Dairy Produces Milk at its Purest

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Dairy Produces Milk at its Purest

San Mercury News, August 10, 2004

by Q. Nguyen

Many of us drink milk daily, and we think we know what it's all about. But

do we know what real milk tastes like? Milk that's only days old, not

pasteurized or homogenized, that's velvety on the palate and full of complex

flavors?

Few of us get the chance to have this experience -- unless, that is, we have

a cow or access to milk from Claravale Farm of ville, the only

raw-milk dairy in Northern California and a beloved piece of Santa Clara

Valley history.

Formerly on Bicknell Road in Monte Sereno, and named after the Santa Clara

Valley, the dairy was founded in 1927 by legendary dairyman Peake.

Peake, who died in 1999 at age 91, described his milk as being " so pure it's

almost sterile -- raw, the way the Lord meant it to be. "

Current owner Ron Garthwaite was a genetics researcher at the California

Academy of Sciences and the University of California-Santa Cruz, as well as

an avid dairy historian who read dairy journals from the 1800s, collected

antique equipment and volunteered at Santa Cruz County's Wilder Ranch State

Park (the site of a major dairy during the late 19th and early 20th

centuries). He started out volunteering at Claravale Farm, and in 1995 he

abandoned molecular biology to help run the place full time. He bought it in

1997, when Peake decided to retire.

By that point, the dairy had dwindled from 12 acres to about one. Peake had

been forced, over the years, to sell off portions of his property to remain

solvent. Multimillion dollar houses, rather than orchards, surrounded the

land where Claravale's herd grazed. Local efforts to raise funds to purchase

and preserve the farm failed. Garthwaite moved the equipment and herd to

ville, where he leased a milking facility on ocean-view property owned

by the Monterey Bay Academy, a Christian high school.

Through his products, Garthwaite offers people a way to taste and preserve

dairy history. " This is the milk that people used to know, " he says. " Up

until the 1950s, every neighborhood got its fresh supply of milk from small

dairies. "

With a milking herd of only 37 cows, Garthwaite is as stubbornly committed

to producing small quantities of quality raw milk as Peake was. He offers

educational tours to schoolchildren, just as Peake did.

At about $2.99 a quart for whole or non-fat milk, and $6.99 for a pint of

cream, roughly twice the price of ordinary milk and cream, Claravale Farm

makes premium products, and Garthwaite has no problems selling all he

produces.

Claravale's customers include Whole Foods markets, New Leaf Community

Markets and some Santa Cruz County chefs, including Nicci Tripp of Theo's

Restaurant in Soquel, who has been making fresh cheese with Claravale milk

for two years. " This is the best milk available -- fresh, full of nutrition

and delicious, " Tripp says.

It was only a few months ago that Curry of Ristorante Avanti in Santa

Cruz was able to nab a regular supply after Garthwaite agreed to pull some

from his distributor. He makes cajeta with the milk and panna cotta with the

cream.

One of two in state

As one of only two raw-milk dairies in the state (the other is Organic

Pastures in the San Joaquin Valley), Claravale Farm is inspected once or

twice a month by the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Inspectors run routine microbial analyses of the milk and look for pathogens

California's bacteriological standards for milk are stricter than those of

the federal government.

Within the state standards, raw dairies are measured against some benchmarks

that are higher than those set for dairies producing milk for pasteurization

Every six months, raw-dairy workers undergo examinations for communicable

diseases (tuberculosis, for example). The milking herds also are regularly

inspected for tuberculosis and brucellosis, the old scourges of contaminated

milk.

" Some people think that it's hard for us to work with the state, " Garthwaite

says. " But in actuality, they work with us to produce a clean, high-quality

and healthy product. "

Since the raw vs. pasteurized milk debate has yet to be settled, California

s licensed raw dairies also are required to include a consumer warning label

on their bottles -- the legacy of a fierce and lengthy legal battle waged by

Alta Dena Dairy, a Southern California dairy that once was the state's

largest producer-distributor of raw milk. The label defines raw milk and

describes its potential for carrying disease-causing micro-organisms that

may be harmful to certain at-risk groups of people.

When asked about the food-safety concerns surrounding raw milk, Garthwaite

emphatically says, " Raw milk is safe. It's not a dangerous product. " For

centuries before the advent of pasteurization and homogenization, he notes,

people drank unprocessed milk.

Precautions

The same kinds of food-safety issues are applicable to other raw foods such

as poultry, beef and vegetables, Garthwaite says. When trouble strikes with

any raw food, the culprit tends to be poor handling.

" What's important is how you produce it, and we do it right, " he says.

During the 77-year history of Claravale Farm, no consumer of its milk has

died or fallen ill from milk-borne pathogens; no pathogens have ever been

detected in the milk.

When people have a question about Claravale milk, Garthwaite adds, it's

primarily about why the thick cream rises to the top of the bottle. This is

not a sign that the milk is bad but rather a natural occurrence in

unhomogenized milk and a reminder of how far from the farm today's urban

consumers have come. " I remind them to shake up the bottle first, " he says.

If it all starts with happy cows, then Claravale Farm's herd indeed enjoys

the good life. On the inland property where Garthwaite lives, newborn calves

are kept in an open area about 50 feet from his house so that they may be

closely monitored.

On one of the hottest days this year, the cool breezes at the coastal

milking facility keep flies away from the milking herd as the animals relax

in the shady pen. The only odor in the area is that of hay. Every two to

three days, manure is scraped and hauled away to be composted and sold.

There is also pasture nearby for the cows to graze on.

When the herd spots Garthwaite, the cows amble toward him and gather around.

He points out one called Shayna and smiles at her. She gently grunts in

response.

" You want your cows to be happy and as comfortable as possible, " Garthwaite

explains. " They should eat, ruminate and then lie down. Once they're down,

that's when they produce milk. They shouldn't have any worries. "

Why should they worry? Garthwaite keeps cows in production for eight to 12

years, two to three times longer than most dairies. Their food is raised

without chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and genetically

modified organisms. Garthwaite doesn't use antibiotics or bovine growth

hormones (rbGH) to artificially boost milk production.

Claravale Farm cows produce great-tasting milk not only because they get

good care but also because they're Jerseys. The breed is more intelligent,

smaller (about 600 to 900 pounds each) and easier to work with than other

breeds. But most important, Jerseys produce superior milk, with higher

butterfat, protein and milk sugar content as well as the distinctive

off-white color. (The white milk that most of us drink comes from Holsteins,

a high-yielding, large-size breed that typically weighs about 1,500 pounds

at maturity.)

Additionally, the milking process is handled with great care. The tidy

milking, bottling and storage facilities are housed in one small building.

From the milking parlor, the milk travels to an adjoining room where it is

quickly cooled in a stainless-steel tank. The milk is bottled manually and

taken to a refrigerated storage room about 20 feet away.

Garthwaite and two employees make sure that milking occurs twice a day,

every day of the year. The daily average yield is only 125 gallons, and that

s fine with Garthwaite. He wants to keep his operation small to maintain his

high standards and traditional approaches. Plans for expansion include

growing the milking herd to 50 cows (the optimal size for a small,

old-fashioned dairy) and starting a similar size herd for cheese making.

Once or twice a week, Garthwaite's two independent distributors pick up milk

to deliver to markets in the greater Bay Area and in Los Angeles and Orange

counties. Because raw milk is not pasteurized, it has a very limited shelf

life and must be quickly taken to market. Cooling the milk as fast as

possible, storing it cool and transporting it cool are keys to ensuring its

freshness and integrity.

Garthwaite's commitment to producing delicious, unadulterated milk is

apparent in every bottle. And he plans to keep it that way.

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