A Lyrical Day at Bobolink Dairy

On Mother’s Day we took a trip to Bobolink Dairy in Milford, NJ, where proprietors Jonathan and Nina White turn conventional American dairy farming on its head. They raise a herd of cattle on pasture (no grain), entirely outside (even in the dead of winter), allow the cows to suckle their own calves, and turn the rest of the cows’ milk into succulent cheeses. The whey leftover from cheese-making gets fed to pigs, who eventually become sausages and pâtés to spread on Nina’s wood-fired country breads, along with the cheese.

Jonathan and Nina offer tours of their farm and cheese- and bread-making workshops throughout the year. I’ve been wanting to go on their farm tour ever since I heard discovered Bobolink at the Union Square Farmers Market. Yesterday’s visit was even more fun than I expected — Jonathan patiently described all aspects of his farming, from the principles of intensive rotational grazing to the composition of his pasture grasses to his “insecticide” — a gaggle of happy chickens wandering the fields. “There’s nothing better than a fresh egg from a chicken on a diet of big, fat maggots!” he proclaimed. (One of the best parts of the tour is his sense of humor.)

Below are highlights from the tour. Sun shines through the leaves as we hike up the side of a ravine to pasture at the top of the hill, led by “retired herding dog” Babka.

A cow drinks from a water trough:

We encounter the first group of cows munching on grass:

Close to the farmhouse we stopped to say hi to the pigs:

Below, “the early 1960s, state-of-the-art milking parlor,” and a round of cheese produced by grass-fed cows milk:

Jonathan White cuts cheese for visitors and explains the intricacies of cheese-making, assisted by intern Melissa:

And good-bye to the Bobolink cows…