November 22, 2024 • 25 mins
More Michigan Magic with Mooville. Eric Westendorp of Mooville, uncovers the evolution of their on-farm creamery and the family's journey from dairy farming to producing award-winning ice cream. Eric shares insights on the challenges of family business dynamics, the unique qualities of their 'Creamline' milk, and their commitment to preserving a farm-to-table experience. Tune in to hear how Mooville has become a staple in Michigan's dairy industry, blending tradition with innovation.
Links:
Moo-ville Website: https://www.moo-ville.com/
Moo-ville Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MOOville
Show Notes:
00:00 Introduction and Setting the Stage
00:21 Welcome to Total Michigan
00:53 Meet Eric Westendorp of Moo-ville
01:15 The Origins of Moo-ville
02:39 What is Moo-ville Today?
06:55 The Ice Cream Journey
14:10 Challenges and Family Dynamics
17:20 Community Engagement and Faith
18:18 Production and Popularity
23:41 Where to Find Moo-ville Products
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Eric Westendorp (00:00):
Really just getting on the same page and having that
(00:01):
same focus and same goal of And samedirection for everyone because we
all have a little different issues.
Whether it be the crops or the cowsor the creamery getting on the same
page and knowing where the next bigproject is going and not towards
the project that you thought it wasgoing What is just communication.
It's a it's a struggle and it's hardand we're still growing in that area.
Cliff Duvernois (00:21):
Hello everyone and welcome back to Total Michigan where
we interview ordinary michigandersdoing some pretty extraordinary things.
I'm your host Cliff DuVernois.
So So, Michigan has a lot of cows.
And because we have a lot ofcows, we have a lot of milk.
And of course, there's, there's peoplearound here that are just doing amazing
things with this very simple product.
(00:42):
And I remember how excited I was whenI was able to get today's guest onto
the show because they really are knownstatewide, especially for their ice cream.
So with that being said, ladies andgentlemen, I am actually sitting in
Moo-ville of all places in Nashville,Michigan and sitting across from me is
(01:02):
Eric Westendorp one of the owner operatorsof the big family that runs this place.
Eric, how are you?
Eric Westendorp (01:09):
great.
Thanks for having
Cliff Duvernois (01:10):
Awesome.
So why don't you tellus what is Moo-ville?
Eric Westendorp (01:13):
Ha, what is Mooville?
Mooville is a brainchildof my parents, actually.
So my mom and dad, uh, started dairyfarming in 1992 on their own place,
uh, with six kids under the age of six.
And then, excuse me, once we gotto high school, they realized
that the farm was a little toosmall for everyone to come back.
So in order to have an opportunity foreach one of us to come back, they did a
(01:35):
couple years of research to do a creamery.
And so they went all across the country,spent a couple years doing that,
looking at creameries and asking themadvice on what to do, what not to do.
And so in 2005, they built theCreamery and they all gave us
an opportunity to come back.
We all have a little bit ofdifferent interests, like
I have two sisters as well.
So it gave them opportunities notjust to have to do farm work or
(01:57):
be in the tractor or anything likethat or be able to help in a store.
So, uh, it just opened up a lotof different avenues and a lot
of different interests for allof us to be able to come back.
Cliff Duvernois (02:06):
Okay, so let's do that one again.
Okay.
So this time when I
ask you what move ill is, you know, makesure you talk about, you know, we have
ice cream, we have milk, we have what itis, we will get into the history of it.
So believe it or not, alot of people will do that.
We'll circle back to the history of it.
But this will be When I was talking toyou before about, about the, about the
(02:26):
B roll footage, like going around andgetting the ice cream, stuff like that.
This is your moment to say,this is, this is who we are.
This is what we do.
Right.
Okay.
So we'll just do that one again.
Eric, if you would justtell us what is Moo-ville?
Eric Westendorp (02:43):
Moville is an on farm creamery, uh,
that we started 17 years ago.
Uh, my parents did, and so weprocess all of our own milk.
We make a, a special lineof milk called Creamline.
So it's the closest to raw that wecan legally sell, cause it is, uh,
pasteurized, but it is not homogenized.
So all that fat content is still there.
So that is kind of a niche that we do.
(03:03):
We're the only one inthe state that does that.
But we also make a lot ofdifferent ice cream flavors.
We have a retail, uh, uh, store on site.
We have a petting zoo.
We have the farm on site and all of themilk that comes through Move O Creamery
is coming through our own cows and ourown crops that we have here on site.
Cliff Duvernois (03:17):
So it's literally, it's, you know, I don't want, I hate
to use the phrase womb to tomb, butliterally it's, you produce your own
milk, process it here, make your ownice cream, milk creamery, as you said
before, and then you sell it here as
Eric Westendorp (03:31):
Right.
We're very vertically integrated.
Everything from the crops, to the cows,to the milking, to the processing, uh,
to some of the delivery work is all donewith the Western Door Pan, isn't it?
Cliff Duvernois (03:43):
Oh, that's incredibly awesome.
And so why don't you tell us alittle bit about your backstory?
Where are you from?
Where did you grow up?
Eric Westendorp (03:48):
we moved when we were three years old,
when I was three year old.
Um, my, my twin brother werethree, my oldest brother was six.
And then we had a, my parents had a set oftriplets that were three months old when
they moved to this Nashville location.
Uh, we moved from Martin, whichis just South of Grand Rapids.
So we went from one tiny townto the, to another tiny town.
Cliff Duvernois (04:14):
The why behind this place, and it's my understanding that
your parents were the one that actuallydecided to start expanding out and
just do something more than milk,
right?
So talk to us a little bit about,about what that was that they did.
Eric Westendorp (04:28):
so when I was in high school, so it was about 15 years
ago, my parents wanted to give usan opportunity to come back to the
family business if we so choose.
Um, it wouldn't, there was noforce of hand into it at all.
It was just an opportunitythat they wanted to do.
So they did a lot of research, went aroundthe country, um, Looked into different
creameries what they did well what theydidn't do well, and then they came back
and built the creamery Um, and it allgave us an opportunity to come back if we
(04:53):
wanted to and it just um was a kind of apretty neat opportunity where Uh now all
six of us live within a few miles away.
We're all Have a hand in the in thecreamery and the family business so it
was just kind of a a neat opportunityfor my parents to be able to Allow
us to come back if we wanted to
Cliff Duvernois (05:10):
Now, usually when you see people who are farmers, right, whether
they're dairy farmers or corn farmers
whatever, it's usually somekind of a generational thing.
So now, was your, did your momand dad grow up on a dairy farm?
And that's why they wanted to get into it.
Did they, is this somethingyour grandparents actually
started as a dairy farm?
What
Eric Westendorp (05:28):
What was,
Yeah, that's a great question.
My pa my dad, uh, his dad was a great,was a farm dairy farmer as well.
So I'm third generation dairyfarm on my dad's side, and then
on my mom's side, uh, her parentsimmigrated from the Netherlands.
