Forty-one miles from
campus there’s a little
creamery that makes 40
flavors of the best ice
cream in the country, is
run by former Texas A&M
students and convinces
the cows that Brenham is
heaven.
In an attempt to see
what impresses all those
cows on the commercial,
At Ease took a road trip to
Blue Bell Creameries Inc.
to get the scoop on the
little creamery in
Brenham.
It all started in the early
1900s, explained tour
director Cynthia Kenjura.
Originally called the
Brenham Creamery
Company, Blue Bell
produced only butter. But
folks in Brenham urged
the company to use some
of its excess cream to
make ice cream. Finally in
1911, the creamery
began making ice cream
— two gallons at a time.
Back then, the ice
cream was delivered by
horse-drawn wagons. But
the 1930s brought
refrigerated trucks, and
the creamery obtained its
first truck in 1936.
During the ’30s,
Kenjura said, it was
fashionable to name dairy
products after a flower,
like Lilly (in Bryan) and
Carnation. Thus, the
company’s name was
changed to Blue Bell—
named after the state
We all
scream...
flower, the bluebonnet
Blue Bell introduced a
supreme ice cream by
1940, Kenjura said, and
in the *50$ stopped
making butter and
concentrated on the ice
cream.
story by Anne Dejoie
photos by Laura Halt
“They decided they
would just devote all their
energy to making a good
ice cream, ” Kenjura said.
They, of course, refers to
company president
Howard and his brother
and chief executive officer
Edward F. Kruse — both
graduates of Texas A&M
who began making ice
cream with their father
when they were 11 and
13 years old.
Despite penetration
into Houston and other
markets in the early ’60s,
Blue Bell continued to
hand-pack the ice cream
until the company moved
into its current building in
1972. •
Blue Bell’s
manufacturing has
become automated and
the products are
distributed to 13
warehouses in Texas, but
the company still puts a
little tender loving care
into every scoopful of ice
cream it produces.
However, Blue Bell has
never actually owned its
own dairy, and the cows
don’t all live in Brenham
anymore.
“We have always
purchased the milk from
dairies, at one time local, ”
Kenjura explained. “Now
the abundance we need is
so tremendous that it
comes from all over the
state.”
Once small enough to
use its own milk c^ns to
collect fresh raw milk.
Blue Bell now buys the
milk from co-ops that
purchase itfrom the
dairies.
Kenjura said that
50,000 cows are milked
every day to provide the