Hudsonville Ice Cream started as a farmers' co-op for milk

The ice cream that carries Hudsonville’s name didn’t begin with ice cream at all. It began in 1895 as a dairy cooperative. That was a way for local farmers to pool their milk and get it to market together. Making and selling ice cream came almost thirty years later, in 1926. The Hudsonville Creamery turned its cream into a sideline. That sideline would outlast the milk routes.

By 1940 the creamery had a steady lineup of six flavors. The list tells you it was a different era of taste: orange pineapple, butter pecan, tutti frutti, plus the familiar vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. A longtime employee named Dick Hoezee bought the cooperative in 1946. He moved the operation south to Burnips in Salem Township. That crossroads is where it grew into a regional favorite. People drove out of their way to buy it.

The brand has wandered around West Michigan ever since, even as the name stayed put. In 2003 new owners moved production again, this time to Holland. There they built the large modern plant that now turns out Hudsonville pints and scoops for stores across the state. The company still runs as a family business. It still leans on cream and milk from nearby farms. That’s the same idea those 1895 farmers had, just at a much bigger scale.

So the name on the carton is a town in Ottawa County. The recipe traces back to a 1926 creamery. And the freezer it ships from sits in Holland. Michigan takes its ice cream seriously. That’s a respectable amount of history packed behind a single scoop of butter pecan.