She was actually born in NewJersey, moved to Michigan.
Yes.
And so, uh, unfortunately my grandpa.
Mulder on my mom's side passed away froma farming accident when he was young.
(05:50):
So my grandma was widowed and uh, But theydid a lot of dairy farming kind of stuff
and that generation actually goes back 250years of dairy farming on my mom's side
Cliff Duvernois (06:00):
a lot of family members That
Eric Westendorp (06:02):
lot of family members There's that we have cousins
in canada that dairy farm cousins inin the netherlands that dairy farm.
So it's pretty neat to see
Cliff Duvernois (06:13):
As far as like the story goes with that, so
they decided to make this into a
Eric Westendorp (06:18):
creamer.
Cliff Duvernois (06:19):
Tell us what exactly is that?
Eric Westendorp (06:21):
Um, for us, it's an on site creamery, so
we process all of our own milk.
So, the farm's at the top of the hill, itgets gravity fed down into Mooville, and
we are doing all of our own processing.
So, we're homogenizing it, we'repasteurizing it, and we're doing all
the bottling ourself here on site.
Cliff Duvernois (06:39):
And when you're talking about this when you talk about
it being a creamer that means you
produce milk
Eric Westendorp (06:42):
means you Right.
Well, half and half heavy cream.
Cliff Duvernois (06:46):
Yes, okay wonderful now at some point in time you
decided to take that a step furtherAnd get into the ice cream business
When did where did that idea come from?
Eric Westendorp (06:58):
So that was always the original goal.
Getting there was a little harder.
So we had told everyone in the localcommunity that we would be open on
Memorial Day of 2005, I think it was.
And so we started trying to makeour own ice cream and it was
terrible, I mean just terrible.
Our first batch of ice cream actuallywent in the manure pit because we
just, we just threw it out and weactually had to bring in other ice cream
(07:22):
from other companies for the first.
I don't know, three or four monthsbefore we finally got our recipe down
and ice and enough inventory to beable to carry all of our own ice cream.
So even more creamery and our intentionswas to make our own ice cream.
We had to carry other people'sice cream for the first few months
just to get the ball rolling.
Cliff Duvernois (07:37):
Then talk to us a little bit about that
ice cream like making process.
Eric Westendorp (07:43):
Yeah, um, so we, like I said, we make all of it.
We have all of our own milk from our owncows here, so it gets, um, separated.
So when we make whole 2 percent skim,that cream is coming off the top and
that is coming off of our own milk.
From our own milk and so that cream isgoing into the ice cream mix So that gets
mixed in with a few other smaller thingsand then there's a batch or not a batch
(08:04):
machine But a continuous machine Andso all that concoctions come together.
And so when you make like a moosetracks or anything like that
There's also an ingredients filler.
So there's fudge going in andReese's peanut butter cups
going in and stuff like that.
So Yeah, it's quite the process.
Um, that's my twin brother's expertise.
And so I'm not great atknowing the ins and outs.
(08:25):
I just like eating it.
And everyone has likes thejoke of being the taste tester.
But, uh, yeah, it's it's a fun process tobe part because everyone loves ice cream.
So it's an easy sell, and it'senjoyable because we've won some
bigger awards from our ice cream, too.
And so it's really cool.
Yeah, there's, um, a national icecream, uh, conference and conference And
(08:46):
they, we got awarded, uh, national bestchocolate ice cream in the, in the country
Cliff Duvernois (08:51):
a couple years
Eric Westendorp (08:53):
vanilla a couple years ago as well.
Yeah, last year was chocolate, anda couple years before that, there's
a lot of different categories.
You got strawberry and all theother different flavors, but we won
chocolate and vanilla, uh, recently.
Cliff Duvernois (09:05):
Oh, see now I'm getting hungry.
Eric Westendorp (09:07):
Yeah.
Cliff Duvernois (09:09):
All right.
So you started up and youtalked before about how you
started off making ice cream And
you're for the first six months, Right?
You
really struggle with gettinggetting that recipe down.
Now, is it, is it something where youwere learning how to use the equipment?
Was it learning how to.
Use the right ingredients because,and I say this because I know
(09:31):
that for somebody to make asmall batch of ice cream at home,
it's a whole different
animal when you're looking at producinggallons upon gallons, thousands of
gallons for, you know, potentiallythousands of people that are going
to come walking through the door.
Talk to us about that learning curve.
Eric Westendorp (09:46):
Yeah, the learning curve.
So it's been a while ago.
I was just a sophomorein high school, too.
So I'm kind of racking my brain a littlebit, but I think the mistakes would
have came from every area possible fromfrom the machines from the ingredients
from the way we went about it.
Um, getting ice cream frozen as quicklyas possible coming out of the machine
and going back to the deep freezer,getting that, uh, having that time
being as little as possible, having theair content going through ice cream.
(10:10):
You want that as small as possibleto produce the creaminess to it.
Um, the, um, the amount and what's goingin for the ingredients is a big part of
it and the quality of ingredients andwhere you're sourcing ingredients that
aren't made here is very important.
Um, Yeah, and the recipe of just likethe sugar and the heavy cream and
the whatever, all's coming together,it just was not coming together
(10:32):
quickly enough when we first started.
Cliff Duvernois (10:34):
And then you said something else too that I would
like to explore a little bit.
You made a comment about how your milk isas close to raw as you can legally get.
Why go that route versus likethe highly industrialized
Eric Westendorp (10:48):
Mm hmm.
Yeah, I think that's something my parentswanted to do that kind of that farm to
table We we love when people are likethis is how it's supposed to taste when
Grandpa's coming in like I used to getthe milk out of the ball tank and and
it tastes like That now again, and sothat's really cool to see where the and
it's called the line is called creamline So the cream literally rises to
the top if you don't shake that thingreally good You're gonna have a lot
(11:10):
of cream at the top of that gallon
Cliff Duvernois (11:11):
lot of cream at the top of the milk
Eric Westendorp (11:13):
so just as close to the natural state as possible.
So The other unique thing with movevilleis that the farm's at the top of the
hill So we have a pipeline going fromthe farm to moveville So we just open up
a valve and all the milk from the farmcomes flowing down and so it's not pumped
onto a trunk Truck, it's not pumped offof a truck and it's not moved around
as much and we have Since we bottletwice a week, cows can get milked on
(11:36):
Monday morning and that milk can stillbe on a jug and on a truck that day.
So our,
our
Cliff Duvernois (11:43):
life
Eric Westendorp (11:43):
life is longer than, than pretty much anywhere
else that I can think of.
It adds a few days to it because it's notgoing to a plant and getting, and waiting
there for a little bit or whatever.
It's moving as quickly as we can.
Cliff Duvernois (11:56):
And you made a comment before about how for this whole process
here, the milk is gravity fed becauseyour farm is literally right up the
Eric Westendorp (12:05):
from where this
Cliff Duvernois (12:05):
where this
location is where you make the ice
Eric Westendorp (12:07):
Right.
