically, Allen said, the milk from the Ervin’s dairy comes in Thursday or Friday, depending on who is available for pickup and delivery, and then part of the weekend — usually Saturday — is spent in full production. Whole milk sells for $2.50 per pint, $3 for a half-gallon, and $5 for a full gallon. Flavored milk adds $1 to the half-gallon and gallon sizes.

Memory Lane Dairy’s small store is always open, Allen said, and runs on the honor system. People drop off their money as they collect items that also include butter and cheeses. Memory Lane Dairy can be reached at (740) 416-3375.