Today we’d like to introduce you to Meg And Ian Schwartz
Hi Meg and Ian, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
When we moved to Somerset, OH in 2011, we were a small family of three with one on the way. We were lucky enough to find a 50 acre property with pasture, woods, a pond, a few barns and an old farm house. This place was rough, but held hopes and dreams for the homestead/farming life that Ian and I believed was the foundation for raising our kids. We had already been participating in local farmers markets, selling our stone ground flour from grains Ian grew on his childhood farm. Ian had grown up on a commercial hog/crop farm, but pursued other interests until his late 20’s when he came back to agriculture. I grew up in the city, and to say I knew nothing about farming would be an understatement. I did have a love for the outdoors, and a great appreciation for the simple things in life. So together, with our strong belief in a slow paced, simple way of living, we began homesteading together.
As a lot of budding homesteaders have experienced, we went all in at the beginning. Big garden, sheep, crops, dreams of fixing up the old farm house, all while having full time jobs and young children. Within the first few years we had learned a lot and failed a lot. We spent many years just managing the best we could with very little money to invest into the farm. We did get better at things like canning, gardening small scale, homeschooling the kids (with the help of family while we worked) and raising some animals. However, we could only do things halfway and felt like we were missing out on a lot of the lifestyle we dreamed of. We were just surviving.
So in 2021, Ian came to me with an idea: a family business that we could all do together and give us a sense of purpose on our farm. A Raw Milk Dairy! I thought it was a little crazy at first. Sure we had a milk cow and a couple oxen, but a dairy is a huge commitment. With a dairy, you are married to your farm, full time, everyday. After much thinking, planning and adjusting it became obvious that this could be a very good path for us. This was the moment to make a change; a big change. Now as a family of six, our kids were getting older and we were “running out of time”. So that year, I resigned as an educator after 11 years of teaching and we invested what little money we had into our business. Schwartz Family Homestead, Raw Milk Dairy would become real.
In the spring of 2022, we began selling raw milk through our herdshare program. This business has a strong emphasis on family. It would only work if the whole family was on board and helped. Even a small dairy like us is a lot of work! We believe in our product and what it provides for people in our community. We are in our third year now and through all the trials and tribulations, we have learned so much and taught so much to our children. Our story is still in the works but we are happy to be where we are, together.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Well, a smooth road would be one that has been traveled a lot haha, but running a small grass-fed, raw milk dairy is not a common thing around us. With little to no background in dairy animals beyond just having a family cow, and with nobody to really guide us, we have definitely had struggles along the way. We joke that Ian was an armchair dairy farmer for several years before we ever got our first dairy cow. He read and researched as much as he could. But most information available is in the context of a larger commercial dairy, or for 1 or 2 family cows. So when it was time to get started we had our ideas of how we wanted to farm, but implementing them in the “real world” was pretty challenging at times. Our cows are moved twice daily to fresh grass, 99% of their diet is grass fed, and we try to let the moms raise their calves as much as possible. We also milk out in the pasture instead of in a barn. All these things, we believe, contribute to healthier, happier cows, but can make management more complicated and tougher. We have definitely had to learn to be adaptive on a daily basis. No two days are the same. We do feel like we have figured out a lot and are balancing the work load better than ever.
Some examples of obstacles have been the prices of hay, gas, electric, supplies increasing immensely each year. As we speak, we are in the middle of the worst drought we’ve seen since buying our farm in 2012, The grass has stopped growing and gone brown, and hay will be harder to get this year because less was harvested due to the dry conditions. Also, because we do many things in a non-conventional way, we need non-conventional cows to do well. We are just now starting to settle in to a herd of cows that milk well, are calm and tame, and stay strong and healthy, despite not being babied. These are challenges that could not be completely appreciated until we got there. Because of challenges like these, by the end of our second season we didn’t know if we would make it. We were starting to feel very demoralized and burnt out. Your heart and soul goes into a new business, as many business owners know. We had a choice, quit or keep going. In the end, it was our original goal and belief that got us through. This was adding value to our family life and our children’s lives. Our customers were supportive and encouraging. We knew that raw milk was hard to get a hold of, and we wanted to provide that. So we adjusted and decided that the setbacks were just that: setbacks, not deal breakers. We moved forward with a new plan, and so far it has been going very well. We are intentionally growing slower, not constantly trying to meet demand. This is working really well for us. We feel that we are setting a better example now for our kids. We are running our business, the business is not running us.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Raw Milk is not legal to sell in Ohio, so the only way to access it is through a Herdshare program. There are not many of us offering herdshares in Ohio, so it is an interesting business model that not many farmers are familiar with. Our customers buy into our herd of cows, actually owning a small portion of the herd. According to Ohio law, this gives them a right to drink milk from the herd, since it is legal to drink raw milk from a cow you own. It is a sort of funny hoop that customers have to jump through, but its what has to be done to be allowed here. More and more people are realizing the need for less processed foods. Raw milk is believed by many to have a vast amount of benefits, and our customers go through great trouble to be able to have it each week. The majority of our customers are dedicated to healthy, clean food, and raw milk is an important addition to their diet.
We are proud that we can provide a trustworthy source for raw milk that is produced in a sustainable and regenerative way. Our milk goes straight from milking into a refrigerated tank that brings it down to 34 degrees within 1 hour. It is then bottled daily into reuseable glass jars to cut down on plastic waste. We have a very transparent system in our milk room. Our customers come to the farm to pick up their milk, so they see our bottling area and our farm weekly. We are usually around, and enjoy conversations or answering questions. Our milk room has a small store. We are working towards adding more products. We feel like all these aspects set us apart. We try to create a welcoming, honest environment. Our customers know that we are trying diligently to produce dairy in a way that is best for the people, the cows and the land.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
When you have a business plan on paper that shows there is a way to be successful, you have hope and excitement. But, so far for us, success hasn’t been financial. We are breaking even and able to invest some back into the business but we are not making money to help with living expenses. Ian works off-farm building timberframe buildings to pay the bills. So, we have to define success as something different than making a bunch of money. After our struggles in year two, we gained a lot of perspective. Success in a business can be super small. Success can be watching your kids get compliments from customers on their hard work weekly. A new heifer having her first calve and becoming a new mom. Our kids being able to take dairy calves to the local fair for 4H each year. Knowing that each day you are giving back to the land much needed care. Treating our cows with respect and knowing that they give us an important healthy food to share with others. Success is working together as husband and wife daily to solve all the problems and get excited about all the possibilities for the future. It is going to look different for everyone, in every situation, but we encourage future entrepreneurs to celebrate all the small things along the way. This will make it feel way more positive and keep hope going.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.schwartzfamilyhomestead.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schwartzfamilyhomestead?igsh=MWJzdGc3MDVrdXRlMg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/NnYo9FEkdQkCVv8m/?mibextid=JRoKGi
