( a visit to wholesome dairy farms’ kitchen, where cows are the real bosses )

by marian wolbers

the big news at wholesome dairy farms in yellow house, pa, is the kitchen—not the perfectly textured yogurt that begs to be placed in a bowl and married to juicy peaches, cherries, ripe blueberries, or tupelo honey.

it’s the new kitchen—not the fact that curds produced there are already driving traffic to philadelphia’s trendiest new restaurant, the blind pig, where hungry canadians are heading, reportedly driving across the border just to get a taste of the poutine firsthand. (poutine is a french canadian dish of french fries slathered in gravy and curd, which takes three days to make.)

it’s the kitchen where dairy manager rebecca seidel performs milk magic, taking the nutrient-rich, raw milk from the farm’s ayrshire herd and creating creamy yogurt, yogurt cheese, ricotta, domestic feta, kefir, and any other yum-food that gets seidel’s culinary talents churning.

in fact, with this kitchen in operation, visitors can soon expect frozen yogurt to make its way into a freezer out there in the lush countryside. and as always, jugs of raw milk are available anytime in the small dairy store, so customers can purchase products directly, right next to the barn. the milk is also sold at kimberton whole foods, echo hill country store, and hershey harvest.

wholesome dairy farms, run by veterinarian-farmer mark lopez, where he settled down with his veterinarian wife, is one of a select number of farms that must pass stringent, state-regulated, twice-a-month safety and sanitation tests month safety and sanitation tests for pure, raw milk straight from grass-fed cows. developing a kitchen has been part of a larger plan lopez had for his evolving business, which he hopes will one day be not just totally natural, but fully powered by solar energy. early on, he knew that his main product, the milk itself, was special: “i love the milk itself. i just don’t get enough of it. this milk is like midas—you know, how everything midas touched turned to gold ? anything you make with this milk is awesome.”

unlike the raw milk, though, products like yogurt and kefir have to be pasteurized. hence the kitchen. it’s not big. “it’s made out of a shipping container,” explains lopez. “at first,  we called it ‘the container.’ then, for a while, it was ‘the yogurt container.’ finally, it became ‘the kitchen.’”

it sits behind the store area, and inside is sink areas, shelving, and a shiny pasteurizing vat, similar in size to a smallish kiln used for making pottery. the remnant chunks of newly made feta cheese—raw milk feta aged for 60 days—lie on the cutting table near an enormous knife, as seidel has just finished processing her latest savory treat.

as lopez and his dairy manager display the kitchen with obvious pride and hope for its future, the kitchen seems to represent more than an officially okayed and designated room that the health department approves of. it is an expression of a continuous, careful, natural, organic expansion of a dairy farm that is udderly dedicated to providing people with good food.

texture is important. so is purity of taste. and, comparatively speaking, processed and over-processed dairy foods cannot come close to what wholesome dairy farms can make in its comparatively tiny kitchen.

( the milk store, fresh feta, mark lopez & rebecca seidel and yogurt & fruit for breakfast - 

photos by marian wolbers; cow-savvy eye-scenes courtesy of www.wholesomedairyfarms.com )

it’s local. it’s tangible. it’s where a simple, healthful, white liquid transforms into a   myriad of partly solid (yogurt, various spreads, ricotta) and solid (cheeses, kefir, squeaky curds) foods that can be enjoyed “as is” or cooked as ingredients in everything from lasagna and stuffed shells to elegant appetizers, spinach-and feta pies, and desserts. 

which is precisely why the farm will not only survive but grow—at its own, good, pace, much like a cow’s own pace: steady, not fast; dependent on good care and great hygiene; calm, free of injected hormones, uncrowded, unstressed.

apparently, having a vet as their owner means living the good life for the 45 or 46 cows that fit into the barn’s stanchions. these girls are well tended, well fed on ample pastureland, and well exercised, roaming outside 7 hours by day and 11 at night. it’s a complete no-brainer, then, that they are relaxed when it comes to sanitizing their teats to prep for the milking machinery, yielding both good milk and an easier milking experience for lopez and seidel at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily.

a dairy farm, as everyone knows, is a fulltime work-life. yet it’s a life lopez loves, evidenced by his giving up a veterinary practice to devote himself to this cow-venture. “you know,” he comments, “i never drag myself to the barn.” summing up, he shares his simple equation for success: “happy cow, happy veterinarian, happy customers.”

it’s a sweet life for a family, too, for this operation exists not just on any old farm, but on the same land where lopez spent happy summer days. it’s not unusual for his mom to wait on you when you drive up to purchase dairy or their nitrate-free meats and free-range eggs. today, the farm is well on its way to becoming a model for green energy and locally produced food, with methane-reduced dairy cow feeding strategies, oil-reclaiming practices, and ever-evolving, holistically driven, scientifically sound facilities and practices.

on a sunlit morning, after all the big-eyed, brown-and-white beauties have gone out to pasture, you might find lopez and his 3-year-old daughter happily scooping up yogurt and granola for breakfast. it’s one of lopez’ favorite things they do together.

thanks to the new kitchen, of course.

how to get wholesome:

for info on raw milk, mark lopez, dvm, can be seen on youtube in “how to milk a cow.” you can also visit wholesome dairy farms in person, or virtually on facebook.

for directions to buy milk and ridiculously sly dairy, see their website: www.wholesomedairyfarms.com. open tuesday through friday from 10  to 5.30 and saturday from 9 to 4.

for fast relief from stress:  click on the “photo gallery” on the farm’s website for a fine album of joyful bovines. you will soon see that just looking at cow-faces—kelly, ivory, gilly, yogi, claire, sheron faye, and all the rest of the lassies—both mesmerizes and relaxes. these indeed are lucky, lucky cows.