Story by Madelyn Ostendorf
Natalie (Eick) Paino (‘20 agricultural business) knew she’d have to get creative if she wanted to return to her family’s dairy farm after college.
“I had a lot of conversations with my parents about what the best options would be,” says Paino, owner of Hightail Delivery. “We decided that focusing on value-added products would be a cool way to go.”
Paino’s plan was to take the farm’s milk and make it into bottled milk, cheese and ice cream. At first, Paino says it was “just a dream on a napkin,” but once she was introduced to Iowa State University’s Student Incubator program through the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative (now called Start Something College of Agriculture and Life Sciences), that dream became a reality.
She focused first on establishing an ice cream business. There was just one hurdle - she did not know how to make ice cream.
After learning from a local ice cream parlor owner, Paino purchased her first ice cream machine and found a unique place to begin production.
“My grandparents were living in an assisted living facility nearby,” Paino says. “I asked if the facility would be willing to trade some ice cream for a place to make it. They agreed, and up until last winter, I would primarily operate from there, making ice cream to sell at fairs and markets.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hindered in-person sales her sophomore year, Paino began offering doorstep delivery of ice cream and state-inspected beef, cheese curds and other locally produced items.
“My Student Incubator leader was a great resource as I was building my website to begin offering home delivery,” Paino says. “People would place orders on my website, and every Wednesday, I would deliver my products door-to-door. That’s largely how I operate today.”
Since graduating, Paino has added a 105-gallon cheese vat and shipping containers that serve as her creamery and parlor. She delivers fresh ice cream to customers throughout Bremer County in northeast Iowa, and does wholesale work with local parks and recreation organizations.
Her new dream is to open a farm store where people can buy Hightail milk, cheese and ice cream, as well as goods from other local businesses.
“Iowa State and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are the reason why I'm doing this today,” Paino says. “I give a lot of credit to Kevin Kimle who pushed me to pursue this and made me believe I could do it. From the mentorship to the financial side of things, you can tell CALS really values entrepreneurship.”