NEW ERA, Mich. — During the hottest part of the summer, Country Dairy cooled the crowds at its annual ice cream social in July.
 Joining in the celebration of National Ice Cream month, visitors flocked to the farm on Michigan’s western coast, in New Era.

To the tune of more than 4,000 visitors, they flooded the dairy farm owned and operated by Wendell Van Gunst and family. “People start calling during the winter to see when we were going to have our ice cream social so they can plan their vacations around it,” explained Jeff Swanson, the dairy’s tour manager. “We get a lot of tourists because we are right here by the lake.”

While the draw is free ice cream, once the visitors arrive there’s more than just a scoop or two of refreshment dished up. “We have a living history tent that’s very popular, that we’ve been doing for about four years now,” said Swanson. “We make dairy products the old-fashioned way and we model life on the farm from years ago.”

Guests can try their hand at cranking their own ice cream or churning butter with a hand butter churn, or they can watch spinners spin yarn from wool. They can also watch soap making, quilting and even the roasting of coffee beans.

“Fresh coffee made from fresh roasted beans is amazing,” Swanson claimed.

Farming the old way is demonstrated with the threshing of wheat, in addition to an antique tractor and truck display. But the focus of the tour is everything dairy and guests are allowed to feed calves, milk a real cow and watch the milking operation. What’s unique to this dairy tour is that guests are shown the route milk takes from the cow to the bottle.

“We have a bottling plant on the farm and visitors can watch the total bottling process,” said Swanson.

The ice cream social might be a special occasion, but tours are a part of everyday life at Country Dairy. He explained, “We have daily tours that people can take; although we don’t have the extra things like the living history tent, we do have a complete tour of the facility that concludes in our dairy store.”

At the end of the tour each guest is given a sample of the dairy’s famous Premium Chocolate Milk or they can try “Moochies” cheddar cheese curds. The Farm Store also has a deli where guests may enjoy a garden fresh salad, a hearty bowl of soup or one a meaty, farm-themed panini sandwiches. Then they can top it off with farm fresh ice cream in a palate of flavors.

While Country Dairy now has a farm store, a bottling plant and daily educational tours, this family farm began four generations earlier. It had its beginnings in the 1880s when Andrew Van Gunst came to West Michigan as a boy from the Netherlands. His  father and sister died on the journey, and his mother died shortly after arriving in Michigan. That left Andrew to be raised by his maternal aunt and uncle, the Andrew Vander Ploeg family.

In 1907, Van Gunst married Jane Grinwis and bought approximately 80 acres at the current site of Country Dairy from Rudolph and Margaret Kemink, of Spring Lake, for $1,200. That site was next to the coal kilns that made charcoal. The railroad came right past the farm, bringing wood and picking up charcoal.

The Van Gunsts raised five children on the farm. At that time, Andrew milked between 8-12 cows, whose milk was picked up daily, and had an orchard of cherries, some asparagus and potatoes.

In 1936, Andrew’s son, Henry, married Ellen Postema and they raised seven children in a second house built on the farm. Henry took over the ownership of the farm in 1956. In 1964, Henry’s son, Wendell, married Ruth Fisher and moved into the original farm home where they raised their four daughters.

Wendell spent two years at Michigan State University studying dairy science and in 1968, four years after returning from the Army, he took over ownership of the farm. Because of his particular interest in dairy cattle, he began to focus the business solely on Holsteins, expanding the herd from 30 to about 100 cattle.

In 1983, Wendell expanded the business to include a dairy processing plant in which the milk from his herd was processed, bottled and distributed to stores in West Michigan. Today, Country Dairy milks approximately 1,000 head of Holsteins and is solidifying the fourth generation with Amy Van Gunst, Paul and Betsy Arkema, Rob and Teresa Eekhoff and Matt and Trudy Ash.

For information on the farm or tours, visit www.countrydairy.com