Yep.
And so that, that was one of the bigthings that my mom and dad were looking
at to, um, have it as natural as possible.
And again, with less pumping, the lessthat milk is getting moved around, the
less the molecules and the enzymes andproteins that are getting shaken up.
So it's in as close to as naturalstate as it could possibly get.
That's why we really like the creamline and that's what makes it unique.
(12:28):
We honestly don't, um,Sell too much of it.
A lot of coffee shops use it and thenpeople that are just are that let
the old timers I love that the oldtimers enjoy drinking cream line yet
Cliff Duvernois (12:39):
that's absolutely wonderful.
Um, for our going to take a quickbreak and thank our sponsors.
Once again, this is Total Michigan.
I'm your host, Cliff Duvenois.
Today, we are talking with Eric B.
Westendorp of, uh, Mooville in,uh, Nashville, Michigan, and
we'll see you after the break.
Cliff Duvernois (2) (12:55):
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Cliff Duvernois (13:51):
Hello everyone and welcome back to Total Michigan where
we interview ordinary Michigandersdoing some pretty extraordinary things.
I'm your host, Cliff Duvenois.
Today we're at Mooville locatedin Nashville, Michigan, and I'm
sitting with Eric Westendorp.
One of the owner operators, oneof the many family members that
are working here at the company.
And Eric before the break, we were talkinga little bit about the family business,
(14:15):
why it is that you do what you do, why youdecided to start creating products like
ice cream and everything else like that.
The question I got for you iscoming up in a family business.
I know that there are challenges.
That have to be faced andespecially looking at your website.
Your family is a little on the large
Eric Westendorp (14:35):
know,
Cliff Duvernois (14:35):
Which you know, we would expect that from a farm family,
but why don't you talk to us about?
what was one or two of thosekey challenges coming into?
the family business
Eric Westendorp (14:46):
Coming back into the family business, I went to Michigan
State, did a Dariac Tech program.
but my parents are very, welcomingto, for any of us to come back
and gave us tons of opportunity.
but just finding a role, findingyour niche, communicating well.
I think, uh, it is really important.
Well known for the people thatknow us well that communication
is not a strong suit around here.
So growing in that textmessages need to be bigger.
(15:08):
We didn't have family meetings.
We were only having family meetinglike once a year and now it's every
other week and then we you dreaded thatonce a year family meeting because you
knew there were so many Untalked aboutissues and so that was a huge growth,
thing that got implemented Really justgetting on the same page and having
that same focus and same goal of Andsame direction for everyone because
we all have a little different issues.
(15:29):
Whether it be the crops or the cowsor the creamery getting on the same
page and knowing where the next bigproject is going and not towards
the project that you thought it wasgoing What is just communication.
It's a it's a struggle and it's hardand we're still growing in that area.
Cliff Duvernois (15:43):
And everybody on the planet seems to have
struggles with communication.
So let's take a step back here asecond because, you know, I know
before the microphones went hot,you and I were talking a little bit
about the family business and, andhow it's structured a little bit.
And you said, well, we don'treally have positions here.
So I guess my next question to you is,you got a family dynamic that's going on.
You've, you've all grown up together, butnow you're also trying to work together.
(16:08):
How do you make sure that you're like,I guess the positions or the work you're
doing, like doesn't overlap with somebodyelse and what they're trying to do?
Eric Westendorp (16:16):
So we all have our areas that we have the most interest in and
just fell into place So I like the cows.
I like herd health.
I like being around the cows.
I like the milking process I likereproduction like all those kind of
things my older brother And we dooverlap some because we it's nice
to have accountability to just soyou're not running your own show and
having Doing whatever you want likewe all have interest in all the areas.
(16:36):
And my oldest brother does the cropsand he takes care of all those things,
and that's a huge project, and my dad,does that along with them as well.
My twin brother does all the icecream making, and then there's
triplets that are younger than us.
I don't know if Imentioned that to you yet.
We went one, two, three, and so the oldestbrother, he does all the processing.
He does, takes care of the deliverytrucks, and all that stuff down here.
And then there's two girls,and then one of them.
(16:58):
Does all the store managing and shemanages all the employees and, does
a lot of different things betweenthe four stores that we have too.
And then the youngest sister, she livesjust a few miles down the road, but she's,
married to a pastor and has nine kids.
So she's plenty busy, butshe helps out when she can.
And it's kind of fun when shebrings a busload of kids over and
then there's a bunch of niecesand nephews running around.
So
Cliff Duvernois (17:17):
running around.
Exactly.
We're here
Eric Westendorp (17:19):
Exactly.
It is true.
Like we are very, thankfulfor what God has done.
This is, any success that we'vehad is not pointed towards us, but
it is truly pointed towards him.
He's, he's the one that sustained us.
He's the one that provides for us too.
And We're a family business and we tryto, a Christian family business, and we
try to show that and we're closed everySunday We have been since we opened and
(17:40):
so even those first few years that wereStruggles financially and being closed on
Sunday on the busiest day of an ice creamof the week for ice cream of the week It
was I think it was a testament towards myparents towards their faithfulness towards
him while he's faithful to us as well
Cliff Duvernois (17:54):
a testament towards
towards
Eric Westendorp (17:56):
absolutely.
And even if, even if things weren't goingwell, I think, we can show faithfulness
to him in any, in a lot of different
Cliff Duvernois (18:03):
things weren't going well, that, I think, uh, we
can show faithfulness to him inany, in a lot of different ways.
For my own education andfor the audience as well.
Can you talk to us a little bit about howmany people come through here in a year?
How many, how many gallons of ice creamare you making and milk and stuff?
Do you got those numbers?
Eric Westendorp (18:23):
right?
I'm kind of rattling it around in my mind.
I don't know the numbers of howmany customers are going through.
I know a few years ago beforeCOVID we were doing around 10,
000, um, self guided visits andtour guides and stuff like that.
But I bet there's close toa hundred thousand people
that come through the doors.
Yeah, it, it's, it's a lotof people because a lot of, a
lot of people like ice cream.
Who would've thought?
(18:43):
and then, 20, we processed about20,000 gallons of milk every week
that gets delivered out and, yeah,and, and sold throughout our store.
So that's pretty neat.
And then I'm thinking the numberwas like 150,000 gallons of ice
cream was made on site here lastyear, which is, a pretty far.
Throw from the 500 gallons of year one andnow we're in year 19 of, so 500 gallons
(19:06):
total to 120, 000 is pretty, pretty wild.
And when we started to that,that was a thing we weren't
even looking to sell ice cream.
We just wanted to provideour own store with ice cream.
And then other local places arelike, can we buy ice cream from you?
And we're like, yeah.
I guess we can, I guess we'll try it.
And so that it just grew from there.
And now it's one of our biggestfinancially, sustaining things for
(19:29):
us is the, uh, wholesale ice cream.
Cliff Duvernois (19:31):
And that's how everybody seems to know you,
you
Eric Westendorp (19:34):
the ice cream.
