I was finally able to visit Bobolink Dairy Farm. I had heard about this New Jersey farm on tv years ago and never got around to checking it out. The farm produces award winning natural cheeses and breads. Their cow heard is strictly grass fed the way nature intended. Every Saturday and Sunday they give tours of their farm for $5. The farm was started by a husband and wife team with hardly a ‘farming background’.
Neither Jonathan nor Nina grew up with a farming background. He spent his childhood in Hoboken and Teaneck, attended Stevens Institute of Technology, wrote computer software and worked for a time at Goldman Sachs. She was the daughter of New York City schoolteachers, a dancer and dance teacher. They have long juggled a highly demanding family life: two of their three children (now grown) have Asperger’s syndrome and one is severely autistic.
They began making cheese while living in Westchester County, N.Y. A neighbor, composer and conductor David Amram, kept goats and cows, and started giving them the milk his children refused to drink…….
……Eventually, curiosity led him to take a few samples to the gourmet food purveyor Dean and Deluca. “He was nominated to the American Cheese Society on the spot,” Nina remembers. – NorthJersey.com
My visit on this particular day was sadly by car not plane. However I did figure out the perfect way fellow pilots can fly in and check it out. The Bobolink farm is just a 10 min drive from Alexandria Airport. How do I get to the farm from the airport you ask? Well lucky for you they have a pretty sweet courtesy car available that even benefits a local cause. Problem solved.
Jon the owner took us on a walk around the fields to see the cows grazing and explained how they operate everything. It was very cool being so close to the animals and seeing what farms are supposed to look like. He also took us inside and showed us the wood fired brick oven. One of the cool things was how he controlled the oven’s temperature with a computer by opening and closing the damper automatically. This allows the couple to get some much needed away time each evening without running in and out to the oven.
They have a large sampling station where you get to try each cheese and bread before you buy. While the goods might be pricey compared to your supermarket, the quality is far and away superior. In my opinion their food is worth every penny. So go ahead and checkout a family farm producing some top notch food.
