Branched Oak Farm by Diane

Wednesday, August 22. After our tour of Common Good Farm, we went to a dairy farm in Raymond, Nebraska, called Branched Oak Farm. The farm was purchased in 1994 and was worn out from crop production. (When you grow vegetables on a sustainable farm, you rotate the crops and make sure to take care of the soil so it remains vibrant and healthy. On an industrial farm, the same crop is planted year after year. This depletes the soil so more and more fertilizers, most often from chemicals, are sprayed onto the ground. Over time, this wears out the soil.) The main crops grown in Nebraska are corn and beans.

When our host, Doug Dittman (and his wife Krista, who happened to be away at a conference on aging cheese) bought the farm, they decided the best way to help build back the ground was to go into grass production. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but many farmers who raise their animals out on pasture call themselves grass farmers because they need to find the right combination of grasses to grow so they replenish the soil and also provide proper nutrients for the animals. (Cows are ruminants so they should only eat grass.)

Branched Oak Farm raises dairy cows and has an artisanal cheese production facility, where all the cheese is made by hand. (The whey, which is a byproduct of cheese production, is sprayed back out onto the land to provide nutrients to the soil.) We got a tour of their small facility, which includes the milking area and machines like a Dutch cheese vat that’s used to make the cheese.

The farm sells its cheese at the local farmers market, and at stores and restaurants in the area. All the cheese is not only made by hand, it’s also wrapped and labeled by hand.

After going through their cheese facility, we walked out to the pasture to meet the cows. One thing about the west and Midwest is all the sky you can see. As we stood in the pasture, we could see a storm coming in, lightening and all, so it added a little drama and accent to the peaceful cows grazing on the green pasture.

Our tour at Branched Oak ended with ice cream and coffee. This wasn’t just any ice cream – this was ice cream that Doug made with milk from their cows, and, I must say, I think it was probably the richest ice cream I’ve ever had. It was plain vanilla and needed nothing else on top because the taste was so rich and creamy and vanilla infused. When you eat fresh, local food, you don’t need a lot of spice or flavors to cover the actual flavor of the food – that’s how it was with this ice cream.

So, another memorable farm experience for all of us. I wish you all could be here with us in person because it’s really not possible to relay all the sights, sounds, smells and experiences to you. But we will continue to try.

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