Pictured along with this article is David Wright. I actually knew of David long before I knew him personally. He is the dairyman that owns Wright Dairy in Alexandria, Alabama. I usually find that most dairymen have mutual respect for one another. Perhaps that's because each of us knows the amount of work and dedication it takes to run what can only be described as a relentless endeavor. David and I, in fact our entire families, hold this type of mutual respect for one another. About 13 years ago I was looking to add some grass-fed cheese to our offering. Julie and I took a drive to Alexandria to basically cold-call the Wrights. I wanted to check out the operation to make sure their values about farming were consistent with mine. I was impressed with the operation and their utilization of pasture grass and rotational grazing. David was a great host. We bought some cheese for our personal use, toured the operation, and made arrangements to offer his cheese to our customers. A great relationship was born.
Fast forward several years and David was looking for something to do with some extra milk production. He and I had a conversation about butter. I informed him that there wasn't really a great butter product on the market and that I felt like we had a lot of demand for the right product. David threw himself into researching how to make the best butter. Ultimately he landed on a purely grass-fed butter, but not just from any grass. He would collect all of the cream from the spring months when cows were eating the most lush grass of the year. Those lush spring pastures in Alexandria Alabama is where our butter has come from for the last several years. I honestly think we had some of the best butter in this country, and I don't really see how any butter anywhere in the world could have been much better. That is how local organic business growth is supposed to take place. It's a beautiful thing when done right. Nobody trying to take advantage of the other, just folks working together to be beneficial to each other and their customers.
David called me last week. Unfortunately, he called to tell me that he wouldn't be making butter any longer. He explained that at 73 years old, and with a recent hip replacement he could no longer bear the burden of the more labor-intensive butter-making process. He is still planning to make cheese for a while longer, but he didn't commit to a timeline. At least another year of cheese was the way he put it.
That announcement led to a long conversation. One where he told me that he and his family debated over who would call Chad to break the news. That debate went on until his wife and son both just said "We aren't calling Chad, you'll have to do it." I didn't really understand why they didn't want to call me at first, did they think I would be upset? I think it goes back to the mutual respect between two dairy farm families. Maybe they felt like they were letting me down. I told David that we all have a life to live, and along life's journey, we sometimes have to make decisions based on our own unique circumstances. I wasn't upset, in fact, I was proud that he is able to slow down when he needs to. I'm even more grateful that we had literally the world's best butter for as long as we did. I told him that our friendship is solid and that we still wanted to carry his cheese as long as he wants to make it.
Butter season at Wright Dairy has come to a close.
We have begun the process of finding a suitable replacement, but we take this pursuit seriously. We will need to find the right fit with someone that we know and trust. They will need to share the same values you have come to expect from our products. Rest assured that when we find this dairy we will introduce them to you and provide the transparency you should expect. I'm honestly not sure we will be able to find a butter as good as what we've had from Wright Dairy, but we will put in the effort and report back soon. We have been out of butter for several weeks now, if any of you have found a replacement that you are happy with please let me know and I'll reach out.
