It’s Official. I am a yogurt groupie.

Readers of this blog have long known of my love affair w/ a certain yogurt.  WELL.  This past Friday, I just so happened to be in New Hampshire.  Although time was tight (my kids were due home from school), and I knew I’d have mere minutes to gaze in wonder upon Stonyfield Farm, I was NOT GOING TO MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY.  I could not, would not, return to Maine without making the pilgrimage to the mecca of organic yogurt.  So I drove south, speeding all the way – through Manchester, past the mall, round the airport, to a most unexpected sight.

WOWZA!  There I was – two minutes away from Stonyfield Farm – and a plane was nearly landing on my car.  Hmm..  Not quite the idyllic setting I’d imagined.

Picture this.  You’ve been “dating” a guy online for a while.  He looks good and sounds even better.  You’re ready to make that face-to-face plunge.  So you schedule to meet someplace, only when you arrive – you can’t find him anywhere.   Eventually another guy meanders over and sheepishly explains that HE is your guy.  You see.  He fudged his photo.

When I arrived at Stonyfield Farm Yogurt Works I felt very much like that.  Why?  B/c I had pictured Stonyfield Farm looking like the scene on its label.  Pastures, animals, manure.

Instead I got:

This is Stonyfield Farm.

Contrary to the pastoral scene on the front of each and every one of its recyclable cups, Stonyfield is actually born in an industrial park.  Where there are no real cows.  A good thing, too, because there was barely any grass.  The Yogurt Works is a factory.  A large but otherwise nondescript building located in an office park behind the Manchester Airport.

I should have anticipated this.  Right?  I mean, how else can Stonyfield mass produce the best selling organic yogurt on the face of the planet?  By hand, in a barn?  Still – I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t let down.  By the way, they no longer give tours.

They do have an 11-minute video.  Which is cute.  And informative.  But as a true groupie, it just wasn’t enough.  How long is the yogurt left in the incubator? The cool-down tunnels?  How many HONKIN CUPS are stored on all those pallets?  I wanted more.  Much more.  And when I got home I realized something else.  The woman at the Stonyfield Farm Yogurt Works Gift Shop (although pleasant) actually overcharged me by F-I-V-E whole D-O-L-L-A-R-S.  My t-shirt was on sale.  It was clearly marked.  ??!!  I should have been paying more attention.

And speaking of attention.  I just noticed something else.  If you look closely at that enormous Yogurt Cup above (yes, I will wait for you to scroll up & back down…) you will see that it says STONYFIELD – BUT. It no longer says Farm.  Stonyfield.  But no – Farm.

The old Stonyfield Farm logo had the word farm.  I know this b/c earlier that day I’d been at the New Hampshire Historical Society.

And back when I did the Yogurt Taste-off, the cups still said Farm.

But in 2009, Stonyfield changed its logo.  I knew all about this b/c as a true groupie, I belong to the online MyStonyfield website.  I’d been asked for my opinion by the marketing group responsible for the Stonyfield makeover.  (Note: they didn’t pick my first choice of logos – which looked more like their old logo – but that’s o-kay.  I am not bitter and still love Stonyfield as much as ever.)  I of course noted when the new cups came out.  Being a yogurt groupie, one tends to notice these things.  Unfortunately, I must be love blind b/c until this very moment I failed to notice they’d removed the word FARM altogether.  Strange but true.

The new logo is pretty.  It’s fresh, and new.  Not as good as my first choice, of course, but lovely all the same.  I read an online appraisal of this change.  People seem divided as to the aesthetic, but I’m happy to see most people are still united as to what’s inside.  Stonyfield Farm yogurt is Good.  And really, that’s what counts.  Right?  So I will leave you with a photo of me in my new tee shirt.  Which I love even though I paid $5 more for it than I should have.

Once a groupie, always a groupie.

0 thoughts on “It’s Official. I am a yogurt groupie.

  1. !!! Gasp!
    How, HOW, I ask, could they do that?!

    (perchance that’s why the new logo was contrived? “Say, I mean, Smiddy, we’re not actually on a farm…”, “Yes yes Gregory, but cows ARE…”)

    (I just imagine yogurt company employees all speaking queen’s english)

    Anyway, Sorry there wasn’t a tour, but hooray to creamy goodness!

