Kidding season is in full swing at Harley Farms. Their baby goat counter ticks up more and more each day as spring approaches. Tucked right off Highway 1 in Pescadero, a piece of San Mateo County’s history is still growing by the day.
Originally built in 1910 as a dairy farm, Harley Farms is now the last operational dairy farm in San Mateo County.
Dee Harley took ownership of the farm but never envisioned what would happen. She lived in the farmhouse, but the farm itself was not running. There were no goats or milk production, just the rusting infrastructure.
Harley worked at a store selling dried tomatoes, and one day, one of her clients came to her home to pick them up.
“I remember it very clearly. I was on the front step, and she’s like, ‘My goodness, look at your place. Why don’t you buy some goats from me, and you can provide the milk for me, and I’ll make the cheese?‘ I’m like, ‘oh, yeah, okay.‘ That’s how it started. It was just a random thing that happened,” Harley said.
Then, in 1991, Harley got the farm to operational standards and bought the goats. She started with six and now has around 200 being born each year, which are still related to those original six.
Although they focus on goats, Harley Farms has two Shetland ponies, Olive and Pearl. Cats roam around, beehives are swarming, and whatever nature comes to stop by, usually including birds, enjoy the farm.
“I always wanted to work on a farm. I was destined to be a farmer. I just didn’t know it would manifest into goats, but I was always drawn to the outside,” Harley said.
Harley Farms now conducts tours and has a quaint shop. They sell their award-winning cheeses, jams, jellies, oils, and much more. Along with those, they have developed a bath and body line.
They do all of the work from milking the goat to packaging.
“It’s a very real place. We do everything from beginning to end. I wouldn’t like to buy milk and make cheese, just like I wouldn’t like to just milk the goats and sell the milk. It’s the whole thing. The fact that we use every part of the farm, and everything is moving in unison, I love that. I love the fact that the buildings are alive again,” Harley said.
Tours are conducted on the farm. On the Baby Goat Farm Tour, guests will meet in the garden to learn about the history of the farm and a bit about Harley herself.
Next, guests walked along the pasture fence while talking with tour guide Hannah Greendorfer.
Greendorfer has been working at Harley Farms for eight years. She was originally a cheese monger or seller in Oregon, but made her way down the coast to Pescadero.
After a short walk, guests see the week-and-a-half-old baby goats, who are kept together. These are the ones the guests can play with, including 9-year-old Juliette Roberts, who had an amazing time.
“They were really cute, and I loved playing with the baby goats,” Roberts said.
At some point, everyone can hold one. Additionally, the personality differences among goats are already noticeable at a young age.
“They’re much like humans. They have their own personalities. We have gate openers and gate jumpers. We have the dominant ones, and we have the mellow ones. We have the loving ones, the ones who are just full of ego. We have the whole gamut,” Harley said.
After about 45 minutes of playtime, guests made their way back to the main barn.
Greendorfer described that first-time moms or yearlings often give birth to one baby. However, after their first year, they are extremely likely to give birth to twins, triplets, or even quadruplets, although that is rare.
“Usually, the first one is born, and then within about 10 minutes or a little bit more, the next one will come, and then the next one will come. Once it starts, it’s pretty fast,” Greendorfer said.
To conclude the tour, guests try a variety of cheeses.
“My favorite part of the tour was seeing the baby goats, because we’ve been here lots of times, but you can just pet them through the fence, right?” said Veronica Kuiper, a guest at the farm. “It’s a different experience when you can be in the barn with them.”
All these unique experiences provided for the guests are so that they may feel a sense of place and joy after they visit.
“I think as we as we see people come into the shop, I do feel like it takes them back to a happy place, maybe in childhood, a smell, or the creaking of a door, a beautiful, old balm, something. It takes them, and I think they go away with that. I just feel really good,” Harley said.
Although this all seems glamorous, it is a real working farm. All these animals rely on Harley getting out of bed every morning. Luckily for them, she loves her work.
“I do love the rhythm of the day. I love the sounds and the noises. I like the production. I like looking out at the goats with the grass hanging out of their mouths. I like the clinkity clank of the stainless steel. I like the drips of the whey from the from the cheese cloth bags, and then, of course, all the people that work here,” Harley said.
