harleyfarms.com Blog

Just after Thanksgiving, we said goodbye to Tony, who’d been here for a month. Tony is a neighbor of my parents in Yorkshire, and, last May, very kindly offered his house to Pescadero ladies when we flew over in a group to surprise my mother on her seventieth birthday. Some of the friends hadn’t been to Europe before, and Tony hadn’t been to the United States, so he came to try it out!
While he was here, Tony built a pen for visitors to pet the baby goats, not to mention painting, and fixing, and generally making things better. He had words of advice on our business, and, on antique-hunting trips, found some of the gorgeous old milkcans you see in our shop. I have to say, I envy celebrities not for their lovely glowing faces, red carpet gowns and babies with Brad Pitt, but for their assistants with clipboards. The sheer joy of being accompanied by somebody who makes things happen is one of the best feelings in the world.

We didn’t work him to the bone – he was allowed off the farm occasionally! - and everybody enjoyed entertaining him, not least the ladies who stayed with him in Yorkshire! We’re missing him - and all those expertly-made cups of tea - and look forward to seeing Tony again soon.

That’s my accountant on the right, laughing

When I taste our cheese, I know it flaunts our hundred-year-old pastures and the brisk saltiness of the winds off the Pacific, but I’d go further. The French word terroir, about how wine or food expresses the region in which it is made, is all-encompassing: you can taste soil, climate, culture and tradition. And we’ve got such a tasty town here!

We took a break on Wednesday to watch the town Halloween parade. The sheriffs close the street, there’s a stream of witches and devils and ghouls from the local school, all the businesses bring out candy, and the local park ranger always takes the day off to appear in elaborate disguise. It’s small-town nirvana.

Of course, when I was seventeen I couldn’t wait to run from my parents’ small town, but now I appreciate the quirkiness and the conviviality of tradition. We have a vibrant farming community, and you taste that in our cheese.

I have my parents’ neighbor Tony here for a month – though he could probably stay for years given the dollar to sterling exchange rate. It’s always fun showing visitors around, and he has milked, pasteurized, and painted the barn with our new goat milk paint. He even likes the cheese!

Blossom and Daisy are two of our most sweet-tempered goats, and always on call
for milking demonstrations at the farm. However… as soon as we got to Google
this past weekend Blossom made a frantic break for her freedom, capering
across the Google lawns in probably the most chaotic action the Google lawns
have ever seen.

I don’t know; she may have fancied the engineering life. It’s a Shangri-La for
engineers at Google – we loved the clean-cut boys doing their laundry early on
Saturday morning, and the compostable cutlery in the canteens, and you’ll have
to check out the bathrooms! It was the delightful Google chefs hosting us, for
a DooF-a-Palooza http://www.foodbackwards.com/ – kids enjoying real food on a new PBS series.

October mornings are my very favorite time of the year. Crisp or foggy, the
smells of the farm are more intense, and there’s a palpable bustle in the air
as we prepare the goats for winter. They are beginning to put on weight for
the California winter!, and so, no doubt, will I, because we’ve got some
delicious food planned.

First, it’s pumpkin season, neighboring Half Moon Bay being the pumpkin
capital of the entire world (if the weekend traffic’s anything to go by). It’s
luscious added to our fromage blanc, with a tiny dusting of cinnamon, and
available now! Perfect in a cheesecake.

As the dairy has grown, I’ve become ever more appreciative of local foods and
the extraordinary talents of the Northern California chefs whom we’ve worked
with over the years. So, this Thanksgiving seemed the perfect time to organize
Fabulous Food at Harley Farms! Three top chefs will each prepare a
Thanksgiving lunch or dinner to seat 20, served under the magnificent rafters
of our old dairy barn.

What better way to celebrate family and the harvest season than on the farm,
prepared by those who love and support real food? I can’t wait! Menus and
booking details on the website very soon!

Even though there are so many more interesting cheeses available, we are one of the very few farmstead producers, taking slow and consistent steps all the way from the birth of the baby goat, to their happy days on our pasture with its ocean breezes, to the capable hands of our family of dairy employees, who’ve been with us all these nine years. We were in Italy last year, and I gave a local foodie some of our cheese to try, and he immediately said “This cheese is made by the ocean!” It’s true. You can literally taste our gorgeous location.

OK. Enough boasting. We’re working on a new, aged cheese for spring, and so I’m getting even more excited for next year…

Thank you all for the interest and questions! No, Ben didn’t win his game, but he played really well and the team had a great season.

The farm too has had a wonderful year. Several visitors have asked what the American Cheese Society awards mean to us, since we’ve been recognised each of the nine years Harley Farms has entered cheese in this national competition. I’d say that this year, more than ever, we’re incredibly excited and grateful to have won six awards for the 11 cheeses that we entered.

We saw over 1200 entries for cheeses this year, from all over the United States. There’s been an explosion of interest in food over the past three years, with the popularity of the Food Channel, and markets such as Wholefoods, and, in particular, farmers’ markets. Did you know that Google hosts a farmers’ market for its employees every week? We’re going to visit them - with a goat! - this month. I’ll let you know how that goes!

We won blue ribbons for our Fromage Blanc and our Van Goat, second place for our Fromage Blanc Garlic Herb, Ricotta and Chevre in Oil, and one third place in the Farmstead division for our signature Monet. We are thrilled to be awarded these prestigious honors by our peers and it underlines that our cheese is the best!

Alas, I was not present to receive the awards as my son, Ben, was part of a successful baseball team and we had to stay home to attend the games and to cheer him on. Our friend Jim Boyce from Marin French Cheese gracefully accepted them for us.

My childhood friends came in for a two week flying visit from the UK to help us get our cheese shop on its feet, and what a grand job they’ve done. You should see it! All the original 1910 beams are now exposed filling the room with the glow of times past. We are so grateful to them for their expertise and energy.

We are having a mini Monet give away in the shop to unsuspecting customers over this weekend to celebrate our achievements.

I apologize for the tardy blog update. Spring is always busy on the farm and, alas, this blog fell between the cracks.

But I am back!

I have entered eleven of our cheeses into the American Cheese Society Competition (see link below) which will be held in Vermont from August 1^st through the 4^th. My family will join me and we will drive to Quebec to visit some Farms and Cheese Makers before returning on the 9^th.

Check our new weekly feature “week link” for some goat giggles and take a browse around our updated web site. Keep checking in to see new pictures of the farm, goats and cheese making.

The weekly tours of the summer are filling up fast so make reservations soon if you want to get a behind the scenes look at the workings of Harley Farms.

We will try and update this blog each Friday.

Bye for now.

Dee