Kreider Farms

Having been raised in a kosher home, I had two kinds of friends—those in whose homes I could eat and those in whose homes I couldn’t eat. That was all good until I discovered a third category—the chalav Yisrael crowd. Chalav Yisrael is a Jewish legal term referring to all dairy products which derive from milk that has been milked under the supervision of an observant Jew. Although most observant American Jews rely on the more stringent US Department of Agriculture to guarantee all dairy labeled from a kosher animal is authentic, some people still prefer supervision by an observant Jew.

Chalav Yisrael doesn’t have a great reputation. The common refrain is that it’s expensive and spoils quickly. To be honest, I have no idea if that’s true since I walk right past it when shopping, but we recently took a trip to Kreider Farms in Manheim, PA, where they produce Kreider Farms dairy products as well as Pride of the Farm chalav Yisrael milk to see it for ourselves. We got an up-close tour of the history of the farm and a trolley ride around the farm to see the cows in action…well, the machines were in action milking the cows at least.

The day started out in the Kreider Farms Welcome Center which was a pleasant waiting room before

the tour began. We arrived about 15 minute before our scheduled tour so the kids enjoyed the conveniently placed home playground models for sale across the parking lot (we asked permission to use them, of course). When the tour began, we met our tour guide, who was exceedingly excited to give this tour—a little too excited. We then watched a nice video about the farm and heard about its history and connection to the Hershey family, of chocolate fame.

We then piled onto the Kreider Farms Tour Trolley. The kids were ecstatic to begin the 15 minute ride to the first stop. Unfortunately though, this is when the tour on the trolley went off the rails. The tour guide, who was as nice of a person as you could ask for in a guide, had way too much to say which was much too irrelevant for the audience. She clearly knew a lot about the farm and its history, but I felt like she shared every last bit of it with us, which was thoroughly exhausting.

When we arrived at the first stop, it turned out to be a drive through the cattle barn. We saw the cows come and go and then continued driving for 10 more minutes before we finally stopped to get out and see a newborn calf among the rest of the cows. I’ve seen good looking cows before county fairs, but I had never seen cows at a sizable dairy farm. This was definitely a highlight of the tour.

After another 10 minute drive around the farm, including a trip past the manure and the manure treatment facility—which was surprisingly captivating for me and the kids at least; Meghann didn’t enjoy it as much—we finally came to the highlight of the tour: the Carousel.

The Carousel is where the cows are milked—slowly and efficiently. Having been to a slaughter house before, the two sites were oddly similar. All of the cows pile into an open room and are put through a bottleneck to get to the next room. At Kreider Farms the cows are placed one-by-one onto a slow-moving carousel where a pumping machine is manually placed on each cow teat. [This is about the time I started to feel like a jerk for, on numerous occasions, comparing my wife to a cow for spending countless hours pumping her own milk into bottles for our children.] At this stage of the tour we could see the cows up close. Not the faces of the cows though, just their rumps.

The kids had an opportunity at this time to milk water out of a model Kreider Farms cow on display. That’s when the milk tasting began. Each person was provided either milk or chocolate milk—which means everyone was provided with chocolate milk since no one in their right mind would pass up 8 ounces of thick, heavy chocolate milk that coats your throat like honey. Impressively, without asking, we were kindly offered Pride of the Farm milk and chocolate milk! Absolutely delicious!

Our overall experience at Kreider Farms was good, but not great. The tour itself was too long with too much unnecessary detail and a bit too much time on the trolley. Once the tour started moving though it was a nice time for our entire family.

Kashrus note: During the tour I saw an employee wearing a yarmulke so I asked him about the kosher status of the farm. He said that everything is kosher but only the milk and chocolate milk were chalav Yisrael—interestingly, he said that was even true regarding the Kreider Farms milk, not labeled chalav Yisrael. 

When the tour was over and we returned to the Visitor Center and were told where we could buy Kreider Farm ice cream which the yarmulke-wearing man told us was kosher (not chalav Yisrael though). We went a few blocks away to a quaint establishment and prepared to order our ice cream. We noticed though that nothing was labeled kosher on any of the products. While fighting to hold the kids back while I called the Star-K (certifying kashrus organization) to confirm the status. Oddly enough, though nothing under the Kreider Farms label is actually labeled kosher, the rabbi in charge of managing Kreider Farms confirmed that everything was in fact “100% kosher.” If you do go to Kreider Farms in the future, I suggest calling the Star-K first, since I wouldn’t believe it had I not heard it myself from the rabbi in charge and the situation at the farm may have changed.

Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Website: http://www.kreiderfarms.com 

Location: Manheim, PA

Affordability: $

Herr's Snack Factory

Growing up in the Philadelphia area, Herr's was ubiquitous with potato chips—and snack food in general. When we arrived at the Herr's Snack Factory Tour in Nottingham, Pennsylvania, and I shared with my family my passion for making Herr's mine (the company's tag line is "Make Herr's Yours"), I discovered no one had any idea what I was talking about. Living in the Washington, D.C. area now, where Herr's products are not commonly found, this trip was especially nostalgic for me. My nostalgia was enhanced when we arrived and discovered that Herr's evidently hasn't changed the logo on their foods or their product packaging design in decades.

Upon entering the factory store I was immediately whisked away into childhood memories of eating Herr's chips and pretzels at just about every social event I had ever attended. Meanwhile the two oldest kids immediately ran into the antiquated theater to begin the thirty minute tour. The kids were obviously excited simply because there was a screen, and then Meghann came three minutes later with the youngest kid because, in hasty excitement, I had put the kid's shoes on the wrong feet, and Meghann had to fix it—I was pretty excited.

The ten minute video was a nice introduction to the Herr family and the history of Herr's. It was a bit more about the family than I would have expected, but as the video and the tour progressed you began to see their company in a different light—it is a local, socially conscious, family-friendly, religiously-oriented company. (I was pleasantly surprised to see a small pamphlet "Chips of Wisdom" tucked away outside of them factory store. "Chips of Wisdom" contains two pages written by the Herr's foods founder Jim Herr and then the entire biblical book of Proverbs.) The kids weren't too into the video...until they discussed product expansion and introduced Herr's Cheese Curls. All three kids, hilariously and embarrassingly, screamed out that those are their favorites.

Now to the actual factory tour. The tour allows you to see pretty much everything you'd want to and expect to see—namely potato chips and pretzels. We first entered the aptly named Pretzel Room. We saw the dough move along a conveyer belt and, with no twisting, just pressing, become pretzels by the tens. Ten pretzels and then ten more; every two seconds more pretzels. In one small window we could see thousands of thin pretzels going down the line. It was very cool to see, but unfortunately no pictures were allowed anywhere on the tour. Once the kids realized how many pretzels they were seeing, they became quite interested in the earlier steps of the process.

Next we saw how tortilla chips are born, or shaped in this case, from a grainy paste. They were then dressed in cheesy goodness and shipped to packaging. Then it was off to the star of the tour—the potato chip! At this point you start to really appreciate the automation and the precision of the factory. Although you are always separated from the production floor, the tour really allows you to see everything happening (of the buildings we visited along the tour at least). For the potato chips, we saw on a video how the potatoes arrived and how they were washed, peeled and cut. We saw the machines doing that work, but we didn't have a great angle to see it actually happen (unlike at the UTZ factory where you are elevated and can easily see the peeling and cutting). But that's immediately forgotten when you see FRESH POTATO CHIPS coming out 4 feet in front of you (through a window of course). One of the guides then washed her hands, suited up in gloves and a hairnet, and collected the still hot chips on a tray and brought them to for devouring. Naturally, my kids were in front of the line...and then begging for more. Lesson learned: there are two kind of people in this world—those who have had a fresh factory potato chip and those who haven't. It was awesome!

The packaging was not too exciting except for its remarkable size. The enormity of the room was overwhelming considering the number of things happening in one place. This is where you see the most people in the factory. It was still automated, but there were many people working the machines and checking for quality. Interestingly, there was one machine making sure your bag of chips has both large and small chips in it so you don't end up with a bag of all small chips or large chips—apparently they've thought of everything!

The boxing area was cool because you could see and wave to the workers close up since there was no glass barrier at this point. The storage room was massive and full of everything Herr's; they told us everything we saw would be gone and replaced within 3-5 days!

At the end of the tour, they gave everyone two free bags of chips and then we were off to the store where I told the kids they could get two things, which parents know means at least four after negotiations.

Seeing everything Herr's makes in one place was nice and effectively tested our will power. We purchased some things to try and some things we knew we'd like; the kids got cheese curls among other things. The clerks in the store were friendly and patient which was definitely appreciated.

Only one criticism of the tour and a half critique of the factory store. For more detail, in each room we stopped on the tour, there were videos with supplementary information to fill in the gaps. It was helpful, but I would have preferred a tour guide sharing that information. On factory tours I want to hear from people who know the business. We had two very young girls sharing with us some notes and tidbits they were told to remember, instead of the things they discovered having worked there for a while. The main guide said she had been there for just three weeks and was now training the second guide. They did a good enough job, and I'm glad to see the factory hiring young people, but I expected more.

When visiting a factory store we've come to expect factory store prices. Herr's prices were

all retail prices. I was surprised so I asked the clerk why it was the case, and as we came to learn about the company's values, this appeared to be a genuine value-driven decision. She explained that there are local stores all around that sell Herr's products and it wouldn't be fair to them to undercut their sales. With that understanding we gladly paid retail prices for our snack-food-filled ride home.

