Sweet Grown Alabama Blogs

Building a life from the ground up takes courage. For the family behind Working Cows Dairy, that meant leaving the Netherlands in search of an opportunity to farm, then turning that dream into an award-winning dairy built on quality, tradition and family.

Today, Jan and Rinske de Jong have built a dairy that reflects the family's commitment to doing things well, from raising their own youngstock to producing a wide variety of dairy products on the farm.

The family raises all of its own youngstock and handles breeding on the farm. Their cows are raised through a combination of grazing and additional feed, giving the animals the nutrients they need while allowing them to spend time on pasture.

In 2009, Working Cows Dairy took another important step by becoming an organic dairy. A year later, the family began bottling its own milk, allowing them to bring more of their product directly from the farm to their customers.

Today, visitors can find an assortment of products at the farm, including milk, buttermilk, butter and a variety of cheeses. The farm store operates on an honor system, a reflection of the trust the family has placed in its community. Rather than requiring someone to manage the store, customers can select what they need, pay and go, allowing the farm to focus on the work of producing the food.

But perhaps the most remarkable part of Working Cows Dairy happens inside its cheese building.

The building itself is part of the family story, having been built by Rinske's son, Mendy. Inside, Rinske spends long hours turning the dairy's milk into award-winning cheese.

When Rinske begins making cheese, her work can start at 6 p.m. and continue until 2 p.m. the following day. In one batch, she typically processes 22 blocks of cheese, with each block weighing about 14 pounds.

That means a single cheesemaking session can involve more than 300 pounds of cheese.

The time and care put into each batch have not gone unnoticed. Some of Rinske's cheeses have received national and international awards, while the farm's chocolate milk has also earned recognition.

Of all the cheeses they make, the family's favorite is the Farmstead flavor, a fitting choice for a family whose work is so closely connected to the farm itself.

As Working Cows Dairy looks toward the future, the family is finding new ways to make the operation sustainable for the people who run it. The farm is adding milking robots, which will help lighten Rinske's workload and allow her to spend more time focusing on other aspects of the dairy.

The family also hopes to lean further into agritourism, opening more opportunities for people to experience the farm and learn about where their food comes from.

From leaving the Netherlands to building a dairy in Alabama, the de Jong family's story has always been about creating a life around agriculture. Today, that story continues through their cows, their cheese, their milk and the family members who have helped build the operation along the way.

At Working Cows Dairy, the products may be what bring people to the farm, but the family's dedication, trust in their community and commitment to carrying their farm into the future are what make the story worth remembering.