I was lucky enough to be invited on a tour of the Straus farm and dairy this week, since we use their yogurt in one of our entrees (the yogurt parfait, of course!) Straus family creamery was the first organic dairy west of the Mississippi. I have talked before about the pleasure of meeting one of our suppliers, the people behind the raw ingredients we buy for our lunch program. The Straus tour was a new high point for me and I learned so much!
The foggy morning began in the parking lot of a trail head off of Highway 1 (PCH, baby!) Twelve groggy city folks, all chefs and foodies, signed waivers and attached name tags, eager for the experience of seeing real cows and tasting real milk. Even when you work with food every day, and know about the importance of sourcing locally and asking about where groceries come from, it’s easy to forget what happens before the proverbial milkman arrives. This was our chance to see it all in action, from nose to tail.
Charles Phan was there, the famous Founder of Slanted Door and an empire of great restaurants, as was a venerable cast of fair trade innovators, and culinary veterans. I was the newbie (everyone else seemed to know each other) but hands extended when they learned I was in the ‘school lunch gig.’ It turned out, there were a few of us school lunch peeps there, and though we might be competitors, friendships were firm by the end of the day. (Sahara, call me!)
We started off in the maternity ward of the farm, where about 300 of the milking cows go every 13 months to give birth. A calf had just been born the night before- the pride of a Holstein cow that seemed pretty steady on her feet for having just endured labor. The gestation period for a cow is 9 months like it is for humans, so these hard-working ladies only get 4 months to recover from each pregnancy. As an adoptive Mom who avoided the delivery room, I have to applaud!
Albert Straus met us on the farm, where he lives, and discussed his efforts to maintain his incredibly high organic standards. We learned about why GMO alfalfa is ubiquitous and why it’s so hard to keep feed uncontaminated. We learned about new organic standards put in place this month which require pasture grazing and ‘dry matter’ feed. Albert was passionate and slightly intimidating⦠this man is a rebel and clearly a genius. I’m glad he’s on our side!
We learned that Straus Holstein cows give about 7 gallons of milk a day (it takes 8 minutes to milk a cow and they are milked twice a day, after which they prefer to rest on their mattresses in the barnâ¦no joke!) but that conventional, non-organic cows, pumped full of bovine growth hormones, can give 10 gallons a day. Of course organic is going to cost more!
We saw the methane digester which is like a big tarp thrown over cow poop, meant to capture methane gas and turn it into energy used to power the farm. This Albert guy is serious! We learned that methane is twenty times more toxic than carbon-dioxide, which was a revelation for our Prius-driving crowd.
Finally, we made it inside to the creamery. We tasted homogenized milk, butter and the newest flavors of ice cream. Can you say Brown Sugar Banana and Toffee Carmel Crunch? No, we don’t have ice cream in our lunch program. Yes, this is a shame when you taste these treats! Frankly I have never liked milk. I drink Trader Joes almond milk by the gallon, but my Mom had to beg me drink a drizzle of milk when I was a kid. If they had Strauss milk back in 1981, I might have been a milk lover all along.
There were some funny moments, like when Charles Phan snuck a taste of yellow butter straight from the creamery line. He was gleeful and I had a flash of the rebellious kid he might have been. Charles, did you sneak icing off your birthday cakes when your Mom wasn’t looking?
The day ended on the coast, with hot clam chowder, perfect shrimp cocktail and a concoction my new friend Erin introduced me to: creamy goat cheese atop bittersweet chocolate. Scrumptious, just like that Straus butter, huh Charles?
