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PONTOTOC – Kaitlyn and Jake Anderson were all but destined to be together.

She got her bachelor's degree in animal and dairy science from Mississippi State University, and a master's in dairy science from Virginia Tech. He earned both bachelor's and master's degrees from Louisiana State University in animal and dairy science.

They met at a dairy science conference in Arizona in 2012, when both were undergraduates, and started dating a while after that. Even before they married six years ago, the two talked about one day opening their own dairy.

But the costs of starting a conventional dairy operation are steep.

So they started small.

The couple partnered with Kaitlyn's parents, Scott and Kim Hardin, and opened Southern Cultured Creamery in May. It's located on Highway 15 South between Pontotoc and Houston, across the street from Midway Baptist Church.

"We milk our own cows, process the milk ourselves, and sell directly to the consumer," Kaitlyn said.

"In a conventional dairy, you milk the cows, put the milk in a trailer and send it to the processor," Jake said. "You're subject to market prices. Here, we have a little bit more control."

Right now, the dairy is milking 16 cows a day. Kaitlyn's father, a longtime dairyman, milks in the morning, and Kaitlyn and Jake milk in the early evening, after she gets home from teaching school at Pontotoc Junior High.

The cows are a mixture of soft brown Jerseys and black-and-white Holsteins.

"I tell people we have Blue Bell cows and Chick-fil-A cows," Kaitlyn said. "Most of them have names. We're small enough right now we can do that."

Sirloin, Bama, Fancy, Prancer and Beauty rub shoulders with Bibby, Ugly, Squash, Cocoa and Robin.

"We're not very original with names," she said. "That's not our strong point."

Cheese, please

Southern Cultured Creamery started out in May selling chocolate milk and cream top milk, which has been pasteurized, but not homogenized, meaning the cream has been allowed to naturally separate from the rest of the milk and rise to the top.

In June, they were asked to take their milk to the Pontotoc Farmers Market for National Dairy Month.

"We liked it there and got a good response, so we decided to keep on selling it there," Jake said.

The Saturday before the Fourth of July, Jake had the bright idea of selling red, white and blue milk at the market. So they showed up with white cream top milk, strawberry milk and blueberry milk – and cheese.

"We sell way more white milk than anything, but what really gets people excited is strawberry milk," Kaitlyn said.

Right now, the dairy offers four different cheeses, all in familiar "styles."

"We can't do the tests the larger processors can do to say 'This is a Cheddar,' so we label the cheese for the style it is," Kaitlyn said.

The buttery Gouda-style cheese is called Redland and comes in a red wax. The creamy Tomme-style cheese is named Monroe. The crumbly Caerphilly-style cheese is called Chiwapa, and the spicy Pepper Jack cheese goes by 2Dollar Pistol.

"In a couple of weeks, we'll have a Montasio-style cheese, like what's made in the Italian Alpine area," Kaitlyn said "We'll also have a Cheddar-style cheese coming."

Jake and his father-in-law actually learned to make cheese about five years ago. They took a 10-day class in Vermont and made small batches at home, long before the dairy opened.

"Blue cheese is one I'd eventually like to make, but it requires an aging process we just can't handle right now," Jake said. "There's a fine line where you do too much, and then you don't do any of them well. We want all ours to be good."

Now that the farmers market is closed for the season, the Andersons are selling their milk and cheese at their store at the dairy located at 8930 Highway 15 South, between Pontotoc and Houston. They also sell to some retail outlets, a restaurant and a cheesemaker.

"Right now, the store is open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and on Tuesdays from 4 to 6:30 p.m.," Jake said. "But we're looking to extend our hours."

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Daily Covid-19 admissions in the Pontotoc County area

About the data

Data is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospitalization data is a daily average of Covid-19 patients in hospital service areas that intersect with Pontotoc County, an area which may be larger than Pontotoc County itself.

The number of daily hospital admissions shows how many patients tested positive for Covid in hospitals and is one of the most reliably reported indicators of Covid’s impact on a community.

Total population

Ages 65 and up

Total population

Ages 65 and up

An updated vaccine is recommended for adults and most children. Statewide, 6% of vaccinations did not specify a home county.

