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Article published May 12, 2005
Say cheese
Fullam Dairy to branch out
By Leigh Kelley
Times-News Staff Writer
A desire to have more contact with customers and a new way
to make money are bringing new life to a Henderson County dairy in its fourth
generation of operation.
The Fullam Dairy produces 20,000 pounds of milk
(technically, milk is measured in pounds instead of gallons) per day at the
dairy farm on Fullam Farm Drive in Etowah. The dairy sells its product to
Milkco, a Maryland-Virignia co-op, which supplies milk to several area grocery
outlets, including Ingles Markets Inc.
Lynette Raines and her sister-in-law, Claret Fullam, met
with other Fullam family members last year to discuss new ways for the dairy
to increase its business. The Fullam Creamery was born out of that meeting,
Raines said during the Business Morning Update on Wednesday at the Chariot in
downtown Hendersonville. Business Morning Update is a monthly gathering of
area business people to network and hear programs presented by various
speakers.
Fullam Creamery is expected to go into production later
this month at its new production facility on Fullam Farm Drive in Etowah,
said Raines, the company's marketing director.
"We all got together and decided we needed to do
something different, something like a value added business that would utilize
equipment we already had but would give us more direct contact with the
customer," Raines said. "The dairy sells wholesale and there's so
many middlemen when you sell wholesale, you have no control over what you get
paid for your product. Hispanic cheeses kept coming up because Henderson
County has such a significant Hispanic population and there's no locally
produced fresh Hispanic cheeses, so we decided that would be our
product."
At the production facility the family built last August,
Fullam Creamery will produce queso blanco and queso fresco cheeses, Raines
said. The cheeses have a mild, buttery taste, she said. Queso fresco is
especially prized by area Hispanics because it can be sliced and fried
without running when it melts, unlike cheddar cheese.
"The cheese you get in Mexican restaurants is not
necessarily authentic Mexican cheese," she said. "You don't see a
lot of area Hispanics eating in local Mexican restaurants."
Because the family dairy is licensed as a Grade A facility,
the creamery may eventually branch out into Grade A products such as yogurt
and cottage cheese, Raines added.
"We built the facility so that we could eventually
expand into those product lines," she said. "We hope to have a
retail shop (at the creamery) opening in June."
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Pladot Mini Dairy 
