Bon Appétit

Family produces all-natural yogurt in rural Oklahoma

An international pilot originally from Brazil, Tony Barros, has landed in Nowata, Oklahoma, and now makes a specialty French yogurt.

“I was flying corporate jets after I left the airlines,” said Barros, owner of Amelia Creamery. “I started coming to Wichita for training and to pick up new airplanes from Cessna. I really liked the area, the people and the way of life.”

Barros and his wife, Maria, started making friends in Wichita, he said. The culture, farming and ranching in the U.S. were similar to where they were from, he added.

“Maria and I liked the area here and thought this would be a healthy environment to raise our kids,” Barros said. “So, we prayed, and we were able to sell our ranch in Brazil and find this one here.”

The Barroses visited quite a few ranches before finding one in Nowata, but for one reason or another things never worked out, he said.

“We weren’t exactly looking for Nowata, but since we’ve found it, it’s our home,” Barros said. “We love the county, we love the people, and we’re very grateful for the people in Nowata because they’ve embraced us like part of their own.”

Amelia's specialty French yogurt makes a delicious parfait.

Photo by Kennedy Webb

They moved to Nowata County in June 1994, Barros said. They also became proud U.S. citizens, he added.

In Brazil, they owned their own dairy cattle for personal use, so they always had their own cheese, yogurt, butter and fresh milk, Barros said.

“When we came here, it was too much work for us to have milking cows just for ourselves, so we started missing that part of our lives,” Barros said.

Unable to find a commercial yogurt they liked, they started making their own, Barros said.

“Being a pilot, I work for a corporation and they have business in other countries, especially in Europe, and I go to France on a regular basis,” Barros said. “They have a very different type of yogurt there — it’s creamier, and it’s not sour or tart.”

Barros said he really liked yogurt products in France, and he made friends there.

“For five years, I did a lot of research,” Barros said. “Because there are so many varieties of cultures and bacteria, I wanted to know which ones they used. I ended up getting a little piece of information here and there, and I started putting together and buying different cultures.”

Using family and friends to test products, the Barroses eventually had their own mix of cultures that everybody liked, he said.

After the Barroses started making yogurt, they started mixing fruit jam in with it. The different flavors became unique, Barros said.

“We decided to make this a part of business,” he said. “The plan was to have a small, state-of-the-art factory, launch the product on the market, and see how the market reacted.”

Amelia Creamery launched in 2017. One year later, their product was available in Whole Foods Markets, he said.

“It was a big step for us because every food business wants to have their products in such a type of store because they have a lot of exposure,” Barros said.

Amelia Creamery yogurt is 100% natural and does not contain preservatives, Barros said.

“The ingredients we use are the best on the market,” Barros said. “The milk is a whole milk. We use cream, we make our own jams, and the sugar is a raw sugar cane.”

Tony Barros and his wife choose most of the flavors, he said. The fruit jam recipe is one they have made for many years at their home, he added.

“The fruit jam is a recipe from my wife’s family from Czechoslovakia for many generations,” Barros said.

Juliana Forster, production manager and the Barroses’ daughter, said either she or one other employee makes the yogurt each day, adding the correct amount of ingredients together for each variety.

“I oversee production and overall things that happen in the factory from the beginning of the day, to the packaging, and to deliveries leaving the factory,” Forster said.

In addition to Forster, the creamery employs son-in-law Daniel Forster to manage technology and hands-on operations, son Jorge Barros as an operations assistant, Jenefier Wickham as general manager, Barbara Wilson as assistant production manager, Luke Wilson as a production assistant, and Melvin Roebuck in logistics/deliveries.

One difference sets Amelia Creamery apart from other yogurt companies, Forster added. “We incubate our yogurt for seven hours,” Forster said. “If you leave it past seven hours or too much longer, it can make the yogurt acidic or tart.”

Yogurt is good for a person’s health because of the probiotics in it, Forster said, and customers have told the family the yogurt has really helped them.

Barros said the ingredients improve the taste and quality of the product and even his friends in France have “fallen in love with the yogurt.”

“From nearly everybody who tries it, the feedback is positive,” Barros said. “We’re so proud of that.”

A year and a half after their launch, Wickham contacted the Made in Oklahoma Coalition and the business became a member.

“The MIO coalition has helped us so much,” Barros said. “We owe a lot to the organization. We think it’s incredible how much they do for us as a member to help promote our brand and product.”

After becoming a MIO brand, Wickham met Andrea Graves, a business planning and marketing specialist for the Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center, which is part of the Oklahoma State University Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

“One of the things we have here at FAPC, as sort of our front line, are our business and marketing people,” said Darren Scott, a FAPC food scientist. “Often projects will come to the building through them.”

Wickham said she and Graves started communicating and then began their friendship.

“FAPC helped us with our nutrition decks,” Wickham said. “We submitted all of our recipes to them, and they formatted our nutrition decks for all of our yogurt.”

FAPC also conducted an informal sensory study to get additional feedback about consistency in the yogurt, Wickham said.

“We had a question when we were considering changing our process for one of our flavors,” Wickham said. “We wanted a nonpartisan study so we could get feedback to see if people could tell a difference between two different processes.”

Scott said sometimes a product can be tricky.

“If you’re trying to accomplish one thing, and you have to adjust the way you’re making a product, that’s a little bit easier said than done,” Scott said.

Amelia Creamery is a family affair: Jenefier Wickham (front left), Juliana Forster, Janet Jarnagin, Barbara Wilson, Luke Wilson (back left), Melvin Roebuck, and Tony Barros (not pictured: Daniel Barros).

Photo by Laura Wood.

“It can be a challenge for any company when they’re trying to adapt or change up a process based off of the feedback from customers.”

Companies want to make a positive change for customers who have noticed an issue without having their other customers pick up on that change, Scott added.

Scott said most of FAPC’s clients know they can come in and out of the system, so when problems or challenges arise, they can contact one of FAPC’s business planning employees.

Anytime Amelia Creamery needs FAPC’s services, the staff is quick to respond, Wickham said, and she is confident FAPC would help the creamery with anything.

“Our company wouldn’t be where it is today if not for the dedication and hard work of each person on our team,” Barros said.

KENNEDY WEBB

Story by Kennedy Webb of Nowata County Oklahoma