Bottling plant may mean new hope for Warden

Operation expanding beyond milk soon

WARDEN — They're bottling hope along with milk in the midst of a struggling economy.

Country Morning Farms ran its first product in its new bottling factory the first week of January.

The farm itself has been in operation since 1981, said co-owner Bob Gilbert. In October of 2003, the bottling plant in Othello caught fire and burned down.

"We had been talking about building a new plant — it was an old, antiquated plant, so we had talked about it," he said. When the plant burnt down, Gilbert and his brother Gerry, had to decide whether to build a new bottling plant, or just focus on the dairy, finally deciding to build a new plant.

"We came primarily to Warden because of the Port district," Gilbert explained. "That way, we have wells, water, permitting process, everything. And our dairy is only five miles away from Warden, so we located closer to the dairy site."

The plant presently shares employees with the farm and dairy, primarily because it is still in the process of starting up and still under construction, Gilbert said. He hired one new employee, he said, and estimated that he would be hiring more in the near future as soon as things get going.

At the moment, the plant strictly bottles one-gallon jugs of milk straight off of the Country Morning Farms dairy. Those are sold primarily to distributors, with coverage including Marysville, Spokane and Yakima, Gilbert said.

But Gilbert said there are plans to also bottle things like horchata, a Mexican rice drink, beginning April 1, and some other fruit and citrus drinks.

"More than just a milk plant, we're looking at a bottling plant," he said, adding that while nothing is finalized in terms of marketing, "it looks very promising."

The Gilberts have lived in the Othello area all their lives, and the brothers have been in partnership ever since Bob got out of school. Bob said he manages the physical aspect of the Country Morning Farms plant, farm and dairy, while Gerry is the general manager and handles marketing and office work.

When U & I Sugar left the area around 1980, the brothers purchased the farm east of Othello from a brother-in-law who had developed allergies and was unable to continue managing it. At the same time, the Dairyland bottling plant — that which burnt down — became available for sale, and the Gilberts ultimately began processing their own milk, operating dairies around the region for a number of years before purchasing its present facilities, and expanding from there.

The plant will be operating year-round.

"It's probably the first new jobs that have been created (in Warden) in quite some time," said Port of Warden manager Mike Conley, adding that new jobs are "absolutely" necessary. "The Port was happy to be a part of getting this property available, and thanks the county for their support in helping pay for sewer and water… There are a lot of thank yous to go around."

Because the plant "just barely" began to operate, Conley said, there aren't many benefits to be seen yet, but they are anticipated as things get up and running.

"We've had a lot of people coming and putting applications in," Gilbert said. "When it first started, they were coming in and picking up. Although, this bottling plant takes certain individuals as far as quality. We've got to have a little bit more, because this moves a lot faster than our old plant."

Gilbert estimated that the new bottling plant processes its milk three times faster than the old one. In addition, the plant is under U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, and has federal requirements because it goes into other states, Bob said.

"Milk, you've got to be super-clean anyway," he said, adding that the plant is looking for employees with the proper mentality to get things just right. "We're a food processing plant. We're delivering to the public and we've got to be as clean as we can."

Four employees have been retained from the plant that burnt down, Gilbert said.

"There's been a good response, and it's needed in the community," he reiterated of Warden. "Hopefully, we can be a good asset."