October 8, 1956 New Milk Plant Open

The Geneva Times reported on October 8, 1956 that the new Milk Plant on Cayuga Street in Interlaken was open and an open house was planned.

“The plant was erected during the summer by the Floriat Dairy Products Company of Brooklyn, at an estimated cost of $125,000.” Sheffield Farms Inc. of New York City had an earlier milk plant on the same site.

Continuing to describe, the new facility “contains new can washer, new milk cooler, and two new 4,000 gallon holding tanks.”

The plant manager, Lawrence Peer, noted that they went into operation with “fluid milk hauled from 100 dairies in the area. The fluid milk hauled into the plant by the farmers each day is shipped by tank truck to New York City where it is bottled.”

The service area for the plant included patrons from Interlaken, Trumansburg, Lodi, Sheldrake Springs, Ovid and Ovid Center.

The Sheffield  milk plant, torn down to be replaced with the new milk plant in 1956.
Interlaken Historical Society photo #497

In 2015, when writing an article for the Covert Memories book, John Hunt shared memories of the milk plant.

Where the Pine Tree Farm operation is now, there used to be the Fiorlat Receiving Plant for milk. Farmers would bring their milk in large galvanized milk cans that you see used for decoration now. The evening milk was strained to remove straw pieces, placed into cans, and then into a can cooler in the milk house. Ours pumped ice water over the closed cans to cool it. After the morning milking, all the cans were loaded onto the pickup and you would wait your turn to unload onto the conveyor, which moved the cans into the plant. Each farm had its own number painted on their cans so as they sampled and weighed your milk, you got credit for your milk. After being emptied, the can went through a wash process and slid out to the other end where you took them back. The milk was loaded onto a semi-truck to take for processing into cheese at Campbell or Watkins Glen. [Covert Memories 1950-2015, Interlaken Historical Society 2016, page 94]

After being closed for several years, the building was purchased and used by Egg-it, Inc. Today, it has been remodeled over the years, and is home to Pine Tree Farms.

Dewitt’s Diary, Monday October 8, 1956

Temperature 60, strong south west wind.

We pulled one half of the red beans today.