Welcome
to
CowsOutside.com
the
home of
Bobolink LLCDairy
100% grass-fed cheeses
&
wood-fired
breads
Nina & Jonathan White, cheesemakers/bakers
Please join our mailing list to be kept updated on the
availability of
suckled veal, grass-fed beef, and whey-fed pork
Please click
here to visit our
on-line farm store
We ship our 100% grass-fed raw milk cheeses year 'round!
Orders are shipped on Mondays and Tuesdays, via UPS
John,
our
first Kerry Bull, patriarch of the Bobolink Black Grazer breed
Guided
Farm
Tours--click
here
to
book online
Click
here for our Farmer's Market Schedule
or
visit our
on-line farm store
Public Tastings at the Farm
year 'round (nearly)
click here for directions, hours,
etc.
Bread & Cheesemaking
Workshops:
Nearly every
other Sunday July-October
News Flash from Nina & Jonathan White:
Friends:
Bobolink and the White family have moved to our new, permenant home,
just outside the Delaware River village of Milford, NJ, a mere 70
minutes from NYC.
The herd is settling into their new home on 184 acres of lovingly
restored pasture, and learning the fine points of being milked in a
proper parlor, while the humans unpack, build the new oven, and prepare
to "reboot" our farmer's market, farm retail, and mail order business.
Artisan Cheesemakers
and Land Trust collaborate to preserve historic farm
Hunterdon Land Trust and local cheese makers work
together to preserve historic farmstead in Holland Township, Hunterdon
County
picasaweb.google.com/KateButtolph/StametsProperty
The Stamets Farm sits atop a hill with beautiful views of the Delaware
River and has been farmed by just two families since the American
Revolution. When William Stamets, whose family had owned the farm for
generations, passed away in 2001, many people feared the property would
be developed, ending the tradition of family farming on the land that
had endured for hundreds of years. On Monday March 29th those fears
were put to rest with the culmination of a deal coordinated by the
Hunterdon Land Trust.
By purchasing the development rights to the property the land trust
simultaneously protected the land, ensuring that it will always be used
as a farm, and made it possible for Nina and Jonathan White, local
farmers and cheese makers, to purchase the property as the new home for
their environmentally sustainable Bobolink Dairy Farm.
“This project has such a great outcome--the permanent protection of the
largest unpreserved farm in the township and its transfer to a farming
family with an established commitment to sustainable agriculture”, said
Margaret Waldock, Executive Director of the Hunterdon Land Trust
Alliance.
Preservationists and farmers both have big reasons to celebrate the
successful completion of this deal. The farm has great conservation
value given its size, soils and the fact that it is located in the
middle of hundreds of acres of land that has already been preserved. To
lose this property to development would have dealt a serious blow to
preservation efforts in the region.
Holland Township Mayor Edward Burdzy indicated that the preservation of
the Historic Stamets farm represents a milestone in Holland's farmland
preservation effort. “Bill Stamets would be proud that the land will
continue in agricultural use” said the Mayor.
Like many family farmers Nina and Jonathan White have found it
challenging to find a farm to buy, given the cost of real estate in New
Jersey which is often a significant barrier to famers. They are well
known cheese makers producing high-quality artisanal cheeses from their
Bobolink Dairy, established on leased land in Vernon, NJ. For many
years the Whites had searched for a farm to purchase as a permanent
home for their herd of 100 rustic Bronze Age cattle. Their long search
came to an end when the land trust showed them the Stamets Farm in
Holland Township. The Hunterdon Land Trust secured grant funding to
preserve the farm through the purchase of an agricultural easement from
the Stamets’ estate and then the Whites purchased the preserved
property from the estate.
The deal required the participation of a large group of partners to
fund the purchase of the $1.4 million conservation easement, and a
great deal of work to coordinate all of the partners involved. The
Hunterdon Land Trust secured preservation grants through a variety of
public and private sources. The state of New Jersey’s farmland
preservation program, the Hunterdon County farmland preservation
program, and Holland Township all contributed funds and the New Jersey
Conservation Foundation provided $700,000 in Federal Farm and Ranchland
Protection Funds to secure an agricultural easement on the farm.
“We are very pleased to contribute a portion of our federal farmland
grant to the Hunterdon Land Trust and support their efforts to preserve
this farm,” said Michele S. Byers, executive director of New Jersey
Conservation Foundation. “Bobolink Dairy is a terrific example of a
sustainable dairy operation, and we congratulate the Hunterdon Land
Trust on their success in helping the White family find a permanent
home for their farm in Hunterdon County.”
