First of new column spotlights dairy farmer
Editor’s note: This is the first of a new column by Paul Zimmerman, owner of Ashdown Roses in Landrum and  a farmer. He also loves to cook, enjoys good wine and readily admits to having a self interest in sourcing local area foods. Zimmerman says our local farmers are among our best conservationists. By purchasing some of your everyday groceries from them you help conserve the land, their lifestyle and our rural community. He plans to periodically feature some of our local farmers who sell directly to the consumer year round from their farms. He encourages you to support them and start to regularly use some of the freshest foods you will ever find.

by Paul Zimmerman
We all care deeply about our community, the impact of development and the preservation of the rural lifestyle we all love. Yet sometimes it seems there is little we can do as individuals to keep it that way. So what if there was a way that you as an individual could help by doing something you do regularly and even save some money along the way. Sound too good to be true?  Guess what, it’s not.
Head out from downtown Landrum on 14, cross Interstate 26, take your first right onto Fairview Farms Drive, turn right up the first gravel driveway and you will find yourself amidst 200 rolling acres of preserved rural land that personifies the reason many of us live here. This land is not preserved by any local, state or federal organization. It is preserved by another of our area’s caretakers of open spaces and rural lifestyle. Our local family farmers.
Three generations of Lees have dairy farmed here at Lees’ Holstein Dairy Farm beginning with Joseph Lee in 1939. His son Robert E. Lee took over the farm from his father and recently his son Gordon has assumed control. About two years ago Gordon made a decision that could lead to a new way to preserve rural America. He applied for and got a license from the State of South Carolina to sell raw milk directly to the consumer from his family farm. This means by doing nothing more than buying a gallon of milk you are able to help keep those 200 acres the way they’ve been for over 65 years.
South Carolina has some 4.8 million acres in farmland. The average farm is only 197 acres in size. The state says 61.6 percent are less than 100 acres, 30.1 percent are between 100-500 acres, which means 91.7 percent of South Carolina’s farms are small farms. What’s more is 92.7 percent of all the farms in South Carolina are owned by families and are not “Corporate Farms.”
These family farms are the backbone of our communities yet the pressures on them are enormous. Gordon sat down with me recently in his office right next to the dairy barn to educate me about the dairy business and raw milk.
“I get asked all the time what’s the difference in taste between raw milk and pasteurized milk and I have to say I don’t know because I’ve never tasted pasteurized milk,” laughs Gordon. “I realize some people shy away from raw milk and I understand that. I don’t say one is better than the other.”
But Gordon does add that when his son was born he was diagnosed with allergies to tree nuts and of all things, cows! At the pediatrician’s request he kept his son off raw milk until he was a year old. Ever since he started drinking raw milk at the age of one his son’s allergies have disappeared.
“It could just be a coincidence but all I know is they are gone,” he says.
When I asked why he applied for a raw milk license Gordon replied simply, “I wanted to be able to fix my own price on my commodity.
“Milk like most commodities is based on supply and demand and the prices can really go up and down,” he says. “Two years ago farmers were only getting about 90 cents a gallon for milk, many small dairy farmers were forced out of business and supply went down.
“Right now we’re getting around $1.75 per gallon but the large corporate farms are increasing production and most people think by next spring the price will drop again. We only farm some 50 to 60 cows so it’s hard for us to deal with that. By selling our milk directly to our customer I can keep our price consistent.” (Currently $4 a gallon)
What this also means to farmers like Gordon is they are able to keep the portion normally taken by the “middle man.” In the current market this is close to 60 percent leaving the farmer only 40 percent. And out of that 40 percent the farmer has to feed his cows, run the farm and hopefully have something left over to live off of. To many it can be the difference between keeping the family farm or selling out to developers.
“My cost is the same regardless of what price I get,” added Gordon. “So that extra 60 percent means a lot to our family and this farm and I can use it towards some other ideas I have.”
Those ideas include adding educational and tourist aspects to the farm. “When I ask kids these days where milk comes from almost all of them say Ingles or Bi-Lo. Very few of them know it actually comes from cows,” he says. “I’d like to be able to bring school classes out here to show kids what a dairy farm is all about.”
Gordon would also like to give tourists the same experience. He is thinking of adding hay rides to tour the farm with one of the highlights being the 400-foot tunnel under I-26 that connects him to the part of his farm on the other side of the freeway. The tunnel was part of the deal his grandfather Joseph made when the freeway was built. He would also like to add a “South Carolina Certified Roadside Market” to the property to be able to offer other local fresh farm products besides his milk. His location right at Hwy 14 and I-26 means thousands of cars go past his farm daily. That same location makes Lees’ Holstein Dairy Farm so desirous to developers and is another reason we as a community need to make sure he stays. Gordon just smiles when asked if he’s been approached by developers but I would guess he has had many up from their zoned, gated Florida communities flashing pocketfuls of cash.
But I would also guess Gordon isn’t impressed by that. He loves his farm and the lifestyle it affords his family and I sense he is here to stay. And by the simple act of buying a gallon of milk from this third generation farmer you can make sure he does.  And that is a win-win for everyone.
Now if we can just find someone to turn their milk into cheese!
To get to Lees’ Holstein Dairy Farm coming from Landrum simply cross I-26 and turn right just past the exit ramp. The dairy is the first driveway on the right and there is a sign. Follow the drive up to the barn and wait for Gordon or his father.  They’ll be right there to fill a bottle with the best milk you’ve ever tasted.
Lees’ Holstein Dairy Farm, 130 Fairview Farms Drive, Landrum, SC, Barn - 864 457-2177, Cell – 864 216-2251, iluvmilk@alltel.net. Hours are Monday to Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. Sat. also from 8 a.m. to noon.
We’d like to feature other farmers in our area.  If you are one or know of someone please contact the Tryon Daily Bulletin.