Editor, Times-Union:
You may remember the Litchfield Creamery on Argonne Road. It was a large, blonde brick building with a unique product.
For decades the USDA had required Grade A milk to be at least 4% butterfat. Originally, the milk came in bottles with the cream at the top. Then, they invented homogenized milk, with the butterfat suspended within the milk. Farmers that produced Grade A milk took it to the Crystal Dairy and the Winona Dairy in Winona Lake.
A guy named Martin Jensen in Litchfield, Illinois, thought that if you could homogenize the butter fat, you could probably add coconut oil to the milk and homogenize that as well. It worked and he got a patent. They bought non-Grade A milk from the farmers and added the coconut oil in a patented process. The Milnut (Milk+Coconut=Milnut) was a big success. In recipes it worked just like the evaporated milk from Pet and Carnation; but it cost less.
When WWII started, they no longer had access to coconut oil, so they switched to soybean oil. However, without the coconut the government said they could no longer use "nut" in the name. So, they changed the name to Milnot and kept on going with great success. Then, refrigerators got bigger and better, and people started buying milk in supermarkets while doing less home baking. Meanwhile, small farms gave up small herds and either went big with Grade A herds or mostly just got out of the business. So, no more Milnot in Warsaw.
Graham H. Kreicker
Lawrence, Kansas, via email