From bottling milk from a hose, one jug at a time, to a new state-of-the-art creamery that produces 37 gallons per minute, Milky Way Farm in Starr, SC continues to grow and advocate for local farmers as Anderson County’s last known operating dairy farm.
Established by L.D. Peeler Jr. in 1978, Milky Way Farm was founded on producing raw milk from an all-Jersey herd. In 1987, Peeler moved the dairy to Starr where he and his children, Iris and Davis, today milk 120 registered Jersey cows.
Since 2003, Milky Way Farm Grade A Raw Milk has been sold at the dairy’s own farm store and in farm markets across the Upstate. But getting its brand into local grocery stores was a goal critical to long-term success.
“It was pretty vital to our business in order to grow to the next level, we needed to get into a bigger grocery store,” said Iris Peeler Barham.
Barham went through the normal procedure of getting products into Ingles stores but had not heard back. One day while standing at an Ingles salad bar, dressed in a baseball cap and barn clothes, Barham had the opportunity to meet Jim Lanning, CEO and President of Ingles, who was visiting the store.
“I met Mr. Jim, the CEO of Ingles, and he is an amazing guy,” Barham said. “He was so for having a local dairy in their stores,” she said.
Milky Way Farm products were first placed in Anderson’s three Ingles stores. Today, Milky Way products are available in seven Ingles locations in Anderson, Walhalla, West Union, Seneca and Clemson.
Discovering that consumers enjoy flavored milk, Milky Way also produces chocolate, strawberry, Tiger Fuel orange cream and Holly’s Kiss cookies and cream flavored milk, although flavors change, Barham said.
“We really work hard in our test kitchen to come up with really good flavors that we promise will satisfy the taste buds of most customers,” said Barham, who previewed possible future flavors such as coffee, cinnamon, caramel macchiato and cinnamon toast crunch.
Video courtesy of Anderson County Media Department.