I, yeah, the ice cream has growna lot and it is really good.
And we do, we look for the highestingredients and we do not take
any, cut any corners on, onthe ice cream process at all.
Cliff Duvernois (19:44):
Perfect.
And now I do.
So let's take a stepback here for a second.
So you've got the ice cream down pat.
you're using pretty muchas raw as green as you can.
You've got that brand.
Let's talk about the personwho has never been here before.
When they walk through thatdoor, what can they expect?
Eric Westendorp (20:01):
so when you get here, hopefully you see warm and
welcoming employees saying hi to youfirst right off the bat, too We like
that, but you're gonna walk in you'regonna see a little gift shop And then
you're gonna see the retail store.
So there's gonna be about 32 makethat 36 flavors out that you can pick
from at any time and then there'sall the sundaes and different things.
(20:22):
We make about 70 plus differentflavors, but they get rotated out
and some are, some are seasonally.
you're going to see all of ourdifferent milk products from the
cream line that I mentioned earlierwhole two percent skim moo brew,
which is the coffee flavored milk.
Chocolate milk, which I love thatmight be my favorite product that
we have here is the chocolate milk.
I can't stop we carry differentcheeses and butters and
Cliff Duvernois (20:42):
Oh, you're into
Eric Westendorp (20:44):
Yeah, we try to keep our hand in anything dairy and supporting the
dairy industry Not just ourselves of webring in cheese from Wisconsin to that
Henning cheese out of out of northernWisconsin is a place that we like To bring
our cheese in so that's what we alwayshave on on stock and As you continue
going through movable or whatever you'regoing to see some of the processing on
(21:04):
the back side We'd like to have windowsso you can see the process is going to
be made there's a petting zoo so a freepetting zoo with goats and chickens and
llamas and There's highland cattle outthere right now even so just to have
that experience in a playground Our goal,really is to have it family friendly.
So you can hang out for a few hoursand, and it not cost you a fortune.
(21:25):
We, that's why, we started with the freepetting zoo as well, just so families
can come hang out, grab a, grab anice cream cone and pet a goat for a
while and hang out as long as you want.
That way you, there's alwayssomething to do in the community.
Cliff Duvernois (21:37):
want.
That way there's alwayssomething to do in the community.
What about ice cream?
what would be some flavors ifsomebody were coming in, you've
got all these wonderful flavors.
Try this.
Fan favorite is this.
What would you recommend?
Eric Westendorp (21:49):
That's an easy one.
Sea Monster is the number one seller.
It's over vanilla, whichis just unheard of.
Sea Monster is sea salt caramel, cookiedough, and Oreo all mixed together.
And it is, it's, yes.
There, we have one retail shopthat we sell to in Saugatuck.
And he says, it makes me more moneyhaving Sea Monster in the cabinets
because people choose quicker andI can get through the line quicker.
(22:10):
And I was like, that's
Cliff Duvernois (22:11):
imagine every kid out there going, Oh, I want Sea Monster.
Yes, and there's Cookie Monster.
What?
Blue
Eric Westendorp (22:16):
Yes, you see my and there's cookie monster as well.
So that's like the blue likeblue moon But it's got the cookie
dough and Oreo in it as well.
So that's a big kid one as well.
Cookie Monster and then Chocolinator wouldbe another one that's everything chocolate
you can imagine just thrown togetherand that's, and that's Cookie Monster.
(22:37):
Honey Lavender is a unique one where it'sgot lavender and then real honey going
into it and it's kind of mixed together.
There's a few other, our butterpecan, I know it's like a classic
old mainstay, but the butterpecan here is really, really good.
It's coming from the basethat we were able to bring in.
So that's a good one.
yeah, there's a few otherflavors that are unique too.
And we've had We've thrown, we like tothrow some unique flavors, about once
(23:00):
a year we have new, five new flavorsand we'll throw some random one that's
not any good just for giggles I guess.
There was one, there was a pickle onea few years ago and that one like Fox
17 News came out and it's like, thisis silly, like it wasn't even good.
There's a ranch one that was terrible.
We did a pizza one with marinara andpepperoni in it and that one wasn't
good either, but there was just, we liketo come out with five new flavors just
for, just for fun and we normally do it
Cliff Duvernois (23:21):
you never know when one's going to take
Eric Westendorp (23:23):
right.
And they're, we normally do it inJanuary, February, when we're slow,
just to kind of have fun and, butthere's always new flavors coming out
that, that's done really well too,
Cliff Duvernois (23:31):
Pizza flavored ice
Eric Westendorp (23:32):
Yeah, I don't recommend it.
Cliff Duvernois (23:34):
if somebody is listening to this, right?
And they, they've heard your story.
They like the, the concept of, you know,you're about as close to raw as possible.
Where could they find your products?
Eric Westendorp (23:43):
All over the west side for sure.
Uh, you can also get onour website moodashville.
com.
There should be a retail store finder.
So if you put in your zip code orwhatever, pops up there, but there's,
if you're in the Lansing, Battle Creek,Grand Rapids area, there's Horrocks.
Horrocks is a really well known store andwe move a lot of product through there.
So that's, that's a big one.
Bigby is actually another one.
You don't, you can't buy it from there,but there's 45 Bigby's that we deliver to
(24:07):
between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo area.
And then otherwise, it'sa lot of mom and pop shop.
We're in for our biggest store We'renot we're in Meijer in Charlotte, which
is the local Meijer But other thanthat, it's a lot of mom and pop shops
that really kept us going from thebeginning That's when you have zero brand
recognition you beg and plead for anyoneto take you those first couple years.
They were so They've beenfaithful to us and we're hopefully
(24:29):
faithful towards them too.
And so that's been really good.
And we're able to move, wemilk 240 cows and we're able to
move all the milk, every week.
So that has been a goalfrom the beginning.
And we finally hit that goal last year.
So we're finally using all the milk,that we produce and nothing leaves the
farm and everything gets used here.
Cliff Duvernois (24:45):
so you, I want to explain this a little bit.
You were talking before about howyou getting into the mom and pop
shops and how that was so, important.
Why was that important?
Eric Westendorp (24:55):
Because we're kind of a mom and pop shop as well as family
oriented and and that's it's easierYou when you go towards those bigger
stores You got to pass through corporateand they have these weird Regulations
and you got to pass jump through thesehoops and we're simple I maybe we're
just simple people and we like simplethings So getting into a mom and pop
shop is a is an easier step and it'slocal and you talk to the owner and
they say yes Or no, and then that's that
Cliff Duvernois (25:17):
and if somebody is listening to this and they want to
maybe come check you out find you onlineWhat's the best way, for them to do that?
Eric Westendorp (25:23):
Facebook's the best place to go for sure.
most of our informationgets posted out on that.
Our website's reallygood and gets updated.
Like I said, moodashville.
com.
I think we're also on X and Instagram,but Facebook's definitely the place
where, I mean, the information getsposted everywhere, everywhere, but
Facebook is where all the followersare at for us, for us anyway.
