Sustainabites is a reoccurring feature that delivers the freshest news about sustainable eats and eco-friendly dining destinations in our area. This is our first installment of the column.
Barnard Baily informed his daughters Becky and Meredith that they would have to sell the farm or make big changes. Becky and Meredith knew that saying goodbye to their family of cows and childhood memories was not an option. Becky pushed to build their own processing plant on the farm. The Bailys, with the help of a few outside employees, now oversee the pasteurization, homogenization and bottling of the milk from their cows.
Baily’s Dairy of Pocopson Meadow Farm has six types of purebred cows: Lineback, Jerseys, Ayrshires, Brown Swiss, Guernsey and a few Holsteins. Barnard Baily was one of the first farmers on the East Coast to breed and advocate for the endangered English Lineback breed.
From mid-spring to late fall, the farm’s 85 cows spend the majority of their time in the pastures and are only brought into the barn to be milked. The Bailys use the parlor that Meredith’s grandfather built in 1968. The cows are milked twice a day for two and half hours, seven days a week, including holidays.
The cows are never given hormones and given antibiotics only when they are sick and that milk is discarded. Their milk is full of omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and high in Vitamin D, C and E thanks to grass-fed diets and minimal pasteurization temperatures.
Every day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., you can pick up “udderly” delicious dairy products: whole, skim, one and a half percent and chocolate milks, heavy cream, butter, buttermilk, half and half and their homemade vanilla and chocolate ice cream. The market is also stocked with seasonal produce, Wichkersham Family Farm eggs, Conebella Farm Cheese and honey and cinnamon butters and Christmas trees and decorations are available for the holidays.
Customers can pick up fresh milk beyond the farm. Many local markets and restaurants in our area carry Baily’s Dairy products. Families can tour the farm throughout the year and children can invite Baily’s cows, goats, and sheep to be the special guests at their next birthday party.
When the cows aren’t being milked or in the pasture, many revisit their former careers as show cows and have received high earnings at local farm shows and community fairs. The cows are the only ones taking home blue ribbons; the farm received the prestigious “Dairy of Distinction” Award from Northeast Dairy Farm Beautification Program last year. This honor is only given to five to six dairies throughout Pennsylvania a year.
Baily’s Dairy of Pocopson Meadow Farm is located at 1821 Lenape Unionville Rd., West Chester and can be reached at 610-793-1151.
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