From the Desk of the Chief Ice Cream Dipper

We use no till farming for much of the crops we grow.  No-till farming, is a considered a kind of conservation tillage system and is sometimes called zero tillage. It is a way of growing crops from year to year without disturbing the soil through tillage. Once called chemical farming, the reference was subdued in order to promote the idea of no-till being more natural.

This minimizes soil and water erosion and the level of pesticides needed to grow things like corn and soybeans and actually sequesters carbon in the soil - not releasing it into the atmosphere.  We of course also use a lot of 'natural fertilizer' - the by-product of having cows!  This reduces the amount of manufactured fertilizer we purchase and apply to our crops. 

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One of the coolest things we started doing about 12 years ago is recycling our wastewater.  All of the wastewater from both restaurants and the ice cream room goes through a four stage process to organically break down the 'gray water' to water we can use to irrigate our fields and the Udders & Putters facility (both miniature golf courses & the driving range). 

We operate an advanced facility called a 'wetlands filtration system' that aerates and stores the wastewater until we can use it.  We recycle about 3,000,000 gallons of water each year at Young's!

Since we also operate our own water wells, pumps, and chlorination system, we in essence keep almost all the water we use here on the farm.  We pump it out of the ground, treat it, use the water for drinking, washing dishes, cooking, etc.  We capture it, treat it and use the water to irrigate the water on our fields.

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Cardboard

As you can probably imagine, we go through a lot of cardboard in a day.  All of the different food items we have available at our stores comes in cardboard, things being sold in our gift shop come in cardboard boxes, even the golf balls that we sell at the driving range come in cardboard boxes.

When we started recycling cardboard, we actually got paid for it because not many businesses were doing it and the demand for used cardboard was high.  Times have changed and for the last decade or so, we have paid the waste company to haul the cardboard away to get recycled.  By doing this, we are reducing the amount of landfill space needed and of course are using less trees & energy. 

Aluminum Cans

Most of you know that for the past few summers, we have had a promotion with Pepsi to place a coupon on Mountain Dew cans.  This has been one of our most popular promotions, and as can be expected - we have collected a lot of Mountain Dew cans, 70,000 to be exact (or close to exact - that's a lot of cans to count). 

We donate these cans to local charitiable organizations to recycle - they pick them up and take them to the recycling plant and keep the money to support their organizations.  We have had some success in recycling cans from our company picnics during the year as well, using the same method.

Cooking Oil

We have been recycling our cooking oil for over 10 years.  After we cook our french fries, onion rings, chicken and other goodies in the oil, it goes back to special equipment that filters the oil and otherwise cleans it for many uses - animal feed, cosmetics & soap.  In the past few years, scientists have been able to use recycled cooking oil to burn in diesel trucks, busses and cars. 

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Plastic Three Gallons for Ice Cream 

We started using plastic three gallons and lids for our ice cream about 15 years ago.  Before that time, we used disposable cardboard containers with metal rims (the old timers around here remember these - the metal rims sometimes were very sharp).  These cardboard containers were one time use only, then we threw them out.

By reusing the plastic containers, we get about 10 or so uses for each container before it develops a crack or breaks.  I estimate over the past 15 years we have used 200,000 less three gallon ice cream containers.  That's 200,000 less in the landfill, fewer trees used, and less overall energy used.

Use of Plates & Metal Tableware at The Dairy Store

At the beginning of our foodservice at the Dairy Store, we used pretty much all disposable plates and plastic tableware.  While we still use quite a bit of disposable items at The Dairy Store, we have reduced our waste stream significantly over the years by investing in reusable plates, bowls, knives, forks and spoons.   

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Many of you may not be aware of all the things we do at Young's to minimize our waste, reduce energy usage and to reduce our use of natural resources. Below are some things we have done over the years and continue to do. Some of these things we've been doing for more than 15 years, and some are more recent.

Over the coming weeks, I will talk about some of the things we do around the farm to help reduce our "environmental footprint". This is important to me and all of us who work at Young's. I feel good when we use less resources and especially energy resources. Anything I can do to reduce the amount of oil we import or coal we burn helps our country and the environment.

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