Cliff Duvernois (25:42):
awesome Eric Thank you so much for taking
time to chat with us today.
Really do appreciate it.
Eric Westendorp (25:46):
bet.
Anytime.
Cliff Duvernois (25:47):
And for our audience, you can always roll on over to TotalMichigan.
com and click on Eric's interview andget the links that he mentioned above.
We will see you next time when wetalk to another Michigander doing
some pretty extraordinary things.
We'll see you then.
Really just getting on the same page and having that
(00:01):
same focus and same goal of And samedirection for everyone because we
all have a little different issues.
Whether it be the crops or the cowsor the creamery getting on the same
page and knowing where the next bigproject is going and not towards
the project that you thought it wasgoing What is just communication.
It's a it's a struggle and it's hardand we're still growing in that area.
Cliff Duvernois (00:21):
Hello everyone and welcome back to Total Michigan where
we interview ordinary michigandersdoing some pretty extraordinary things.
I'm your host Cliff DuVernois.
So So, Michigan has a lot of cows.
And because we have a lot ofcows, we have a lot of milk.
And of course, there's, there's peoplearound here that are just doing amazing
things with this very simple product.
(00:42):
And I remember how excited I was whenI was able to get today's guest onto
the show because they really are knownstatewide, especially for their ice cream.
So with that being said, ladies andgentlemen, I am actually sitting in
Moo-ville of all places in Nashville,Michigan and sitting across from me is
(01:02):
Eric Westendorp one of the owner operatorsof the big family that runs this place.
Eric, how are you?
Eric Westendorp (01:09):
great.
Thanks for having
Cliff Duvernois (01:10):
Awesome.
So why don't you tellus what is Moo-ville?
Eric Westendorp (01:13):
Ha, what is Mooville?
Mooville is a brainchildof my parents, actually.
So my mom and dad, uh, started dairyfarming in 1992 on their own place,
uh, with six kids under the age of six.
And then, excuse me, once we gotto high school, they realized
that the farm was a little toosmall for everyone to come back.
So in order to have an opportunity foreach one of us to come back, they did a
(01:35):
couple years of research to do a creamery.
And so they went all across the country,spent a couple years doing that,
looking at creameries and asking themadvice on what to do, what not to do.
And so in 2005, they built theCreamery and they all gave us
an opportunity to come back.
We all have a little bit ofdifferent interests, like
I have two sisters as well.
So it gave them opportunities notjust to have to do farm work or
(01:57):
be in the tractor or anything likethat or be able to help in a store.
So, uh, it just opened up a lotof different avenues and a lot
of different interests for allof us to be able to come back.
Cliff Duvernois (02:06):
Okay, so let's do that one again.
Okay.
So this time when I
ask you what move ill is, you know, makesure you talk about, you know, we have
ice cream, we have milk, we have what itis, we will get into the history of it.
So believe it or not, alot of people will do that.
We'll circle back to the history of it.
But this will be When I was talking toyou before about, about the, about the
(02:26):
B roll footage, like going around andgetting the ice cream, stuff like that.
This is your moment to say,this is, this is who we are.
This is what we do.
Right.
Okay.
So we'll just do that one again.
Eric, if you would justtell us what is Moo-ville?
Eric Westendorp (02:43):
Moville is an on farm creamery, uh,
that we started 17 years ago.
Uh, my parents did, and so weprocess all of our own milk.
We make a, a special lineof milk called Creamline.
So it's the closest to raw that wecan legally sell, cause it is, uh,
pasteurized, but it is not homogenized.
So all that fat content is still there.
So that is kind of a niche that we do.
(03:03):
We're the only one inthe state that does that.
But we also make a lot ofdifferent ice cream flavors.
We have a retail, uh, uh, store on site.
We have a petting zoo.
We have the farm on site and all of themilk that comes through Move O Creamery
is coming through our own cows and ourown crops that we have here on site.
Cliff Duvernois (03:17):
So it's literally, it's, you know, I don't want, I hate
to use the phrase womb to tomb, butliterally it's, you produce your own
milk, process it here, make your ownice cream, milk creamery, as you said
before, and then you sell it here as
Eric Westendorp (03:31):
Right.
We're very vertically integrated.
Everything from the crops, to the cows,to the milking, to the processing, uh,
to some of the delivery work is all donewith the Western Door Pan, isn't it?
Cliff Duvernois (03:43):
Oh, that's incredibly awesome.
And so why don't you tell us alittle bit about your backstory?
Where are you from?
Where did you grow up?
Eric Westendorp (03:48):
we moved when we were three years old,
when I was three year old.
Um, my, my twin brother werethree, my oldest brother was six.
And then we had a, my parents had a set oftriplets that were three months old when
they moved to this Nashville location.
Uh, we moved from Martin, whichis just South of Grand Rapids.
So we went from one tiny townto the, to another tiny town.
Cliff Duvernois (04:14):
The why behind this place, and it's my understanding that
your parents were the one that actuallydecided to start expanding out and
just do something more than milk,
right?
So talk to us a little bit about,about what that was that they did.
Eric Westendorp (04:28):
so when I was in high school, so it was about 15 years
ago, my parents wanted to give usan opportunity to come back to the
family business if we so choose.
Um, it wouldn't, there was noforce of hand into it at all.
It was just an opportunitythat they wanted to do.
So they did a lot of research, went aroundthe country, um, Looked into different
creameries what they did well what theydidn't do well, and then they came back
and built the creamery Um, and it allgave us an opportunity to come back if we
(04:53):
wanted to and it just um was a kind of apretty neat opportunity where Uh now all
six of us live within a few miles away.
We're all Have a hand in the in thecreamery and the family business so it
was just kind of a a neat opportunityfor my parents to be able to Allow
us to come back if we wanted to
Cliff Duvernois (05:10):
Now, usually when you see people who are farmers, right, whether
they're dairy farmers or corn farmers
whatever, it's usually somekind of a generational thing.
So now, was your, did your momand dad grow up on a dairy farm?
And that's why they wanted to get into it.
Did they, is this somethingyour grandparents actually
started as a dairy farm?
What
Eric Westendorp (05:28):
What was,
Yeah, that's a great question.
My pa my dad, uh, his dad was a great,was a farm dairy farmer as well.
So I'm third generation dairyfarm on my dad's side, and then
on my mom's side, uh, her parentsimmigrated from the Netherlands.
She was actually born in NewJersey, moved to Michigan.
Yes.
And so, uh, unfortunately my grandpa.
Mulder on my mom's side passed away froma farming accident when he was young.
(05:50):
So my grandma was widowed and uh, But theydid a lot of dairy farming kind of stuff
and that generation actually goes back 250years of dairy farming on my mom's side
Cliff Duvernois (06:00):
a lot of family members That
Eric Westendorp (06:02):
lot of family members There's that we have cousins
in canada that dairy farm cousins inin the netherlands that dairy farm.
