Hope Creamery returns after equipment shut down

“We’re back!”

After a three-month hiatus, the Hope Creamery family operation is back to making Hope Butter once again.

Because of an equipment breakdown calling for lengthy repair work, the Creamery was forced to shut down from mid-June to mid-September.

The announcement of a return to production was made informally last month at the Blooming Prairie Cancer Group’s fundraising auction in downtown Blooming Prairie. Hope Creamery owner Victor Mrotz, in attendance at the auction, said he was donating churned butter to mark the return to butter making.

Mrotz, known for his silver-gray hair tied in a distinctive ponytail, loves to talk about how support from the community is one reason he believes the butter making business will rebound rather quickly.

Back in business with Mrotz’s son Hudson assuming the role of butter maker and sales manager, Hope Creamery is making three batches of butter a week. Victor’s wife 

Kelly handles distribution duties since the Hope Creamery does not have a distributor.  

Much of the butter goes to Twin Cities markets that include Kowalski’s, Lund’s, Byerly’s, and Wedge Food Co-op. Local markets also get a supply.

Cream for the butter is picked up every Monday from a collection point near Stewartville.

The Hope Creamery is somewhat of a historical landmark, dating back to the early 1920s. Mrotz said the town of Hope has always had a creamery.

Visit the Hope Creamery website, and you will learn that Steele County was once called the “Butter Capital of the World.” More than two dozen creameries existed in the 1920s and 1930s.

The first Hope creamery (Midway Creamery) was actually moved from neighboring Lemond in 1910.

Fast forward to 2001, when Mrotz, a native of Ellendale, bought the creamery. At the time, it was making 30,000 pounds of butter a year. Today, the creamery produces

7,500 pounds a week.

The Hope Creamery makes butter all year long. Wholesalers are their main target.

A draftsman by trade, Mrotz became a potential buyer for the Hope Creamery after a friend of his who worked in the creamery informed him that the creamery was for sale.

Victor and Kelly were married in 1997 and lived in Minneapolis until they bought a farm. Victor bought the creamery, not having experience of making butter. He placed faith in Gene Kruckeberg of Bixby to be his man in charge of making butter.

With his high-pitched, squeaky laugh, Mrotz said, “We went to the bank for a loan and they told us we were crazy. They told me they would not buy the creamery with their money.”

Prior to finding financing to buy the creamery, Mrotz and his wife went on field trips to taste butters in local creameries.

“We then struck a deal with the co-op, and we had just bought a creamery,” he said.

Mrotz said he was familiar with the Twin Cities, so he used that advantage to lock up some grocery stores on the wholesale market.

When the 9/11 disaster struck in September of 2001, Mrotz said he jumped in his green Volvo station wagon to find a main buyer. He found the Lucia restaurant, a fine dining establishment. Mrotz said Lucia wanted salt-free butter, so he asked Kruckeberg if they could make that. The answer was yes.

Some major happenings would change the direction of the Hope Creamery. After Gene died, Jay Logan succeeded him as buttermaker. Jay later died with his wife in a two-car crash on Highway 14.

To keep the creamery going, Victor needed a buttermaker. He found one in Lori Allard, and then Hudson Mrotz, 25.

Victor said Hope Butter is much different than other butters because of the vat pasteurization process.

“We end up with a cleaner butter and this means that we have less milk solids that could interfere with the flavor of the product,” he said.

The Hope Creamery uses continuous churn and high temperature, short temperature process. Butter makers use a heat-cool process over 6-7 hours.

Mrotz admits that much of his equipment is old and antiquated. Needing a new set of equipment, he purchased a farmer’s bulk tank and converted it into a sweet water plant.

Once butter making resumed, Mrotz said, Krause’s Station requested 70 cases.

“We are getting closer to being caught up and don’t want people to start hoarding it,” Mrotz said. “The holiday market is ahead of us, and it’s definitely our busiest time of the year.”

The butter making schedule runs like this: Monday, pasteurization; Tuesday, make butter, start at 5 a.m.; Wednesday, make butter; Thursday, make butter; and Friday, paper work and local deliveries.

Hope Creamery has six employees.

“We are happy to be back and thank everyone for their support and patience,” said Mrotz.

Hope Butter was popular auction item at the BP Cancer group fundraiser. Mrotz says he strongly believes in supporting the fundraisers because everyone has been touched by cancer and needs help.