    P.S.
    More stories from you please.
    kthanksbai

  2. Husband and I love Stonyfield yoghurt. BUT… they are an organic company who used NON recyclable containers! That puts my knickers all in a twist.

  3. Maybe the organic farms producing the milk look like the idyllic place you imagined…Let’s keep the dream alive!

    XOX
    Mom

  4. Snow storm that started yesterday as flurries intensified overnight leaving 9″ of the light fluffy stuff by 6:30 this morning. We cleaned up the driveway with a plow, using snowblower & shovel to clear walkways & steps for deck & front stoop. I just came in from clearing 3 ” more, noticing the snow flakes are getting larger & feeling a heavier water content in this later snow. It’s still coming down. We are safer driving w/o freezing slush. Hopefully, our snow will stay on the ‘dry’ side. Yours, closer to the coast, must be pretty wet. Your latest photos are great. Madison is such a beautiful girl; Georgia, a clowning ham. My brainy sister was delicate like Maddy. Me, I identify with her younger sister. Georgia, did you know I am katklown? Next time I’m intown with jars for your Mom, I’ll include some pictures of me & my puppet Poopsie,… or Patsy,… or Potsy. Maybe I’ll just come dressed up & show you how slow the puppet walks. When the swine flu is gone, I’ll go back into the nursing homes with the pupppet. W/o the puppet, I’m just a person dressed up in baggy clothes & a huge tie. I think I told you, once before, that I’ld appear as katklown someday. Hope you’re having great fun in the snow. I’m so glad that your family is able to use the dining room. What a joy to have that room returned to its original use. Kate

  5. Kiwi has such an enigmatic look on her little birdy face. I can’t tell if she’s pointing at you with her beak and rolling her eye(s) because she is telling us she thinks you’re nuts; or if she is insanely jealous of your t-shirt; or if she is afraid you’re going to make her eat yogurt…

  6. Hi, this is my first time posting a comment here. I like your yogurt post. I also like yogurt, but I don’t eat it as often as I like. I’m going to buy Stonyfield next time I go shopping.

    I’ll drop by again.

  7. so dishy, have you gone awol on the house projects…I was so wanting to see the dining room 🙂 not the best weather for house reno. more like hunker down and just stay warm, yes?
    peace and love, connie

  8. Bouncy babe – I will be happy to share more stories soon! Have spent the past 3 days trying to recover all of my pictures from a very d-e-a-d (crashed) iPhoto. It was looking bleak – thank GOD for my husband. He recovered everything yesterday. I am breathing again.. Hope all’s swell w/ chu!

    S.Le. I had the very same complaint when we lived in Philly. Now in Portland we can recycle EVERYTHING. Single stream recycling, every kind of plastic. It’s awesome.

    Oh Connie – you know I’d do anything for STONYFIELD (**hearts & stars**) !

    Um, nice picture there curls. Where are the FLAT-UNS?! LL Bean calls. xo

    Thanks MOO – you always know what to say. Love you!

    Kate, hope you survived all the shoveling. My back is better than last storm, but I am still recovering. We got at least a foot & a half. The girls are building igloos it’s so deep. PS: Thanks for the compliments!

    Gracias Hayden! Passion is GOOD.

    Tracie, you crack me up. And you’ve inspired me to write a post all about Kiwi -!

    Hi Tammy, WELCOME. And Happy Birthday!

    Oooh Connie. As stated above, have spent better part of 3 days agonizing over (lost, now found) photos. But will get cracking on the dining room post. At least the room is done! LOL HAPPY ALMOST BDAY TO YOU!!

  9. Unfortunately I detest the thought of anything called ‘yogurt’ passing my lips, so I am no one to spoon from the plastic tub (re-cyclable or not). However if it is in a curry sauce and not labelled…..’contains yogurt’……then I will happily devour it! Who thought of that strange name anyway?

  10. Ha! Harry, you are missing one of the premier miracle foods! But I could not agree more about the curry. Indian food is one of my favorite things in the world. Since moving to Portland we’ve discovered a few great restaurants. One is an Brit-Indi take away with luscious curries. Another is closer to my husband’s work and does brilliant lunch specials. The third is more local, and has a lunch buffet a few days a week. I now need a samosa desperately!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.