So it's pretty neat to see
Cliff Duvernois (06:13):
As far as like the story goes with that, so
they decided to make this into a
Eric Westendorp (06:18):
creamer.
Cliff Duvernois (06:19):
Tell us what exactly is that?
Eric Westendorp (06:21):
Um, for us, it's an on site creamery, so
we process all of our own milk.
So, the farm's at the top of the hill, itgets gravity fed down into Mooville, and
we are doing all of our own processing.
So, we're homogenizing it, we'repasteurizing it, and we're doing all
the bottling ourself here on site.
Cliff Duvernois (06:39):
And when you're talking about this when you talk about
it being a creamer that means you
produce milk
Eric Westendorp (06:42):
means you Right.
Well, half and half heavy cream.
Cliff Duvernois (06:46):
Yes, okay wonderful now at some point in time you
decided to take that a step furtherAnd get into the ice cream business
When did where did that idea come from?
Eric Westendorp (06:58):
So that was always the original goal.
Getting there was a little harder.
So we had told everyone in the localcommunity that we would be open on
Memorial Day of 2005, I think it was.
And so we started trying to makeour own ice cream and it was
terrible, I mean just terrible.
Our first batch of ice cream actuallywent in the manure pit because we
just, we just threw it out and weactually had to bring in other ice cream
(07:22):
from other companies for the first.
I don't know, three or four monthsbefore we finally got our recipe down
and ice and enough inventory to beable to carry all of our own ice cream.
So even more creamery and our intentionswas to make our own ice cream.
We had to carry other people'sice cream for the first few months
just to get the ball rolling.
Cliff Duvernois (07:37):
Then talk to us a little bit about that
ice cream like making process.
Eric Westendorp (07:43):
Yeah, um, so we, like I said, we make all of it.
We have all of our own milk from our owncows here, so it gets, um, separated.
So when we make whole 2 percent skim,that cream is coming off the top and
that is coming off of our own milk.
From our own milk and so that cream isgoing into the ice cream mix So that gets
mixed in with a few other smaller thingsand then there's a batch or not a batch
(08:04):
machine But a continuous machine Andso all that concoctions come together.
And so when you make like a moosetracks or anything like that
There's also an ingredients filler.
So there's fudge going in andReese's peanut butter cups
going in and stuff like that.
So Yeah, it's quite the process.
Um, that's my twin brother's expertise.
And so I'm not great atknowing the ins and outs.
(08:25):
I just like eating it.
And everyone has likes thejoke of being the taste tester.
But, uh, yeah, it's it's a fun process tobe part because everyone loves ice cream.
So it's an easy sell, and it'senjoyable because we've won some
bigger awards from our ice cream, too.
And so it's really cool.
Yeah, there's, um, a national icecream, uh, conference and conference And
(08:46):
they, we got awarded, uh, national bestchocolate ice cream in the, in the country
Cliff Duvernois (08:51):
a couple years
Eric Westendorp (08:53):
vanilla a couple years ago as well.
Yeah, last year was chocolate, anda couple years before that, there's
a lot of different categories.
You got strawberry and all theother different flavors, but we won
chocolate and vanilla, uh, recently.
Cliff Duvernois (09:05):
Oh, see now I'm getting hungry.
Eric Westendorp (09:07):
Yeah.
Cliff Duvernois (09:09):
All right.
So you started up and youtalked before about how you
started off making ice cream And
you're for the first six months, Right?
You
really struggle with gettinggetting that recipe down.
Now, is it, is it something where youwere learning how to use the equipment?
Was it learning how to.
Use the right ingredients because,and I say this because I know
(09:31):
that for somebody to make asmall batch of ice cream at home,
it's a whole different
animal when you're looking at producinggallons upon gallons, thousands of
gallons for, you know, potentiallythousands of people that are going
to come walking through the door.
Talk to us about that learning curve.
Eric Westendorp (09:46):
Yeah, the learning curve.
So it's been a while ago.
I was just a sophomorein high school, too.
So I'm kind of racking my brain a littlebit, but I think the mistakes would
have came from every area possible fromfrom the machines from the ingredients
from the way we went about it.
Um, getting ice cream frozen as quicklyas possible coming out of the machine
and going back to the deep freezer,getting that, uh, having that time
being as little as possible, having theair content going through ice cream.
(10:10):
You want that as small as possibleto produce the creaminess to it.
Um, the, um, the amount and what's goingin for the ingredients is a big part of
it and the quality of ingredients andwhere you're sourcing ingredients that
aren't made here is very important.
Um, Yeah, and the recipe of just likethe sugar and the heavy cream and
the whatever, all's coming together,it just was not coming together
(10:32):
quickly enough when we first started.
Cliff Duvernois (10:34):
And then you said something else too that I would
like to explore a little bit.
You made a comment about how your milk isas close to raw as you can legally get.
Why go that route versus likethe highly industrialized
Eric Westendorp (10:48):
Mm hmm.
Yeah, I think that's something my parentswanted to do that kind of that farm to
table We we love when people are likethis is how it's supposed to taste when
Grandpa's coming in like I used to getthe milk out of the ball tank and and
it tastes like That now again, and sothat's really cool to see where the and
it's called the line is called creamline So the cream literally rises to
the top if you don't shake that thingreally good You're gonna have a lot
(11:10):
of cream at the top of that gallon
Cliff Duvernois (11:11):
lot of cream at the top of the milk
Eric Westendorp (11:13):
so just as close to the natural state as possible.
So The other unique thing with movevilleis that the farm's at the top of the
hill So we have a pipeline going fromthe farm to moveville So we just open up
a valve and all the milk from the farmcomes flowing down and so it's not pumped
onto a trunk Truck, it's not pumped offof a truck and it's not moved around
as much and we have Since we bottletwice a week, cows can get milked on
(11:36):
Monday morning and that milk can stillbe on a jug and on a truck that day.
So our,
our
Cliff Duvernois (11:43):
life
Eric Westendorp (11:43):
life is longer than, than pretty much anywhere
else that I can think of.
It adds a few days to it because it's notgoing to a plant and getting, and waiting
there for a little bit or whatever.
It's moving as quickly as we can.
Cliff Duvernois (11:56):
And you made a comment before about how for this whole process
here, the milk is gravity fed becauseyour farm is literally right up the
Eric Westendorp (12:05):
from where this
Cliff Duvernois (12:05):
where this
location is where you make the ice
Eric Westendorp (12:07):
Right.
Yep.
And so that, that was one of the bigthings that my mom and dad were looking
at to, um, have it as natural as possible.
And again, with less pumping, the lessthat milk is getting moved around, the
less the molecules and the enzymes andproteins that are getting shaken up.
So it's in as close to as naturalstate as it could possibly get.
That's why we really like the creamline and that's what makes it unique.
(12:28):
We honestly don't, um,Sell too much of it.
A lot of coffee shops use it and thenpeople that are just are that let
the old timers I love that the oldtimers enjoy drinking cream line yet
Cliff Duvernois (12:39):
that's absolutely wonderful.
