Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by Jeff Kearns

The side mirror on the livestock transport truck moving dairy cows from the Claravale Dairy picks up the reflection of one of the Jersey cows as they head out of Monte Sereno.

The Claravale Dairy moooves away

By Jeff Kearns

After 67 years of giving milk in Monte Sereno, Claravale Dairy's small herd of 22 Jersey cows left after their milking early Sunday morning, June 21, headed out to a bigger farm near Watsonville.

Livestock haulers herded the cows into trailers and drove the cows down N. Santa Cruz Avenue for a quick drive-by past the Farmer's Market before heading over the hill to the coast.

"It's the saddest time of my life," said Kenneth Peake, sitting on the edge of his bed in his overalls. Peake ran the farm until two years ago and still lives in the small white farmhouse on the northern edge of the property.

It's the end of an era for the farm, which Peake founded in 1931 after moving out from Campbell, but also for the West Valley, where suburban sprawl has finally pushed out the last remaining farm.

Claravale is still the only dairy in the state that sells unpasteurized, unhomogenized, unprocessed raw milk directly to customers.

The dairy's new owners, Ron and Colette Garthwaite, planned to bring the cows to their property in Watsonville, but county red tape and other problems forced them to bring the cows to the nearby Monterey Bay Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist high school which leases out large parcels of land for agricultural uses. Two or three students will work at the dairy.

The dairy, which produces about 70 gallons of milk each day, recently upgraded to new milking and storage equipment and should be back in business this week. Garthwaite said he plans to increase the size of the herd to 40 cows, now that they have more room, and that he may hire a distributor to drive a refrigerated truck down to Southern California twice a week. Garthwaite currently distributes the milk himself, driving to about 14 locations in the Bay Area.

"We did our best to keep the farm there," said Garthwaite, speaking from his new spread in Watsonville. The move is good for the farm, he says, offering a better climate, more grazing space and a large, supportive agricultural community. "People like the idea of a farm over there, but they don't know much about agriculture. There's a lot of verbal support."

And with the new location on the coast, the dairy should start turning a profit. Colette Garthwaite said that between the mortgage and rent for the facilities in Watsonville and renting the farm in Monte Sereno, it was impossible to break even.

Monte Sereno's efforts to keep the farm in the city failed last year, after the Claravale Dairy Foundation dissolved due to insufficient donations.

Peake's Bicknell Avenue farm, which sits on a small knoll, was once a 12-acre spread, but in recent years, Peake has been forced to sell off his land one acre at a time to pay the bills for his tiny farm, which generally lost money.

Now, only one acre remains, and the small white farmhouse and the adjacent barn are surrounded by brand-new, million-dollar homes. Monte Sereno is still kicking around the idea of acquiring the farm. The Open Space Committee, formed in June, plans to consider possible open space acquisitions.

But the era of cows in Monte Sereno isn't quite over. Peake recently bought a Guernsey heifer from a Kentucky livestock auction, which he plans to bring to his farm.

[ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ]