Indiana’s Crystal Springs Creamery Produces Fresh Dairy Products On-Site
In partnership with: Indiana State Department of Agriculture
From fresh milk to delicious ice cream to thick, creamy yogurt, Indiana dairy farmers – and the cows they raise – work hard to produce quality products for the state’s residents and beyond.
The Hoosier State is home to more than 186,000 dairy cows and 800 dairy farms, of which 97% are family owned. One such farm is Crystal Springs Creamery in Osceola, which raises dairy cows and processes milk and other products on the farm.
A Family Affair
“My dad grew up on a dairy farm and continued the operation, so my brother, sisters and I grew up on one, too,” says Troy Martin of Crystal Springs Creamery. “Today, we have about 300 Holstein cows and manage 700 acres of row crops, some of which are alfalfa and corn that goes into the feed for the cows.”
Crystal Springs Creamery began in 2017 with homemade yogurt and cheese curds, stemming from a yogurt recipe that Martin’s dad had been perfecting for years.
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“My dad had messed around with yogurt for a while, and we came up with a recipe that was really good,” he says. “It was simple to start, and we needed something we could manage.”
They began experimenting with different flavors of the two products and now offer a variety of options with fresh fruit in the yogurt, such as blueberry and honey strawberry, and herbs on the cheese curds, such as sun-dried tomato basil and cracked pepper and sea salt.
As popularity grew, Martin says the goal was not only to use their fresh milk to make yogurt and cheese, but to sell it as well.
On-Site Production
“We thought about building an on-site creamery for a long time before we actually built the plant,” Martin says. “We built it to process our cheese curds and yogurt with our fresh milk. We wanted to increase income for our milk and provide the highest quality product possible.”
The family built the plant on their farm in 2017, and two years later, started processing and selling fresh milk in glass bottles, along with the yogurt and curds. Glass bottles help preserve the flavor of the milk, keep it colder longer and are recyclable.
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Martin says they now sell all three products to stores throughout Indiana, including Martin’s Super Markets, coffee shops and bulk food stores.
In addition to the plant, they built an on-site farm store to make it easier for consumers to purchase fresh dairy products, including exclusives like sweet cream butter. This also gives visitors the opportunity to see exactly where the products come from.
“The farm store started at the same time as the creamery, and it’s been very popular,” Martin says. “People can come out and create that connection with their food. They can watch us process the milk through windows into the creamery, and they find it very interesting.”
We All Scream for Ice Cream
In 2022, they added farm-fresh ice cream to their roster, currently sold in the farm store using milk and cream from their cows.
“We’re really excited about the ice cream,” he says. “It’s only in the farm store, but the plan is to sell it through the wholesale market. That’s really what we’re focusing on right now.”