Faith and Farming

Faith and Farming "Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God,

if ever He had a chosen people, He has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue."

--Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on the State of Virginia"

Background in to our families

My dad – was born and raised on a farm – his Dad – my Grandfather a dairy farmer as well. My childhood memories are

full of cows, pigs, chickens. My favorite place was my Dads barn – My parents still live on the 100 acre

certified organic farm that I grew up on – even though someday instead of being passed down to one of

us kids– it will end up as a development.

I guess our family is fortunate to be able to count ourselves in that very small percentage that have not

lost that generational thread of being removed from the farm. Our kids were able to go and watch their

grandpas land during planting and harvesting, baling and plowing – and so they know that it is

honorable hard work and sweat that makes the world go around. .

So almost two years ago we bought a cow,

chickens, pigs, and rabbits – all things that would feed our family and be able to bring in some income to

help offset feed. We did not anticipate – and even now the demand still surprises us – the way that

having a cow would change and shape our farm. Where we had thought to be diversified in our products

to offer for sale, we now only provide those products from our farm to our familys table.

In choosing to get a cow – we solved a problem we had had for years. We both grew

up drinking raw milk and then after we were married – we sought out the farmers who “did it right” so that our kids could have that same nutrition. We thought that having all that milk for our family would be so

great !! until the neighbors heard we got a cow. And then they told a few of their friends – pretty soon

we did not have enough milk for our family – so we had to get another cow – pretty soon we were

hooked not just on the milk but the cows themselves. There is nothing so calming or breathtaking

sometimes as seeing the beautiful fawn and white coloring of the Guernsey cow on a field of green grass.

I just want to interject here – there are only 3 registered Guernsey dairies in the state of VA. One

has 5 cows, ours and a commercial dairy that has about 70 cows. Guernsey cows were developed

on the Isle of Guernsey about the year 960 by French monks – we like to think of them as

Catholic cows… they were developed as a hearty breed that had a bit more milk than their cousin

the Jersey and better fat and protein ratios. Throughout history they have been known as the

Royal breed, some may have heard of the Alderney cow – another name for the Guernsey in

England before the term Guernsey was stamped on them sometime in the 1800”s. They have a

docile temperament and despite modern mans attempt to change them, they remain hearty and

their milk is second to none. They perform well on grass (still). Unfortunately there are only

about 10,000 in the US – with modern dairies preferring the jersey and the Holstien cows.

Guernseys are not aggressive so they do not fare well when mixed with other breeds that are

more aggressive. Wisconsin has the most registered Guernsey cows, then PA and then a few in

other states around the country. Their milk is what most people remember as being delivered

locally if there was a dairy in town during the 1950 – to early 1970’s. The term Golden Guernsey

comes from the color of their coat and milk. One of the officials of the Association here in the

US stated that even though small dairies like ours are probably going to be what saves the

Guernsey breed, we are not allowed to use the Golden Guernsey logos because they cannot have

anything to affiliate them with the raw milk movement. They are afraid of Big Dairy too.

It seems so simple – it should not be complicated to be able to get raw milk. I mean you can buy raw

eggs, meat, honey, - aren’t fruit and vegies raw until you cook them? Can you not get salmonella or ecoli

from spinach and strawberries – or eggs? So many articles point to raw milk as being a safe product – so

many other articles claim it is the unhealthiest foods one can consume –

We have come to the conclusion that we really enjoy providing the

benefits of raw milk to others and try really hard not to look at the legal/ illegal side of things. Some of

the emails we get are examples of how our society is really deprived of real food because people are so

excited about something as simple as milk!! and this is part of a larger problem in our society as a

whole. We will touch on that in a minute…

In our conversations with the public we try really hard to assess and assist families with our milk. If

someone is struggling due to a job loss – we give them a break, we break up payments over time, we

donate milk and give it as gifts. We usually do not publish this info either