Basil Bandwagon Natural Market is proud to offer delicious, fresh and local milk from Spring Run Dairy Farm of Pittstown, NJ. Daniel Lyness, owner and operator, efficiently runs this dairy farm with the help of his family. Spring Run’s property is absolutely breathtaking, as the 126 acre farm contains plenty of pastures for the cows to graze on, a garden to grow crops, as well as picturesque views of the land surrounding the farm. The cows themselves are incredibly joyful and friendly, as the Lyness family works around-the-clock to make sure that they have an enriching life beyond producing milk. They do this by making sure that the cows have plenty of time to relax and graze freely in the pastures, consistent cleanliness of the cows and their barns, and that they have abundant amounts of nourishing foods. The beautiful farm in combination with the nurturing results in a farm containing cheerful and carefree cows.
One of the most notable aspects is the careful control over farm operations especially with the cows that inhabit it. Dan’s process begins with planting and harvesting the crops that feed the cows. Spring Run ensures that everything their cows ingest is up to their high standards. The feed they grow is stored for the winter as well, to ensure that the calves and cows are getting the essential nutrients they need all year round. Spring Run believes that in order to have high quality milk, you need cows that are nutritionally balanced as well as clean, happy, and healthy. As Dan says, “the cleaner, the better!”
Spring Run has two distinct breeds of cows, the Jersey Cow and the Holstein Cow, each with their own specific characteristics. The Jersey Cow is brown in color and much smaller than the Holstein, your classic black and white cow. The Jersey Cow produces much less milk than the Holstein, but that milk is higher in fat and protein than the milk from a Holstein. The combination of milk from the two breeds results in a flavorful and creamy whole milk.
The pasteurization and bottling process is done completely contactless to ensure that it’s sanitary and free from outside contaminants. As soon as the raw milk is collected from the cows, it is immediately kept at 35°F, filtered out for any contaminants, and put into a pasteurizer to be cleaned and bottled. To further maintain high quality, they pasteurize at the minimum required temperature to preserve vital nutrients from being removed. The NJ State Department of Health comes once a month to analyze and test Spring Run’s milk in a laboratory, and every 3 months to inspect the condition of the cows and the pastures. To ensure that everything is properly sterilized, they made all their machines in the process completely stainless steel, as this is the easiest to keep sanitary. Everything that is used in the pasteurization and bottling process is sanitized thoroughly twice a day to ensure no bacteria is present anywhere in the facility.
Their facility is fairly new, as the barns were built by Dan in 2013 and they have been bottling their own milk on-site since February 2021. Spring Run has streamlined their milk pasteurization and bottling processes to be as efficient as possible to continuously produce high quality dairy products. Spring Run’s self-serve farm store is open every Saturday and Sunday from 10AM-4PM for customers to purchase milk and see the cows grazing in the pastures that made it all possible.
Resources:
https://www.facebook.com/springrundairy
