South Mountain Creamery farm visit

We've been getting milk deliveries for a few months now from South Mountain Creamery. So I thought it about time I visited their farm. I took my one-year-old daughter and we had a splendid time.

As a farm, it in a very lovely setting. Lots of nice rolling hills for pasture and lots of big, old trees. I am sure the cows here have grass to eat all but a few months of the year. We did see a baler and a wheel rake though too.

As a business operation, the place was even more impressive. They must serve thousands of households, and they do so without looking at all corporate. They definitely have a lot of hired help, especially for handling the cows. But a lot of the people working there were clearly family and it definitely had a family-business feel.

The milking parlor was especially industrious. I didn't count but it looked like there were about 30 stands and they were occupied the whole time we were there. The cows definitely seemed to have the drill down and registered no complaint as they were hooked up to the machines. There was even an open pen behind the parlor where the next squad of milkers was waiting patiently for their turn. And all of that was done without any kind of bribe grain being offered.

The creamery also has a nice little farmstand, where they sell their delivery products as well as fresh ice cream. We had a scoop of blackberry and it was very good. It tasted richer and had more mouthfeel than your average scoop.

We also went across the street the calf stalls. There were about 15 calves in stalls, including one that looked born in the last day or two. Once a day they allow kids to come give the calves bottles. This was fun for everybody and it's free labor! The guy that actually worked there just drove up in a Gator and dropped the milk off in front of each stall. The kids did the rest.

When we got back, I told Nikki about the place and we both agreed that it would be really fun to have a similar business somewhere like Missoula. In fact, we thought Missoula would be the perfect place. I bet you could put up a stand at the farmer's market and sign 50 people up the first day.

The only problem, and this is something I don't know too much about, is it seems like to do this you have to breed pretty much year round. That might be weather-prohibitive in Montana. On the other hand, maybe you can just calve for, say, 8 months, and have the timing work out. It might work better somewhere like Portland, where you could theoretically calve all year round. But again, I don't know how long you can milk a cow after you take her calf off, so my math might be way off.

The thing that really appeals to me about this kind of dairy operation, is that I've never met a milk-based value-added product that I didn't like and didn't like to make. I've made cheese, butter, yogurt, and ice cream and I'd love to try my hand at cream cheese, sour cream, and cottage cheese. I'd even like to try the Central Asian delicacy kymyz (fermented mare's milk), though milking a horse isn't at the top of my list. Anyway, they don't have kymyz at South Mountain, it just got me thinking. Here are some pictures:

Here's the milking parlor.

And here are the calf stalls.

Here are some of the girls returning to their pasture.

Here's Georgie getting nibbled and licked by a hungry calf.

And here's my bottle-feeding a calf. This is the first time I've ever done this. The calves really can tug hard on the bottle.

Plans

These are subject to change I suppose but here is what I have on tap for the coming months:

• Hops. I am going to order rhizomes in a few weeks. I bought a really large planter at Costco and I think it will more than adequately accommodate the roots. I am going to run twine up to the second floor to let them vine. I am thinking I will use Willamette, though when I last grew them I had the most success with Cascade. I am assuming Cascade will be hard to come by though.
• Herbs. Going in window boxes on our balcony will be herbs. Sweet basil, cilantro, chives, marjoram...not sure what else.
• Garden plot. I am hoping to get a 20x20 (or possibly 10x20) plot at one of several nearby community gardens run by the county. A community garden near Adam has a community chicken coop. I'm jealous of that. If I can get it I'll grow tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, beans, and some kind of salad green.
• Hunting. I am hoping to go hunting this year. Not sure when, where, with whom, or for what quarry. I don't know anyone here who hunts. I am thinking rabbits would good. A deer would be good too. I'd like to make sausages and venison stew.
• Meat. I am hoping to branch out a little this year. I guess we've already started by buying goat meat from time to time. I'd also like to experiment a little with offal, especially liver.
• Fishing. This is a tricky one. Our waterways seem fairly untrustable. And I'm not the throw-it-back type. Last fall my father-in-law offered to take me out for a deer and now I feel kind of like an idiot for not taking him up on it.
  
• Husbandry. I'm not sure how this can happen. I'm not interested in getting a gerbil. :) I think some farmers might take a fee in exchange for pasturing an animal for you. If so, I'd like to find a bottle baby lamb and pasture is somewhere nearby where it would be with other sheep and we could visit it. Then we can take it to slaughter at the end of the year, maybe for Christmas lamb.