Um, for our going to take a quickbreak and thank our sponsors.
Once again, this is Total Michigan.
I'm your host, Cliff Duvenois.
Today, we are talking with Eric B.
Westendorp of, uh, Mooville in,uh, Nashville, Michigan, and
we'll see you after the break.
Cliff Duvernois (2) (12:55):
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Cliff Duvernois (13:51):
Hello everyone and welcome back to Total Michigan where
we interview ordinary Michigandersdoing some pretty extraordinary things.
I'm your host, Cliff Duvenois.
Today we're at Mooville locatedin Nashville, Michigan, and I'm
sitting with Eric Westendorp.
One of the owner operators, oneof the many family members that
are working here at the company.
And Eric before the break, we were talkinga little bit about the family business,
(14:15):
why it is that you do what you do, why youdecided to start creating products like
ice cream and everything else like that.
The question I got for you iscoming up in a family business.
I know that there are challenges.
That have to be faced andespecially looking at your website.
Your family is a little on the large
Eric Westendorp (14:35):
know,
Cliff Duvernois (14:35):
Which you know, we would expect that from a farm family,
but why don't you talk to us about?
what was one or two of thosekey challenges coming into?
the family business
Eric Westendorp (14:46):
Coming back into the family business, I went to Michigan
State, did a Dariac Tech program.
but my parents are very, welcomingto, for any of us to come back
and gave us tons of opportunity.
but just finding a role, findingyour niche, communicating well.
I think, uh, it is really important.
Well known for the people thatknow us well that communication
is not a strong suit around here.
So growing in that textmessages need to be bigger.
(15:08):
We didn't have family meetings.
We were only having family meetinglike once a year and now it's every
other week and then we you dreaded thatonce a year family meeting because you
knew there were so many Untalked aboutissues and so that was a huge growth,
thing that got implemented Really justgetting on the same page and having
that same focus and same goal of Andsame direction for everyone because
we all have a little different issues.
(15:29):
Whether it be the crops or the cowsor the creamery getting on the same
page and knowing where the next bigproject is going and not towards
the project that you thought it wasgoing What is just communication.
It's a it's a struggle and it's hardand we're still growing in that area.
Cliff Duvernois (15:43):
And everybody on the planet seems to have
struggles with communication.
So let's take a step back here asecond because, you know, I know
before the microphones went hot,you and I were talking a little bit
about the family business and, andhow it's structured a little bit.
And you said, well, we don'treally have positions here.
So I guess my next question to you is,you got a family dynamic that's going on.
You've, you've all grown up together, butnow you're also trying to work together.
(16:08):
How do you make sure that you're like,I guess the positions or the work you're
doing, like doesn't overlap with somebodyelse and what they're trying to do?
Eric Westendorp (16:16):
So we all have our areas that we have the most interest in and
just fell into place So I like the cows.
I like herd health.
I like being around the cows.
I like the milking process I likereproduction like all those kind of
things my older brother And we dooverlap some because we it's nice
to have accountability to just soyou're not running your own show and
having Doing whatever you want likewe all have interest in all the areas.
(16:36):
And my oldest brother does the cropsand he takes care of all those things,
and that's a huge project, and my dad,does that along with them as well.
My twin brother does all the icecream making, and then there's
triplets that are younger than us.
I don't know if Imentioned that to you yet.
We went one, two, three, and so the oldestbrother, he does all the processing.
He does, takes care of the deliverytrucks, and all that stuff down here.
And then there's two girls,and then one of them.
(16:58):
Does all the store managing and shemanages all the employees and, does
a lot of different things betweenthe four stores that we have too.
And then the youngest sister, she livesjust a few miles down the road, but she's,
married to a pastor and has nine kids.
So she's plenty busy, butshe helps out when she can.
And it's kind of fun when shebrings a busload of kids over and
then there's a bunch of niecesand nephews running around.
So
Cliff Duvernois (17:17):
running around.
Exactly.
We're here
Eric Westendorp (17:19):
Exactly.
It is true.
Like we are very, thankfulfor what God has done.
This is, any success that we'vehad is not pointed towards us, but
it is truly pointed towards him.
He's, he's the one that sustained us.
He's the one that provides for us too.
And We're a family business and we tryto, a Christian family business, and we
try to show that and we're closed everySunday We have been since we opened and
(17:40):
so even those first few years that wereStruggles financially and being closed on
Sunday on the busiest day of an ice creamof the week for ice cream of the week It
was I think it was a testament towards myparents towards their faithfulness towards
him while he's faithful to us as well
Cliff Duvernois (17:54):
a testament towards
towards
Eric Westendorp (17:56):
absolutely.
And even if, even if things weren't goingwell, I think, we can show faithfulness
to him in any, in a lot of different
Cliff Duvernois (18:03):
things weren't going well, that, I think, uh, we
can show faithfulness to him inany, in a lot of different ways.
For my own education andfor the audience as well.
Can you talk to us a little bit about howmany people come through here in a year?
How many, how many gallons of ice creamare you making and milk and stuff?
Do you got those numbers?
Eric Westendorp (18:23):
right?
I'm kind of rattling it around in my mind.
I don't know the numbers of howmany customers are going through.
I know a few years ago beforeCOVID we were doing around 10,
000, um, self guided visits andtour guides and stuff like that.
But I bet there's close toa hundred thousand people
that come through the doors.
Yeah, it, it's, it's a lotof people because a lot of, a
lot of people like ice cream.
Who would've thought?
(18:43):
and then, 20, we processed about20,000 gallons of milk every week
that gets delivered out and, yeah,and, and sold throughout our store.
So that's pretty neat.
And then I'm thinking the numberwas like 150,000 gallons of ice
cream was made on site here lastyear, which is, a pretty far.
Throw from the 500 gallons of year one andnow we're in year 19 of, so 500 gallons
(19:06):
total to 120, 000 is pretty, pretty wild.
And when we started to that,that was a thing we weren't
even looking to sell ice cream.
We just wanted to provideour own store with ice cream.
And then other local places arelike, can we buy ice cream from you?
And we're like, yeah.
I guess we can, I guess we'll try it.
And so that it just grew from there.
And now it's one of our biggestfinancially, sustaining things for
(19:29):
us is the, uh, wholesale ice cream.
Cliff Duvernois (19:31):
And that's how everybody seems to know you,
you
Eric Westendorp (19:34):
the ice cream.
I, yeah, the ice cream has growna lot and it is really good.
And we do, we look for the highestingredients and we do not take
any, cut any corners on, onthe ice cream process at all.
Cliff Duvernois (19:44):
Perfect.
And now I do.
So let's take a stepback here for a second.
So you've got the ice cream down pat.
you're using pretty muchas raw as green as you can.
You've got that brand.
Let's talk about the personwho has never been here before.
When they walk through thatdoor, what can they expect?