The Open Space Institute provided a bridge loan which allowed the land
trust to close the project in time to meet the March 29 closing date,
while the land trust waited to receive a portion of the grant funding.
“Hunterdon Land Trust has a great track record of agricultural
preservation in Hunterdon County, and this is a project we’re proud to
be involved with,” said Marc Hunt, the Southern Appalachians field
coordinator for the Open Space Institute. “The acquisition of this
easement will allow the farmer to purchase land that sustains his
operation at an affordable price. This is a model for an innovative
project by a land trust that really does it right.”
The White’s cheeses and breads are currently sold on their rented farm
in Vernon, NJ, in farmer’s markets throughout the NYC region, including
the indoor market on Sunday in Stockton, NJ, as well as nationally via
their website, www.cowsoutside.com. After their move to Holland
Township, Bobolink cheese and breads will also be available for sale at
the Hunterdon Land Trust’s Farmers’ Market at Dvoor Farm.
“Bringing Bobolink Dairy together with the Stamets property
demonstrates how the preservation and farming communities can work
together to keep family farms a part of our county and to build the
local food system” said Waldock.
The Hunterdon Land Trust is Hunterdon County, New Jersey’s only
countywide land trust. Incorporated as a 501 (C) (3) non-profit
organization in 1996, the land trust is committed to preserving and
protecting the rural landscapes and natural resources of Hunterdon
County. To learn more about the Hunterdon Land Trust, please visit
their website at www.hlta.org.
###
BobolinkLLC
Dairy derives its name from the
ground-nesting bird that frequents its pastures and meadows.
In Spring 2003, we began
making cheese from the milk of our twenty mixed-breed, grass-fed cows.
This season, we'll be milking between 40-45 cows, and we have a bumper
crop of young
heifers and bulls of our new breed, the Bobolink Blacks, which are the
result of crossing several common "modern" dairy breeds (Ayrshire,
Guernsey, Jersey, etc.) with the ancient Kerry cattle of
Ireland.
In
addition to the farming and cheesemaking, we also bake rustic, breads
to go with our cheeses. Our new
wood-fired oven, designed by the late Alan Scott, has a hearth that
measures 48 X 72
inches
(about 1.2 X 1.8 metres). Like our first oven, it is a
single-chamber "black oven", the sort that has been in use since
ancient times. In engineer-speak, it's a biomass-fueled combustion
chamber and thermal stack, which stores the heat from an overnight wood
fire in its hearth, walls and dome, and re-rediates the stored heat
during the bake.
The
breads
will once again be
available at the farm later this summer, and at our several
farmer's
markets in and around New York City. Click here for
Hours and Directions to the Farm
Cows,
Bread
and
Autism
As
many of you already know, our younger son, Jacob, now 18, is autistic:
while he is quite intelligent, he has very limited speech capability,
equivalent to about a typical three year old. Despite his
disability, Jake is very outgoing, engaging, curious, and diligent
about matters that engage him.
Two
matters that definitely engage Jake: cows and baking. Our kids have
spent a lot of time in and around dairy farms, and Jake seems to have a
particular affinity with cows, and cows seem to respond well to
him--hey, they don't even know that he has a speech handicap! As for
baking, those who know Jacob know well his passion for mixing,
kneading, baking and, most importantly, eating baked goods.
So,
among the many reasons for our family's move, is that we hope to make a
bright future for Jacob. In my extensive collection of old dairy and
farm books, there are many photos of people working on farms and in
cheese factories, who appear to have one learning disability or another.
One
photo that particularly comes to mind is of a young man in perhaps the
1950s, with biceps like Popeye's, operating a manual cheese press. His
bright-eyed, proud and smiling face belies the markers of Down
syndrome, although there is no mention of it in the text. This young
man had a good job and was proud of it. Nowadays, a Down kid or someone
like Jacob is more likely to have a job raking leaves or putting parts
in a bag on an assembly line.
Agriculture
and
food
production,
in
simpler times, had more room for people with
disabilities. As modernity has taken its toll of the quality and
flavorfulness of food, it has also eroded the opportunities for those
of us who are different. So, wish us well as we set out to set it right!
