A2O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 6, 1992
Dairy Industry Vital
(Continued from Page A 1)
With the close of the Corn
wall mines following the 1972
Hurricane Agnes flood, and
the later folding of the Beth
lehem Steel foundary and the
folding or great downscaling
of several other metal
manufacturing businesses, the
importance of agriculture
became more and more appa
rent to the community.
However, its importance
was again overshadowed
before the agricultural com
munity got the recognition it
long deserved with fuel
prices relatively inexpensive,
those working in higher
income areas surrounding the
Lebanon Valley came looking
for homes.
Lebanon County offered an
area with a post-card rural
landscape, close proximity to
recreational areas, low crime
rates and less violent crimes,
close access to interstate trans
portation routes, good reputa
tion schools, low taxes, adequ
ate infrastructure, etc.
Again farming lost out to
general public appreciation.
The good paying jobs were
with construction large
residential and commercial
retail projects outbid fanners
in search of land.
Increased pressure on lim
ited available water, sewer,
traffic, and recreational sites,
plus the recession of the late
1980’s, caused a subsequent
drop off in the construction
business.
And through it all, the coun
ty’s dairy and agriculture
industries have not only sur
vived, but they’ve been
prevailing.
The evidence is strong how
important the dairy industry is
to the Lebanon Valley.
The Dairy Queen East,
located along Route 422, east
of Lebanon city, is one of the
busiest franshise locations in
the United States, according to
its owner, Ben Shankroff.
According to Shankroff,
there is not specific way to
know if local milk is used in
the manufacture of the pro
ducts her sells. He said there
are two approved-by-DQ sup
pliers and he uses one.
However, he said it would
take 50,000 cows just to supp
ly the dairy ingredients for DQ
cones and shakes.
And there are a lot more
dairy products that are made
and sold by DQ.
Within the past two weeks,
the Lebanon DQ has intro
duced three new flavors of the
product, “Blizzard.”
Shankroff described the
“Blizzard” as a combination
of their soft serve (they don’t
advertise “ice cream” because
soft serve is 5 percent fat and
in order to qualify as ice
cream, the frozen product has
to contain at least 10 percdent
butterfat) and different desert
products, such as candy, cook
ies or cake.
The three new flavors are
Rocky Road, Mud Pie, and
Chocolate Chip Cookie
Dough. Kenneth Winebark,
livestock agent for the Leba
non County Extension Ser
vice. said both products are
good. He said his son prefers
the Mud Pie, while Ken said
he prefers the cookie dough
recipe.
The DQ East in Lebanon is
closed during January for
maintenance, but is open the
rest of the year. Without the
benefit of being able to serve
hot foods.
However, demand for dairy
products is strong enough that
Shankroff went with the new
est designed DQ building
offered when he rebuilt the
business two years ago.
Shankroff took over the
business in 1975, but the
franchise has been a popular
place since it first went into
business in 1952.
hi some of their products,
DQ uses some of Hershey
Chocolate Co. products.
Hershey is a key name to
the Lebanon dairy market
More than 60 of the 310 dairy
farms in the county ship to
(Turn to Pago A2l)
Good Samaritan Hospital’s Sandra Goodman, food production manager supervi
sor, shows some of the cream-styled soups the hospital makes with local dairy pro
ducts. Goodman said local dairy products are very Important to the quality of food the
hospital is able to offer patients.