The Herr's factory tour was a nice experience on the border of Philadelphia and Pennsatucky. If you are traveling on I-95 passed Philadelphia, it's only an hour away, right off Route-1 just north of the Maryland border. There really isn't anything else there but the factory. The entire experience took about an hour. They require tour reservations, but they weren't full so you can probably call on the day you plan to visit. We definitely liked the tour and would recommend it for families, just be aware of its proximity to nothing else of general interest.

Kashrus note: Most Herr's products are kosher. Check each item before purchasing.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Website: www.herrs.com/snackfactorytours.html

Location: Nottingham, PA

Affordability: Free

Nearby factories and attractions: None, sadly

Celestial Seasonings - A Tea-riffic Tour!

I don't particularly like tea, but Meghann does, so upon our arrival in Denver, Colorado, we immediately went to Boulder (45 minute drive from the airport) to visit the Celestial Seasonings Factory. After visiting the factory I can definitely say I dislike tea a lot less. The opportunity to taste as many of the 89 flavors they make definitely made me rethink my feelings toward the flavored water.

Upon arrival, we received two tea bags as tickets for the upcoming tour starting twenty minutes later.

No reservations are necessary for the tour and people were steadily arriving the entire time we were there. (Note: They don't allow kids under 5 years of age on the tour—not that they drink tea anyway). While we waited for our tour to begin, we could taste as many flavors of tea as we desired (kosher consumer note: just ask for a paper cup so you don't have to use the ceramic one they will hand you). This was one of the nicest features of the already free tour. And it was at this time when I learned the most important lesson about tea I may ever learn: no matter how disgusting the tea tastes, with enough sugar or honey, every tea has potential. To be honest though, there were some better tasting teas than others. I discovered I much prefer herbal tea to "regular" tea; I also quite like spice in my tea. This led me to my second lesson: Meghann doesn't like any of the same teas as me. Every time I found one I liked I'd offer Meghann a taste and she'd tell me each time, "I'm glad YOU like it," which is wife for 'that's gross.'

When we were called for our tour, we crammed into a theater for a ten minute video. But first we were welcomed by our tour guide named Stayshine. This was the first of many things on our trip to Colorado to remind us of the state's place as the hipster paradise of the midwest (Portland on the west; Brooklyn on the east coast). Anyway, the well-executed video gave a nice introduction to the company, what it stands for, its global resources and just how successful it has been, with an appropriate amount of personal touch. We then put on our hairnets, and for the elderly and hipsters among us, beardnets, and proceed to enter the factory (no pictures allowed).

Most factories are visually stimulating and/or stimulate your palate. With the exception of smelling yeast at brewery, the nose is rarely stimulated. This factory tour was an olfactory adventure (pun intended). We first entered a storage area, but not for the finished, packaged product, just the raw and finished tea product in huge bins towering to the tall ceiling. As we were warned, every step through the storage area presented a different smell, some more easily identifiable than the others, but nevertheless producing an abundance of sensory intrigue.

After learning more about the types of tea from Stayshine who, despite her young age, knew an impressive amount about each and every tea, their source and how the company acquired them, we entered the most intense part of the tour—the Mint Room. As we all know, since mint permeates and dominates everything it encounters, mint gets its own dedicated room which figuratively smacks you in the face upon entry, immediately clearing up any congestion you might have had. Quite an experience to say the least.

We then moved into the next part of the surprisingly, relatively small factory—the assembly line. The process was almost entirely automated; there were very few workers on the floor but it was an impressive operation nonetheless.

We weren't taken to see the finished product in storage, but we were told a lot about their dominance of the U.S. market and were introduced to their international ambition. We then entered a door exiting the factory and were deposited into the factory store to purchase anything and everything with the Celestial Seasonings logo (and their iconic Sleepytime bear) including a lot, but not all of their teas.

The Celestial Seasoning's factory tour was a great experience. We learned a lot about

something we knew nothing about. The tea market is much larger than we could have imagined—1.6 billion cups of tea are consumed a year! Oddly, there was nowhere on the entire campus to take a posed picture. Pictures were understandably not allowed on the tour itself, but in the tearoom, the factory store and even outside, there was no proper signage lending itself to a nice picture. We settled for one in front of the tea—not bad, but we should have been able to do better.

Kashrus Note: All Celestial Seasonings teas are kosher. As mentioned above, you can ask for a paper cup instead of the ceramic one they hand you for tastings when you walk in.

Overall Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Website: www.celestialseasonings.com/tours

Location: Boulder, CO

Affordability: Free

The Turkey Hill Experience

The Turkey Hill Experience is truly an experience! It’s an interactive, engaging, and craftily educational museum offering unlimited ice cream. Although I think you’re already sold on the “experience,” let’s get into some more detail.

