Carnation

Culture, connection, and growth

Look into the dessert pantry of any Filipino household and you’re bound to find a can of Carnation condensed milk. At Archipelago we love playing with the concept and even the flavors that come from condensing non-dairy substitutes. Of course, we also enjoy reminding our guests that the farm they grew up seeing in those Carnation ads, for many of them all the way back in the Philippines, is just a short drive east of our restaurant.

The Carnation farm was purchased by Elbridge Amos Stuart in 1908. To increase milk production, he embarked on a selective breeding program of Holstein cows which would dramatically increase the volume of milk that his cows produced on the farm and eventually around the world. EA fostered the idea that cows which avoided stress and mistreatment would be able to produce more milk. Stuart used the the promotional phrase "Carnation Condensed Milk, the milk from contented cows" referring to the higher quality milk from happy cows grazing in the lush Pacific Northwest.

By the the 1950’s, cans of Carnation condensed milk could be found around the world and more specifically, in the Philippines.

The Stuart family sold the company and the farm to Nestle in January of 1985. Nestle ran the farm until 2008 when a non-profit bought it. The family repurchased the farm and in October of 2016 gave the historic place a new start. Inspired by E.A. Stuart’s philanthropic legacy, the family founded a new non-profit called Carnation Farms with a new mission to go back to the farm’s roots. They intend to share the 818-acre organic farm with the community to promote environmentally sustainable practices that connect people to the land through farm based and culinary education. It is hoped that these efforts will inspire healthy and balanced lifestyles and an appreciation of the history of past generations of the Carnation valley.

We ourselves had not known the exact location of the farm until visiting one of our small producers, activist farmer, Ari de Leña, owner of Kamayan Farm. While we marveled at the products she was growing to showcase her own Filipino heritage, she casually looked across the river to the other side and said, “Hey you know the Carnation condensed milk cans right? That land on the other side of the water is where the farm started.” It was a bit of a revelation for us and began a long string of efforts to marry our culture’s love for the can with the incredible produce from Ari’s farm. From then on, we’ve told some form of this story to guests as they’ve enjoyed the flavor of Ari’s uniquely locally grown ginger paired with our in-house condensed milk found in our desserts.

sources: https://carnationfarms.org , https://www.seattletimes.com, http://www.kamayanfarm.com