The Jepsen family provide fresh-from-the-farm milk, other products

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Farm to Fork at MooShine Ridge

By Kathy Parker The Jepsen family offers milk from dairy goats and the dual-purpose Dexter Kimberly and Kevin Jepsen because we changed from fall to spring offer a wide variety of comcalving,” Kimberly said. modities at their home store Calves are left on the cows Kimberly just off Highway 82 in Langley, milks. In fact, she has one cow that is Okla. The Jepsens call their operation much easier to milk if the calf is nursMooShine Ridge. ing at the same time.

Starting with raw milk, the Jepsens have Raw milk can be sold on the farm if branched out to offer raw cow’s milk, goat it’s sold from the same building where milk, cheese, eggs, chicken, beef, pork and the cows are milked or from the produck all packaged and ready for sale. In ducer’s home kitchen. That’s why the addition to good food, Kimberly makes farm store is attached to the milk barn. goat milk soap and bath bombs. The goats Kimberly milks are Nu

Kevin had problems drinking milk, so bians. Goat milk is very high butterfat Kimberly wanted to find an alternative. at 5 percent. Goat milk is also sold, as Many people who can’t tolerate cow’s well as cheese made from both cow and milk can drink goat’s milk, but Kimberly goat milk. also learned cow’s milk is not all alike. “We save (goat) colostrum and we

“It’s the protein structure in milk,” have people come who have orphaned Kimberly said. “Most Holsteins have kittens and puppies to raise on goat A1 protein structure. Our Dexter cows milk,” Kimberly said. have A2 protein which is easier to diShe gets a gallon of goat milk each day gest. Dexter milk has a smaller molfrom milking until the kids are weaned, ecule size.” Kimberly thinks Kevin’s then she gets two gallons a day. ability to drink Dexter milk may be Right now, Kimberly is milking three breed specific as he has tried other A2 cows. The milk is sold in half-gallon cows milk which upset his stomach. jars. She’s getting about six gallons a day

“I sought out a dairy breed that produced from those three cows, even with one A2 milk,” Kimberly said. “But I also chose on the down side of her lactation. Cows Dexters for their temperament.” are dried off eight weeks before calving.

Dexters originated in Ireland as a triJepsens have changed from fall to spring ple purpose breed: milk, meat and draft. calving because they believe both cows They are a relatively small breed. Dexand calves do better on new spring grass. ters are voracious foragers and will eat Dexter replacement bulls are raised on blackberry leaves, weeds and bottom the farm and steers are fed and finished on leaves from tree branches. Kimberly grass, butchered locally and sold by whole, pointed out the difference between clear half, quarter or packaged to be sold by the pasture and tangled woods where the pound in the farm store. Dexter meat is cows have grazed. dark red with a high Registered Dexters can be red, Langley, Okla. degree of marbling. M o o S h i n e black or dun. The J e p s e n s Ridge also raises butcher steers when they weigh KuneKune pigs around 1,000 pounds. for pork sold in

“I have a cow I’ve been milking the store. The nafor almost a year straight right now tive New Zealand

Kevin Jepsen and his family operate a farm store that offers fresh-from-the-farm products.

breed is smaller than commercial hog breeds and produces darker meat with marbling. The pigs are totally raised on pasture. KuneKunes are a grazing breed with short upturned snouts making them less prone to rooting. KuneKunes have no desire to roam and will not test most any kind of fencing. The meat is gaining popularity with chefs in the U.S.

“I am a city girl, but my husband was raised on a commercial hog farm. We’ve been married nearly 20 years and there were only two things he ever told me we’d never have, hogs and black bean burgers. He said hogs stink and you can never get it off. These pigs don’t stink because they are outside. And nobody wants a black bean burger,” Kimberly said.

“We tried some other breeds but they were kinda grumpy,” Kevin said. KuneKunes are friendly and no danger to their pigs. “It’s funny cause the pigs nurse while the sow is standing up. The sow will be walking along grazing and the pigs are nursing. When she’s had enough she just lays down flat on her belly.”

The pigs are butchered at 200 pounds, which produces about 85 pounds of meat. “I think KuneKune actually means little fatty,” Kimberly said. She renders lard, which is sold in the farm

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store. “It’s good to cook with,” Kimberly said. “No oily after taste.”

The dairy cows are fed wheat fodder Kimberly grows in trays. She has a room to grow fodder she describes as a giant shower. Temperature and humidity are kept at 70. First the wheat seed is soaked around 12 hours until it germinates. Then the seeds are spread in trays set on metal racks.

“A $14 bag of seed makes about 280 pounds of fodder,” Kimberly said. The trays are sprayed with water twice a day. There is a drain in the middle of the sloped floor. A lactating cow is fed 140 pounds of fodder each day. Jepsens begin feeding fodder Oct. 15 and stop around April 15. “Before we built this room, I grew the fodder in our spare shower for two years,” Kimberly said. In less than two weeks the high quality wheat grass fodder is ready to feed.

The Jepsens raise Muscovy ducks. The meat is leaner than other ducks and Kimberly said it tastes a lot like roast beef.

Eggs from Americana hens are for sale in the store. They are mostly green but sometimes brown. Cheese is made at least once a week along with some cheese spreads. With the virus scare, many farmers markets are not operating, so the store has organic produce on Wednesdays and Saturdays now, grown by another local farm.

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