Du Jour: Warren Smith, Smith Creamery

Six days a week, rain or shine, dairy farmers Warren and Sandra Smith of Smith Creamery set up shop in regional farmers markets to showcase their line of unique dairy products. Impossibly creamy, a sip of milk from a sampler cup sparks follow up questions about what exactly has gone into this concoction to make it so good. “Nothing,” says Warren Smith, except the untainted, nutrient-filled work of happy cows.

Smith Creamery was once your typical mid-size dairy operation, a 250-acre farm that traditionally sold raw milk up the supply chain to bottling plants. But by 2000, the Smiths began to explore a new business model, one based not on volume, but on a high-quality product sold directly to consumers. By 2002, the farm had released its own line of non-homogenized milk and country butter, which quickly developed a loyal following and received kudos from national critics. The butter was a Grand Prize winner in the October 2004 issue of the Rosengarten Report. Two years later, the farm added another key item: Creole cream cheese, the fresh cheese once created by family-owned Louisiana dairies. By the 1980s, when most small farms were bought by national conglomerates, the practice had all but died out.

“We kept experimenting to get it right,” Smith says. “We’d have people taste it and tell us what they thought.” As one of only two companies currently producing Creole cream cheese, Smith Creamery has witnessed firsthand the product’s emotional pull. “It’s definitely something people felt strongly about,” he says. Somewhere between sour cream and yogurt, the tangy spread’s application is often intensely personal, ranging from salted and spread on toast to topped with sugar and fresh fruit.

Smith Creamery’s products include skim, whole and chocolate milk, half and half, heavy cream, country butter, Creole cream cheese and seasonal specialty items. For a list of Baton Rouge outlets, click here.

To read previous Du Jour features on local chefs and other culinary experts, click here.