It Takes A Team

The saying is that “it takes a village to raise a child”, well “it takes a team” to make great Ice Cream!   Atelait Creamery is unique, not only in being the only commercial sheep ice cream creamery, but in being a creamery that actually produces the milk that is used in our ice cream (many ice cream creamery’s actually buy their milk or use a manufactured base mix to make their ice-cream).  Managing the entire process from raising sheep, milking sheep, to manufacturing the ice cream h

as a lot of steps and takes some amazing team members.  So I wanted to recognize our team….

Jazmin Jurkevicius (Jaz) – Ranch Livestock Operations Director
Jazmine comes to us with a wealth of experience in working with small ruminants, managing events, and diary ruminants. Jazmine was thrown right into the fire this year in managing our lambing season, and she did an amazing job!  This has been our best lambing season in several years.  Jazmine lives in Fredericktown Missouri, and in addition to managing the livestock operations she milks 5 times a week, manages livestock records, gives vaccinations, and is clearly the adopted mom to a whole bunch of lambs! Jazmine and the team’s responsibilities extend beyond the dairy flock to the wool flock, beef herd, and even the poultry operations.

Dustin Lillie (Dusty) – Ranch Hand and master builder! Dustin has been a great fit into the ranch. In addition to milking 5 times a week, he uses the skills he learned in the armed forces (and in training afterwards) to fix about everything on the farm (who knew he was a natural Polaris mechanic), build creamery steps, and yes, even build fence! And  by the way, he makes a really good Ghee! Dustin lives a few miles away from the ranch in Glenallen.

Camden (Cam) Perkins – Junior Ranch Hand. Cam is a Junior at Woodland High School and is a natural at milking and working with the sheep.  Camden is one of those quiet guys who just comes in, does a great job, and gets the job done! Cam lives just a few miles away in close to Marble Hill Missouri.

Kevin McCormick – Scooper Chief.  Kevin is working full time in the creamery making amazing ice cream. He has just joined us and moved here from his home in Knoxville, Tennessee. An accomplished athlete, very knowledgeable healthy food advocate, and overall great addition to the team – Kevin is too new to have a nickname yet!!

And then there is my amazing wife Terri.  She steps in when needed, loves the lambs, and has a natural knack for spotting sheep who need help.  And of course, she keeps me in line – which is a big job.  

No mention of the team would be complete without recognizing our amazing guard dogs.  They keep everything safe, haras the UPS and Fedex drivers (sorry guys), and basically keep all the predators (coyotes, foxes, etc.) away!

Of course, our team extends beyond the team members at the ranch to the social media team (Brittany Brown Freelance), volunteers that work the Ozark Highland Sheep and Fiber Festival, friends, neighbors, investors and other folks who have been so key to starting Atelait Creamery, and to Mesta Meadows on going operations. And, most importantly you, our guests, customers, and supporters - all of whom are part of the Meadows experience!