Internships
We
offer internships in cheesemaking, grass-based dairy farming and bread
baking.
Internships can take the following forms:
Academic
Internship: We may be able to develop an internship to meet your
school's academic requirements. (some schools call them "externships").
Typical culinary internships of, say, 18 weeks, will be offered in
conjunction with recognized culinary arts programs.
Seasonal
appenticeships:
For
the
serious
would-be cheese and/or bread artisan, a
full-season (10-12 month) apprenticeship is available, including
all aspects of grass-based milk production, cheesemaking, ripening
room operations, baking, and direct marketing.
Individuals interested
in Bobolink Internships should write a brief letter describing their
goals, education or prior experience, and send it along with three
references via email by clicking here .
Visiting the Farm:
.
Click
to
order
cheese
on-line
Please stay tuned for developments, and cheese news!
Nina & Jonathan
Click
to
order
cheese
on-line
Tibetan Yak Cheese
Project
Power of Real
Cheese--essay
Cooking with children Whence
Jonathan
& Nina?
Jonathan's Bread Notes
Churning Cultured Butter at Home
Jonathan's Assorted
Recipes
Speaking engagements
Press Info
What we care about:
- Everyone
should
be
able
to
enjoy full-flavor, well-made natural cheese, artisanal cheeses that are
designed to nourish the
body as well as the spirit, as opposed to industrial cheeses which are
merely convenient to make and distribute.
- Dairy
farmers
should
be
well
rewarded for making the most healthful,
natural milk possible, while improving their land for the next
generation. To accomplish this, we believe that it is necessary to
break the cycle of overproduction, where lower margins force farmers to
"squeeze the cows" to produce more milk, thereby driving margins even
lower, while destroyimg both the environment and the health of the
animals.
- Cows
and
other
dairy
animals
should also live well: producing only as
much milk as is healthful for them. This means that dairy animals
should
live out of doors, eating grass and being milked seasonally, and not
indoors, being fed grain, animal by-products and hormones, and being
milked to death.
- We
want
to
raise
our
children in a world
where farming, and indeed all other human activity, is done
thoughtfully and sustainably, with long-term well-being taking priority
over immediate gain. This requires thoughtful cooperation between
producers and consumers. It also requires all people to aspire to a
deeper understanding of how their individual actions affect both their
own future, as well as the future of all living things: enlightened
self-interest.
Ok, let's cut to the chase: Can I buy
some cheese already?
YES!!!
Join
our
mailing
list
Stay
up
to
date
on
happenings at Bobolink:
new
releases,
special
events,
articles,
etc.
We promise not to share your name or eamil address with anyone,
ever!
NOTE: If you have a spam filter, you
may not receive the confirmation, so please be sure to add "jonathan@cowsoutside.com"
to your address book. Thanks!
Problems with joining the mailing list? Please click here to send me an
email.
Press
Enquiries:
Please contact Jonathan White via email
Speaking
engagements:
We offer several programs, ranging
from
short presentations to full day, hands-on cheesemaking classes.
For details, click here
Who we are, and
how to reach us:
Grassland
Cheese
Consortium
was
founded
by
Jonathan White,
Cheesemaker and Nina
Stein
White,
Dancemaker
, who established Egg Farm Dairy in 1994.
They left Egg Farm in June 2000, and started the Grasslands Cheese
Consortium, in order
to share their cheesemaking experiences with others. Now, at Bobolink
Dairy, they are continuing the work of the GCC through
professional internships and workshops for the general public.
Jonathan
and
Nina
can
be
reached via
email.
Links to our friends:
- www.applevalleyinn.com
, a local bed-and-breakfast here in
Vernon, New Jersey
- Sleepy Valley
Inn, Warwiick,
NY, recently opened B&B
- David
Amram , the man whose cows and goats got me started....
- Rosner Soap--if you love
our cheeses, we know that you'll love Kiki's soaps, too.
Alan Scott, of blessed
memory, our
wood-fired oven Guru
- Ricki
Carroll, the Patron
Saint of American Cheesemakers
..please
sign our guest book...
Want to leave
your mark on this page?
Be our guest, but,
please,
no spam with that
cheese....
Text Copyright 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010 Jonathan S. White - all rights reserved
Bobolink
Photos by Nina White
Nina,
Jonathan & Beulah photo copyright 1998 - Miki Duisterhof - all
rights reserved
Please
send comments and questions to
our webmaster
