The frosty-treat seekers that form long lines outside the University Creamery don't have the opportunity to see all the behind-the-scenes work involved with turning milk into the famous ice cream, but Jim Stroup does.

Stroup arrived at Borland Lab at 5 a.m. yesterday morning and proceeded to the milk-pasteurization room to ready the equipment he uses to turn cream into an ice-cream mixture. The dairy-production facilities contained within Borland Lab are small in comparison to others in the industry.

"Here, we can make about seven gallons of product a minute; other manufacturers can handle about 700 gallons a minute," Stroup said.

Stroup, a 21-year veteran in the dairy business, began his long day by sanitizing the large stainless steel vats and basins that the cream is funneled through on its journey to a student's mouth.

Everything in the room gets hosed, from the large silos, to the small mechanical pumps that cyphen the dairy mix. Stroup, wearing a hair net, began the process of making the mixture that would become ice cream. Before Stroup punched out at 1:30 p.m., 1,500 gallons of ice cream mix was made.

"It's almost like cooking at home, but on a larger scale," he said, while dumping a 50-pound bag of dry, non-fat milk into a large mechanical mixer.

That bag of dry milk was one ingredient that would soon become part of a 300-gallon batch of soft-serve vanilla ice cream. After Stroup combined all the ingredients, the mixture was channeled into a big silo that thoroughly blended it together.

From the silo, the cream blend went to the pasteurizer, which removed any bacteria. Immediately after the pasteurization, the quasi-ice cream went to the homogenizer, where intense pressure "busts up the fat molecules, by forcing them through a small hole at 2,500 pounds of pressure."

While the pistons of the homogenizer whirred and the liquids traveled to and fro through the overhead tubes, Stroup checked the temperature in the pasteurizer and recorded data.

"All this information is regulated by the state; they can come in and check up on us at any time," he said.

Finally, the bacteria-free liquid headed to a tub for another mixing before it was placed in cool storage.

Though he was scheduled to go home at 1:30, Stroup said that he and the other workers would stay until that day's quota was met.

"Students count on this food; they don't want to hear at supper time that their food isn't available," Stroup said.

Because there is often uncertainty about the exact time he will be done working, Stroup said it's hard for his family to plan on him to be home at a certain hour.

"The work here needs to get done; if something goes wrong, then I [have] to stay," he said.

Stroup's job changes each day he comes into work.

"Today I'm mixing product, tomorrow I'll be working in the flavoring room across the hall," he said.

Because of the constant change of pace Creamery laborers encounter every day, they have been able to concentrate on more than one thing at a time, and "one of the most important things is working together," Stroup said.

Jerry Winn, another Creamery worker, and Stroup exchange roles in the pasteurization room on a regular basis. One is just as likely as the other to be scheduled as the chief laborer or as the helper.

"Twenty-four hours ago that milk was grass in a cow's belly. Today we're turning it into ice cream mix, tomorrow it will be flavored, and by Thursday the students in the dining commons will get to eat it," Winn said above the churning of the lab machines.

At about 12:25 p.m. Stroup and Winn finished their last batch of mixture, and soon Stroup retired to the break room to eat his lunch and finish some of the day's paperwork. Stroup's relief worker, who came in about two hours prior to the completion of the last batch, set to work cleaning and sanitizing the equipment with chlorinated water. For this day, Stroup would be able to leave on schedule.

After Stroup left for the day the usual line heading outside the Creamery was filled up with hungry customers. Brenda Crownover, supervisor of sales at the Creamery, said many students don't think about where the ice cream they eat originates.

"Ice cream's a fun thing; it's not something that you're really worrying about how it got made," she said.