Marolyn Wilson is the co-owner and co-manager of Holland farms.
Holland farms features a bakery, a coffee bar, a deli, and take out catering. And they’re known for their half-moon cookies.
Marolyn Wilson spoke with us about Holland farms.
Q – Marolyn, How are there enough hours in the day for you to run a bakery, a coffee bar, a deli, and a catering service?
A – (Laughs). It all has to do with people. It’s not necessarily me, but, I have great people who work here. I have people with longevity who come and stay. We have a good reputation so thank goodness the people have work.
Q – You must have quite a few people to help you out with all those enterprises!
A – We have about 80 employees here
Q – That’s a big bakery.
A – Yeah. Probably 30 of them are full-time and the rest of them are small part time or full part-time. (Laughs).
Q – Why not concentrate in just one area of your business, say the bakery? Would there not be enough business for just the bakery?
A – It used to be just a bakery. We started out as a door to door milk delivery in 1928 with my dad and his family. In 1956, dad built the first building which was called Holland Farms Dairy Bar and Bakery. So, the dairy bar was a big piece of it because we bottled our own milk and had our own cream and had our own ice cream. Ten years later we had to move that building because the state took the land to build an overpass and we’ve been where we are now (50 Oriskany Boulevard, Yorkville, New York 13495 phone: 315-736-6044) since 1966. So, he agreed to hire two bankers from Holland who were in the area and had nothing to do. So, that was his excuse for building a retail store. Of the two brothers, one of them was with us for 35 years. We have since branched out into doing other things. We had a small potato salad, macaroni salad, homemade salad area eventually. But, then we put another addition on and then put the deli in where we have cold cuts. On a good summer weekend we sell about 2000 pounds of potatoes salad.
Q – The two bakers from Holland that’s why the business is called Holland farms!
A – (Laughs).
Q – Did you have to go to any special school to learn how to run a bakery or did you have to learn on the job?
A – I want to say I learned on the job. I went to school to be a teacher which I never did. My sister, who has been in business with me since 1980, went to school to be a psychologist. The two of us came into the business and kind of learned. First of all we came into the business while dad was living and were both pretty smart girls. So, we have enlarged the catering business which is actually getting larger. We’ve added drive through coffee shed; we call it for morning coffee and donuts.
Q – Would you say you’re more of an administrator then a Baker?
A – (Laughs). Exactly. I’m not a Baker. I’m a manager. I’m an owner. I hopefully keep things moving here in the right direction and I have really great people who are bakers and cooks and were known for our friendly service here.
Q – Am I correct in saying that the half-moon cookie originated in Utica, New York?
A – Yes
Q – Who came up with that idea for a cookie?
A – I’m going to say the area came up with the half-moon cookies. I think every bakery in town when I was growing up had half-moon’s. Now, New York City has black and whites. Our head Baker has told me the further up the Hudson you come the softer the cookies get. So, the black and whites in New York are really stiff cookie and our cookies up here are more cake like.
Q – Would a half moon cookie be available in only this area of the country?
A – The half-moon cookie is very regional to central New York and Pennsylvania.
Q – If you are living in saying North Carolina you couldn’t get a half moon cookie?
A – We understand someone’s opened a Utica bakery in Charlotte, North Carolina they are making half-moon’s. So, I’m not going to say you can’t find them in other places but most people don’t even know what they are.
Q – Why are half-moon cookies so expensive? Wegmans charges $3.50 for two cookies.
A – My guess is they’re very labor-intensive. They don’t frost themselves. Someone has to stand there and frost every cookie half chocolate and then turn them around and frost every cookie (Vanilla). Right now, we’ve got three people standing at a table in the back frosting cookies for St. Patrick’s Day, green and chocolate and green and white. Why are they so expensive? Because they’re expensive. It’s one of the more expensive items here because the chocolate frosting we make. Chocolate is very expensive right now.
Q – So, ingredients and the labor cost are driving up the cost of the half-moon cookie?
A – I don’t know about driving up the price. They are what they are. Don’t forget minimum wage in New York State has gone up three times in the last three years. That’s a big reason why everybody is paying more for everything.
Q – You ship half-moon’s all over the US.
A – We do.
Q – Who’s ordering them? People who used to live in the Utica area?
A – A lot of them are people who find us on the Internet, and say I haven’t had a half moon cookie. We ship to Alaska and Hawaii. Others are people like moms who are shipping cookies to their kids who are away at college or kids whose mothers and fathers moved to Florida, but, it’s really a taste of Utica and we advertise it as such so that they can send them down. Compared to the rest of our business it’s not a huge piece of our business but we probably ship out 400 or 500 dozen a year.
Q – What would be the biggest part of your business that? The bakery?
A – The bakery. It’s about 50% of our business.
Q – We can now say that Utica, New York is not only the home of the Utica Club Brewery, and the birthplace of Annette Funicello, but also the home of the half-moon cookie!
A – (Laughs).
