For 50 years, Whatcom County residents and visitors have savored local Edaleen Dairy products, from fresh milk to delicious ice cream available in 40-plus flavors.

Founders Ed and Aileen Brandsma launched their farm-to-store business in 1975 with a small herd of cows. Their motivation was fueled by Ed’s frustration with not having “a whole lot of voice” over the price at which he could sell milk to a local co-op, said Mitch Moorlag, general manager and the Brandsmas’ son-in-law.

The couple constructed a dairy and processing plant next to the family farm in north Lynden and added a dairy store on the Guide Meridian in Lynden. The name Edaleen combines their names.

The store originally focused on selling milk. Ice cream — including Fudgy Wudgy, Caramel Cashew, White Chocolate Raspberry and more than 37 other delicious flavors — was later added to the menu. Whatcom County residents and visitors from Canada and elsewhere quickly fell in love, lining up to buy ice cream available in cones, cups and gallon-sized buckets.

Today’s shoppers purchase ice cream and other items, including milk, butter, cheese, bread, eggs, sandwiches and Edaleen-themed souvenirs at the business’s five stores, located in Blaine, Ferndale, Lynden and Sumas.

Ed and Aileen, now retired, were honored this past summer when they served as grand marshals for the Lynden Farmers Day Parade.

Moorlag keeps busy as he oversees farm and plant operations. These days, there are a lot more cows to keep happy and healthy and many more acres to care for, along with ensuring product quality control and sustainability.

“We milk just over a thousand cows, a mix of Holstein and Jersey cows,” he said.

The farm uses a robotic system that allows cows to be milked on demand. Within 24 hours, the fresh product travels about two miles to the plant for pasteurization and bottling or for a transformation into ice cream.

In total, the farm, processing plant and stores employ about 120 full-time and part-time workers. Moorlag stays in constant communication with managers and other employees to discuss daily needs and determine what steps are needed when planning next year’s crops or meeting other company requirements.

The dairy uses an anaerobic digester to create fertilizer and pathogen-free fiber bedding for the cows and to convert methane gases into electricity by burning biofuels.

Edaleen grows its own corn and grass to ensure total control over the cows’ diets. The farm also raises peas to sell in grocery stores, with leftover foliage turned into pea hay for the cows.

However, doing business in 2025 poses tough challenges that unfortunately can’t be easily solved, Moorlag said.

In the past, the Canadian quota system for how much dairy was produced resulted in higher prices for milk produced in British Columbia. In the 1980s and 1990s, Canadians crossed the border into Whatcom County to purchase items such as milk, gas, beer and other products available at lower rates.

But the current exchange rate doesn’t favor Edaleen — or other Whatcom County businesses — especially at the company’s three main border stores in Blaine, Sumas and on the Guide,
Moorlag said.

Increasing labor costs and ongoing maintenance and repair expenses impact the dairy’s bottom line.

“My greatest business concern is just really the overall ability to acquire and retain great employees with the rising costs associated with the costs of living in Whatcom County and Washington state,” Moorlag said.

The current Nooksack River Basin water adjudication legal process, with water rights for Whatcom County users yet to be determined, is a huge concern for Edaleen.

Asked what the future holds, Moorlag reflected: “Our hope would be that we would be in where we feel is a good spot for us to be. That we can remain a viable business that is able to give back to the communities that we do business in here in north Whatcom County.”