Wright Dairy

Wright Dairy Ice Cream in Inverness

Wright Dairy is a Calhoun County dairy farm which retails their products at a café and ice cream parlor in Inverness.

Milton and Ruth Wright began farming on land near Ragland in St Clair County in the late 1940s, calling the enterprise Riverbend Farm. In 1947 they began selling cow's milk to a creamery in Boaz and then, at the suggestion of a local doctor, established a bottling plant to distribute their milk commercially.

The Milton's delivered pasteurized milk and buttermilk to homes and schools in the Ragland area until 1953 when grocery stores and cheap automobiles forced them out of the market. They continued to wholesale their milk, boosting revenues by increasing the herd with Holsteins.

In 1977 the Wright's son, David purchased the 200-acre Canebrake Farm on U.S. Highway 431 in Alexandria (Calhoun County). The farm had its own established herd of Holsteins, which foraged on corn and sorghum, as well as being fed commercial feed.

In the 1990s, facing insurmountable competition from much-larger commercial dairies, the Wrights decided to reduce the size of their operation and to return to a traditional grass-fed herd. In February 2000 the first bottle of milk since the mid-1950s was produced at Wright Dairy. They opened a farm store to sell their milk as well as various Amish-made dairy products. In 2001 they began offering tours of the farm.

On September 1, 2006, Carla Manning, granddaughter of Milton and Ruth, opened a retail outlet, café and ice cream parlor in the Inverness Heights Market shopping center at 5037 U.S. Highway 280 in Inverness.

The cafe features a selection from any of 46 flavors of "super premium" ice cream as well as sandwiches and daily plate lunch specials.

External links

• Wright Dairy website
• Wright Dairy Ice Cream & Natural Foods website