In 1926, shortly after immigrating to the US, Nathan Friedell, founded Nathan's Produce Company and began delivering fresh eggs door to door to his neighbors. Word of his personal commitment to service and good products spread and his business grew along with it.

Soon after, Nathan created the Crystal Farms brand and stenciled it on crates of fresh eggs that he delivered directly to small grocers throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul. Crystal Farms eggs were nicknamed "Crystals" and their reputation for freshness and low cost preceded them.

By the late 1930's Crystal Farms was shipping eggs via railroad from the heart of dairy country to the East Coast. To help keep the eggs fresh, they were rubbed with mineral oil which sealed their pores. Then they were strapped into wooden cases and loaded onto refrigerated rail cars.

In fact, during World War ll, "Crystals" were shipped to the military training facilities on both coasts. After the war, the egg business was expanded to include quality cheese and other refrigerated dairy products to grocery stores throughout the Midwest.

Throughout the fifties and sixties, our country's population was booming and grocery stores were growing into modern supermarkets. Crystal Farms grew as well by sticking to our small town values of great personal service and the idea that customers deserved a good product at a good price.

As a result, it didn't take long for grocers and consumers to fall in love with our Crystal Farms cheese, butter, eggs and other refrigerated dairy products . . . especially at prices lower than the national brands that were starting to develop.

Today our only processing facility is still located in Lake Mills, a small town in Southern Wisconsin of about 4,843 people. In Lake Mills we have access to the best cheese from select dairies throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest. It's clearly one reason why our dairy products consistently meet the highest standards for quality, taste and texture. It also explains how, for all of these years, we've accomplished our primary goal of providing you high quality dairy products at a better value than bigger national brands.

Today, Crystal Farms distributes 75 million pounds of cheese and 9 million pounds of butter annually to 42 states and 5,500 retail locations. While this is a just a small portion of the 2.4 billion pounds of cheese sold in the US today, we believe less is often more in order to stay true to our traditional values.

At Crystal Farms we promise to continue to use only the finest ingredients to provide you with the greatest quality products at an honest value. If you're not already a loyal Crystal Farms consumer, give us a try and let us know what you think.

Michael Foods, Inc. is a diversified food processor and distributor with businesses in egg products, refrigerated grocery and potato products, with net sales exceeding $1 billion. Our strategic thrust is to continue to transition Michael Foods into a value-added food products company by being a leader in the food industry in introducing food technology and customer solutions.

For over 75 years, Michael Foods, Inc. has welcomed new companies into their fold, drawing on these specialized resources to offer better solutions to their customers and consumers. In fact, their oldest company is Crystal Farms - a leading distributor of refrigerated, dairy, value-conscious products ranging from cheese and eggs to butter, margarine, bagels and English muffins.