The Turkey Hill Experience is less of a factory tour and more of an ice cream undertaking. At no point will you see ice cream being churned from milk, but you can take plain ice cream, add flavor and toppings to it, freeze it and eat it. My mouth is watering just thinking about this place again.

Let’s start from scratch. If you keep chalav yisrael, stop here. Well, maybe not. If you don’t mind not eating the ice cream, then you will still have a nice time in the interactive museum and play areas, but your experience will leave you feeling empty (from watching everyone else eat ice cream).

For everyone else, the website recommends you purchase your tickets ahead of time. That turned out to be a good idea as the Taste Lab (where you flavor and mix your own ice cream) is quite popular. If you aren’t doing the Taste Lab, you probably don’t need to purchase tickets in advance.

When you arrive at the Turkey Hill Experience, you’ll enter a parking lot with a Turkey Hill gas station (since we all know gas and ice cream are the two things which fuel America). There is a giant cow to greet you and then you essentially enter into the gift shop.

The Experience

The experience is fun, educational and tasty. Kids of all ages and adults will enjoy milking mechanical cows and producing ice cream commercials. There is a climbing area and a ball pit as well to “teach” you how to churn. You can even step into a freezer to feel what it is like to be an ice cream package. There is a lot more to do, but we don’t want to ruin the full experience for you.

It won’t be long before you scout out the UNLIMITED ice cream. Be careful if you are doing the Taste Lab though since you’re going to want to eat that customized ice cream too. There were plenty of choices but Meghann was especially happy since they had her favorite flavor Moose Tracks that day. The kids were happy since they had Fruit Rainbow sherbet, which was good for them, but everyone knows sherbet pales when compared to ice cream!

All that ice cream will leave you needing something to wash down all of that sweet sweet creamy sugar. Thankfully across from the ice cream is a Turkey Hill drink area full of fruit drinks and iced teas full of more sugar! Before you quench your thirst however, you can take the test to find a drink to match your personality. I think the results are random though. It felt like a fortune teller—odds are you like most of the drinks so whatever it tells you, you’ll be happy. Don’t let that dissuade you though. The drinks were delicious and they had most varieties available. My favorites are the lemonade fruit drink combinations (strawberry, blackberry, pomegranate and strawberry kiwi). Meghann likes just about all of the iced teas. We tried a lot of them, but nothing came close to the ones we already knew we liked. This was when we realized we no longer knew where our kids were. Not surprisingly, they turned out to be gorging themselves on…more ice cream.

The Taste Lab

Our favorite part of the Turkey Hill Experience was definitely the Taste Lab. For about thirty minutes you sit on bar stool and you get to make your own ice cream. You’ll receive a paper Turkey Hill hat upon entry which the kids will enjoy for about four minutes while we eagerly awaited instructions. The room is visually stimulating so with young kids there will be quite a bit of room management. 

Then the fun begins. You’ll get a large cup full of plain ice cream into which you’ll add a flavor from droppers. The flavors ranged from chocolate to cotton candy, all of which were appropriately labeled with a variety of hashgachos (kosher symbols). 

After mixing your flavor into the ice cream you’ll take turns going to the Inclusion Wall which had just about every topping you could ask for in your ice cream. This was definitely the worst part of the Taste Lab. Did I want sweet or salty, crunchy or chewy? The choices left me considering commandeering one of the kids' ice creams and making up a reason to punish them, but I resisted the temptation…barely. Once I settled on a few things…and then a few more…and then a few more, I sat back down in my seat. That’s when I saw my wife struggling with three kids and her own ice cream and considered going over to help. I hesitated walking into the tornado, but once it was over, the damage was only moderate, with only a few tears shed. Once we all sat down we added in the last glorious part to our ice cream, the viscous liquid (caramel, fudge, peanut butter, etc.). After that, we placed the ice cream in the freezer, took a cute quiz as a group, and walked out with our own ice cream concoction. Mission accomplished.

The Turkey Hill Experience is structured so you do the Taste Lab last. Since we arrived later than we expected, we ended up doing it first. The Taste Lab technicians were kind enough to let us leave our ice cream in the freezer until we were ready to leave. They didn't last long in the car ride home, but it was a nice souvenir to savor after leaving.

The whole experience should take about 60-90 minutes, but you can definitely spend more time there if you’d like. We try not to get distracted by gift shops and didn't spend any time there, but there was definitely plenty to buy.

Kashrus note: Most Turkey Hill products, ice cream and drinks, are certified OU-kosher. The items that are dairy are not chalav yisrael. In the Taste Lab, every item is clearly and conveniently labeled with a hasgacha.

Overall rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Website: www.turkeyhillexperience.com

Location: Columbia, PA

Affordability: $$
Nearby factories and attractions: National Watch & Clock Museum and Wolfgang Candy. (You can buy a joint ticket for Turkey Hill and Watch & Clock museum on the Turkey Hill website.)