Eric Westendorp (20:01):
so when you get here, hopefully you see warm and
welcoming employees saying hi to youfirst right off the bat, too We like
that, but you're gonna walk in you'regonna see a little gift shop And then
you're gonna see the retail store.
So there's gonna be about 32 makethat 36 flavors out that you can pick
from at any time and then there'sall the sundaes and different things.
(20:22):
We make about 70 plus differentflavors, but they get rotated out
and some are, some are seasonally.
you're going to see all of ourdifferent milk products from the
cream line that I mentioned earlierwhole two percent skim moo brew,
which is the coffee flavored milk.
Chocolate milk, which I love thatmight be my favorite product that
we have here is the chocolate milk.
I can't stop we carry differentcheeses and butters and
Cliff Duvernois (20:42):
Oh, you're into
Eric Westendorp (20:44):
Yeah, we try to keep our hand in anything dairy and supporting the
dairy industry Not just ourselves of webring in cheese from Wisconsin to that
Henning cheese out of out of northernWisconsin is a place that we like To bring
our cheese in so that's what we alwayshave on on stock and As you continue
going through movable or whatever you'regoing to see some of the processing on
(21:04):
the back side We'd like to have windowsso you can see the process is going to
be made there's a petting zoo so a freepetting zoo with goats and chickens and
llamas and There's highland cattle outthere right now even so just to have
that experience in a playground Our goal,really is to have it family friendly.
So you can hang out for a few hoursand, and it not cost you a fortune.
(21:25):
We, that's why, we started with the freepetting zoo as well, just so families
can come hang out, grab a, grab anice cream cone and pet a goat for a
while and hang out as long as you want.
That way you, there's alwayssomething to do in the community.
Cliff Duvernois (21:37):
want.
That way there's alwayssomething to do in the community.
What about ice cream?
what would be some flavors ifsomebody were coming in, you've
got all these wonderful flavors.
Try this.
Fan favorite is this.
What would you recommend?
Eric Westendorp (21:49):
That's an easy one.
Sea Monster is the number one seller.
It's over vanilla, whichis just unheard of.
Sea Monster is sea salt caramel, cookiedough, and Oreo all mixed together.
And it is, it's, yes.
There, we have one retail shopthat we sell to in Saugatuck.
And he says, it makes me more moneyhaving Sea Monster in the cabinets
because people choose quicker andI can get through the line quicker.
(22:10):
And I was like, that's
Cliff Duvernois (22:11):
imagine every kid out there going, Oh, I want Sea Monster.
Yes, and there's Cookie Monster.
What?
Blue
Eric Westendorp (22:16):
Yes, you see my and there's cookie monster as well.
So that's like the blue likeblue moon But it's got the cookie
dough and Oreo in it as well.
So that's a big kid one as well.
Cookie Monster and then Chocolinator wouldbe another one that's everything chocolate
you can imagine just thrown togetherand that's, and that's Cookie Monster.
(22:37):
Honey Lavender is a unique one where it'sgot lavender and then real honey going
into it and it's kind of mixed together.
There's a few other, our butterpecan, I know it's like a classic
old mainstay, but the butterpecan here is really, really good.
It's coming from the basethat we were able to bring in.
So that's a good one.
yeah, there's a few otherflavors that are unique too.
And we've had We've thrown, we like tothrow some unique flavors, about once
(23:00):
a year we have new, five new flavorsand we'll throw some random one that's
not any good just for giggles I guess.
There was one, there was a pickle onea few years ago and that one like Fox
17 News came out and it's like, thisis silly, like it wasn't even good.
There's a ranch one that was terrible.
We did a pizza one with marinara andpepperoni in it and that one wasn't
good either, but there was just, we liketo come out with five new flavors just
for, just for fun and we normally do it
Cliff Duvernois (23:21):
you never know when one's going to take
Eric Westendorp (23:23):
right.
And they're, we normally do it inJanuary, February, when we're slow,
just to kind of have fun and, butthere's always new flavors coming out
that, that's done really well too,
Cliff Duvernois (23:31):
Pizza flavored ice
Eric Westendorp (23:32):
Yeah, I don't recommend it.
Cliff Duvernois (23:34):
if somebody is listening to this, right?
And they, they've heard your story.
They like the, the concept of, you know,you're about as close to raw as possible.
Where could they find your products?
Eric Westendorp (23:43):
All over the west side for sure.
Uh, you can also get onour website moodashville.
com.
There should be a retail store finder.
So if you put in your zip code orwhatever, pops up there, but there's,
if you're in the Lansing, Battle Creek,Grand Rapids area, there's Horrocks.
Horrocks is a really well known store andwe move a lot of product through there.
So that's, that's a big one.
Bigby is actually another one.
You don't, you can't buy it from there,but there's 45 Bigby's that we deliver to
(24:07):
between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo area.
And then otherwise, it'sa lot of mom and pop shop.
We're in for our biggest store We'renot we're in Meijer in Charlotte, which
is the local Meijer But other thanthat, it's a lot of mom and pop shops
that really kept us going from thebeginning That's when you have zero brand
recognition you beg and plead for anyoneto take you those first couple years.
They were so They've beenfaithful to us and we're hopefully
(24:29):
faithful towards them too.
And so that's been really good.
And we're able to move, wemilk 240 cows and we're able to
move all the milk, every week.
So that has been a goalfrom the beginning.
And we finally hit that goal last year.
So we're finally using all the milk,that we produce and nothing leaves the
farm and everything gets used here.
Cliff Duvernois (24:45):
so you, I want to explain this a little bit.
You were talking before about howyou getting into the mom and pop
shops and how that was so, important.
Why was that important?
Eric Westendorp (24:55):
Because we're kind of a mom and pop shop as well as family
oriented and and that's it's easierYou when you go towards those bigger
stores You got to pass through corporateand they have these weird Regulations
and you got to pass jump through thesehoops and we're simple I maybe we're
just simple people and we like simplethings So getting into a mom and pop
shop is a is an easier step and it'slocal and you talk to the owner and
they say yes Or no, and then that's that
Cliff Duvernois (25:17):
and if somebody is listening to this and they want to
maybe come check you out find you onlineWhat's the best way, for them to do that?
Eric Westendorp (25:23):
Facebook's the best place to go for sure.
most of our informationgets posted out on that.
Our website's reallygood and gets updated.
Like I said, moodashville.
com.
I think we're also on X and Instagram,but Facebook's definitely the place
where, I mean, the information getsposted everywhere, everywhere, but
Facebook is where all the followersare at for us, for us anyway.
Cliff Duvernois (25:42):
awesome Eric Thank you so much for taking
time to chat with us today.
Really do appreciate it.
Eric Westendorp (25:46):
bet.
Anytime.
Cliff Duvernois (25:47):
And for our audience, you can always roll on over to TotalMichigan.
com and click on Eric's interview andget the links that he mentioned above.
We will see you next time when wetalk to another Michigander doing
some pretty extraordinary things.
We'll see you then.
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