Cream of the crop Houlton Farms delights in producing quality Maine butter, ice cream that universally pleases

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It was one of the last perfect days of summer, all clear blue sky and dazzling sunshine. A light breeze stirred the towering trees that line Houlton’s streets and some of the leaves were beginning to change. At a local caf?, the high school students waiting tables said goodbye to their lunchtime regulars – school was about to start.

The warm weather was drawing to an end. You could tell by the crowd at Houlton Farms Dairy Bar. Cars jammed the parking lot and people lined up five and six deep, even on a weekday afternoon, for a banana split or vanilla soft-serve. They knew there weren’t many ice cream-worthy days left, and they were taking full advantage.

Jody Wellington and Jamie McCarthy waited patiently, on break from Dunn Funeral Home and Dunn Furniture, respectively. Their afternoon snack break is a fairly regular event, but when Houlton Farms is involved, everyone orders.

“I just think it’s better than other ice cream,” Wellington said. “It’s creamier.”

In Aroostook County, Houlton Farms Dairy is considered the cream of the crop, and not just for its sweet treats. Since 1938, it has been a local institution, known for its fresh milk and rich, smooth butter. Though Houlton Farms doesn’t sell its products south of Bangor (McLaughlin’s Seafood carries their butter), it has a devoted, national following of County transplants – and the occasional celebrity.

“We did hear Martha Stewart bought several pounds [of butter] when she was in Aroostook County,” said dairy doyenne Alice Lincoln, whose family has run the business since 1981. “She went into a little store and bought out what he had.”

As Martha would say, the butter is a good thing. Starting in October, the dairy fills standing orders for customers in 11 states – most of them tasted the butter on a trip to the County and now can’t live without it. One year, a man bought 30 pounds and shipped it to Las Vegas as a Christmas present.

“Everybody raves about the butter,” said Perry Lilley of Smyrna, whose family has supplied Houlton Farms Dairy with milk for years.

The simple recipe of cream, salt and a dash of natural coloring has remained the same since the 1940s.

“If you’ve got something good, you don’t change it,” said plant manager Eric Lincoln, Alice’s son.

It’s a mantra that has served the Lincolns and the dairy well. Houlton Farms has only changed hands twice since Alan Clark built the pasteurizing plant in 1938. Longtime plant manager Milton Lambert Jr. bought the business from Clark in 1977, and the Lincolns took over in 1981.

Alice Lincoln started working at the dairy in 1965, doing billing for home delivery two weeks a month. A year later, that turned into full-time work, and by 1981, Alice, her husband, Leonard, and their sons, Eric and Jim, knew the business well enough to run it on their own. Jim’s wife, Mary, came on board in 1982 and opened Houlton Farms’ first dairy bar in Presque Isle in 1983.

Things have changed dramatically since the Lincolns bought the business. In 1981, there were 17 dairies in Maine. Now there are four: “three big ones, and us,” Alice said. Still, Houlton Farms has held steady by doing what it does best – milk, cream, butter, ice cream and lemonade.

“We always joke that we make a living off what the other people lose down the drain,” she added, laughing. “We are so small.”

Houlton Farms’ size makes it difficult at times to compete with the larger dairies for sales and shelf space, but it has its benefits. The Lincolns have a personal relationship with the three farmers who supply their milk – in Hodgdon, Monticello and Smyrna.

“That’s another big plus,” Alice Lincoln said. “Everyone really does whatever it takes to get the job done. Employees and producers work together. It’s all together, the dairy bars, the producers, us, we’re all…”

“A team,” Mary finished.

The Lincolns are able to monitor the quality of everything that comes out of the plant. Because they purchase supplies in relatively small quantities, they can afford to splurge on decadent flavoring for their chocolate milk or expensive vanilla for their ice cream.

“There is a big difference between products,” Alice Lincoln said. “We don’t shop for price. We shop for quality. That’s primary. If we ever had to change, our customers would notice.”

They did when Houlton Farms switched flavorings during a vanilla shortage. And they would if – God forbid – the chocolate milk formulation changed. Now, it tastes velvety, like melted ice cream, only less sweet.

“I always have a glass of Houlton Farms chocolate milk for lunch,” said Lilley, who sells his farm’s entire milk supply to the dairy. “I just love the taste.”

He attributes that taste to the fact that Houlton Farms is a small dairy.

“The milk isn’t being transported very far,” Lilley said. “It’s very fresh. They pick it up here and it’s in the bottle within a couple of hours. They’re very concerned about quality and we as producers are, too.”

Each farmer has signed a pledge not to use bovine growth hormone in their cows, which is important to the Lincolns. That pledge made a difference for Robin Jenkins of Fort Fairfield, who sells her Robin’s Chocolate Sauce at specialty stores and grocery stores throughout the state. Jenkins strives to use ingredients that are produced in a sustainable way, and Houlton Farms fits with her philosophy.

“They are a well-established County business, and we believe in using products that have been produced locally with our international mix,” Jenkis said. “Their cream and butter has a great flavor and does not contain the artificial growth hormones or any other added ingredients.”

Some people love the products for what the Lincolns leave out. Others, for what they put in. Maybe it’s the appeal of a small dairy, or the farm-freshness. It could have something to do with the “old technology” they use to process the milk in their tidy, green-tiled plant. But even the milk inspector tells the family there’s something special about Houlton Farms Dairy.

“It’s just different; it’s good,” said Eric Lincoln as he stood near the plant’s ice cream mixer. The room smelled like a citrus grove and the bottling machine hummed as it filled hundreds of quart cartons with lemonade. “There’s just no little dairies like this anymore.”

Houlton Farms Dairy operates seasonal dairy bars in Houlton, Caribou and Presque Isle, as well as a new year-round ice cream shop in the Aroostook Centre Mall. For information, call 532-3170. Kristen Andresen can be reached at 990-8287 and kandresen@bangordailynews.net.