Nearby hospitals

Share of I.C.U. beds occupied

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Notes: The hospitals map shows the average I.C.U. occupancy at nearby hospitals in the most recent week with data reported. The data is self-reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by individual hospitals. It excludes counts from hospitals operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Service. Numbers for hospitalized patients are based on inpatient beds and include I.C.U. beds. Hospitalized Covid-19 patients include both confirmed and suspected Covid-19 patients. The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on cases in May 2023.

How trends have changed in Pontotoc County

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Notes: Weekly county death data prior to Jan. 2021 was not reported by the C.D.C. and is sourced from reporting by The New York Times. Hospitalization data is a weekly average of Covid-19 patients in hospital service areas that intersect with Pontotoc County. Hospitalization numbers early in the pandemic are undercounts due to incomplete reporting by hospitals to the federal government.

Historical trends in Pontotoc County

The data in these charts has been archived and they are no longer being updated.

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data in these charts has been archived and they are no longer being updated. Weekly county case data prior to Jan. 2021 was not reported by the C.D.C. and is sourced from reporting by The New York Times. The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on cases in May 2023. Test positivity data is based only on test results reported to the federal government and is a seven-day average.

By Jon Huang, Samuel Jacoby, Jasmine C. Lee, John-Michael Murphy, Charlie Smart and Albert Sun. Additional reporting by Sarah Cahalan, Lisa Waananen Jones, Amy Schoenfeld Walker and Josh Williams. See a full list of contributors to The Times’s Covid-19 data reporting here.

About the data

Data on this page is reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Population and demographic data is from the U.S. Census Bureau. Hospitalization data is reported by individual hospitals to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and it includes confirmed and suspected adult and pediatric patients. The C.D.C. does not provide complete vaccinations data for some counties and caps its vaccination rate figures at 95 percent.

The C.D.C. may make historical updates as more data is reported.

The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on Covid cases in May 2023.

People who are curious about a proposal to build a wind farm in this area can learn more about the project later this month.

The Virginia-based company Apex Clean Energy will host an open house for the Diamond Spring Wind project from 5 to 7 p.m. Feb. 18 at the Chickasaw Nation Community Center, 700 N. Mississippi Ave. in Ada. The come-and-go event is open to the public, and light refreshments will be served.

Apex team members will be on hand that night to answer questions, and Apex will set up informational boards with details about the Diamond Spring project and wind energy in general.

Diamond Spring

Apex is in the late stages of developing a wind farm containing about 107 turbines on privately owned land in Johnston and Pontotoc counties, senior project developer Kent Dougherty said Thursday. He said the company is finalizing some permitting work and lining up construction financing. but officials don’t see any obstacles that would prevent construction from starting by the end of this year.

“It would be online by the end of 2020,” he said.

The wind farm will be built on about 20,000 acres in Johnston and Pontotoc counties, including 2,240 acres on Pontotoc County’s southern edge. A maintenance and operations center will be built close to the wind farm, possibly in Mill Creek.

Dougherty said that area was a good choice for the wind farm because it was close to a power transmission line, and landowners were receptive to the idea.

“We need to secure land rights in order to build the project, and we were able to work with a number of landowners in this area who understood the benefits of hosting a wind farm,” he said. “All that came together really nicely.”

Dougherty said construction may take nine to 12 months, and it will generate several hundred temporary jobs. He added that Apex tries to hire as many local workers — both skilled and unskilled — as possible during construction, but a lot of the skilled workers required to build the turbines will come from across the country.

The completed wind farm will be tied to the power grid at Oklahoma Gas and Electric’s substation in Tishomingo. It will be capable of generating up to 300 megawatts of electricity — enough to power about 110,000 homes — which will be distributed throughout the Oklahoma grid.

The wind farm will employ between 10 to 12 full-time workers for operations and maintenance.

Economic benefits

Landowners who have wind turbines on their property will receive annual lease payments, which will continue over the project’s 30-year lifespan, according to Apex. The company estimates those payments will inject millions of dollars into the economy in Johnston and Pontotoc counties, supporting local businesses.

Dougherty said over the next 30 years, the wind farm will generate roughly $30 million in ad valorem tax revenue for three school districts — Mill Creek, Roff and Tishomingo. But he noted that tax revenue from the wind farm could affect the amount of state aid those districts receive.

Was it William Shakespeare or Bill Dundee who asked, “What’s in a name?”

