James Ranch - Artisan Cheese and Whey-Good Pork
The fog is still lifting off of the pastures when the herd of Jersey cows wanders up to the open-air barn for their morning milking. After patiently waiting their turn, they head back down to a new section of pasture with green grass free of pesticides and herbicides, where they will spend the day grazing with their calves. The herd is rotated among the pastures every 30 days so that the grasses are not over-grazed, the soils do not erode, and the natural fertilizer breaks down. When Dan James and his staff are not busy milking, they are making handcrafted artisan cheeses or bottling raw milk for loyal patrons, who eagerly wait all winter for the milk to return. They wait, because Dan James and his wife Becca, who operate this enterprise of the James Ranch, believe in milking their cows only from April to November, so as to mimic the rhythm of nature and give their herd time to rest.
And it’s not just the cheese and milk that people are coming back for. As Dan’s nephew Abe Ott puts it, “Customers want to come back, and it’s not just because of the food.” People have been drawn to the family-operated ranch for over the past 16 years because the Jameses not only deliver quality agricultural products that go beyond organic, but because they know their practices are harmonious with the environment and they appreciate what they are giving back to the community. Recently, the Jameses gave the community the peace of mind that some of the ranch will remain forever undeveloped when they placed 81 acres of the 450-acre ranch under conservation easement. And they plan on preserving even more land in the future.