When it comes down to town names in Mississippi, it turns out quite a lot.

Cowpen, MS, is located in Attala County, east of Kosciusko. I heard a weather channel reporter try and pronounce Kosciusko once and it wasn’t pretty.

How about Ecru, MS? Ecru means beige and the town’s name came from the color of it’s railroad depot.

Alligator is a town in the northernmost part of the state in Boliver County. This one is easy, the town gets its name from a nearby lake, Alligator Lake, which once had a large population of alligators.

Bude, MS, is a nice town. Don’t be rude in Bude.

There’s Carriere, MS. Don’t show your derrière in Carriere.

Be nice. In fact you can be a darling, in Darling, MS., located in Quitman County, north of Marks.

There’s a Friar’s Point, MS, but no baker's hill or boiling pot.

Know anyone from Goodman, MS? I bet you do know someone from Star, MS. Country music singing star Faith Hill is from Star.

Where is Weir, MS? It’s nice, but some say it Weirs on you.

Dragon, MS, is located appropriately in Forrest County, which is where all good dragons should be.

Promised Land, MS, was once a town located in Sunflower County north of present day Drew.

Of course at the other end of the name spectrum is Merry Hell, MS, an unincorporated community in Simpson County. According to Wikipedia, Merry Hell was so named from the family feuds of the early Scottish settlers.

Red Lick, MS, is an incorporated community located in Jefferson County, MS. It’s located in the basin adjoining the Big Red Candy Apple River.

In central Lauderdale County you can visit Zero, MS. It’s about five and a half miles southeast of Meridian. The speed limit is a minus 20.

Eulogy, MS, was located in Holmes County and did not participate in the 2010 census. But everyone expressed their condolences for not participating.

Jug Fork, MS, is located on the Lee-Union County line in Northeast MS. I’m told Mrs. Fork was quite a dish, but she ran away with the spoon.

If you’re in Alcorn County you can drop by Cuba, MS. You can get your picture taken by a statue of Desi Arnaz’s Congos.

If the weather’s cold you might drop by Hot Coffee, MS, located in Covington County. The town was named after the popularity of store owner L.J. Davis’ coffee, which was made from pure spring water, New Orleans beans and molasses drippings for sweetener. Legend has it that the Devil traded a guitar player’s soul for a cup of Davis’ java.

About 16 miles southeast of Meridian you can visit Whynot, MS. What’s wrong with Whynot?

Then there’s Chunky, MS. No it’s not named after chocolate ice cream. It’s named after Chunky Creek, which is three miles east of town. It’s in Newton County.

Possumneck, MS, is located in Attala County. I’m told that Granny Clampett’s favorite restaurant is located there.

Itta Bena is in Leflore County. It’s just down the road from Itsy Bitsy, MS, but it’s bigger and has more blues musicians.

Leakesville is a nice town. And I hear there’s plenty of good plumbers in that town.

Learned, MS, is located in Hinds County. You can’t tell nobody nothing there, you have to ask them something.

Montrose, MS, is located in Jasper County. But it’s not the town where Deep Purple recorded their Smoke on the Water album.

Picayune’s a nice town, but the yunes are really picked over.

The folks are nice in Ruleville, MS, down in Sunflower County, but if you break the rules they put you in jail until you spell Shuqualak correctly.

Scooba, MS, is the birthplace of Scooby Doo

State Line, MS, I’m guessing it’s not in the middle of the state.

Como, MS. The youngest of those Como boys, Perry, was a good singer.

Shiver’s MS, located in Simpson County is not known for its cold weather. It’s supposedly named after a man named Evan Shivers who in 1886 applied for a post office with a heater.

Duck Hill, MS, has nothing to do with ducks. According to folks in Montgomery County, the town is named after Chief Duck, a Choctaw medicine man and shaman, who lived in the town at the top of a hill.

Tchula, pronounced “chew-huh”, is located in Holmes County. The town’s not named after a sneeze.

I’ve never been to Arm, MS, located about six miles Southeast of Monticello. It’s famous for pistols and Lego toys.

My favorite is Pontotoc. Or as Mayor Howard Stafford pronounced it, “Pontok."

News Alerts & Top Stories

The latest breaking news, plus our top stories each week.

The Daily

Our top headlines each morning, seven days a week, as well as each weekday afternoon.