Archive for Willowside Dairy

Willowside Farm: Where Dogs are the BEST & you can stay overnight in the most rustic, original place on the South Coast!!!!

August 9, 2009 at 5:19 pm · Filed under Michael Head, Willowside Dairy

[Image below: Meet Hillary, one of the resident guard dogs.]
dogs

I took my cousin, Gabriele, with me, and we had a fabulous tour of historic Willowside Farm, and I cannot rave enough about it! We were invited to a geese, duck and sheep-herding (national championship) event herdinggeese oh, so calming, so relaxing. The participants, mostly ladies, were just perfect hosts. I cannot remember when I had a more relaxing time.

You should know that Wilowside is an historic dairy, originally owned in the 1860s (something like that, or earlier, even—and certainly, the land could have been occupied by adventurous settlers  before the Gold Rush in 1849) by Pescadero’s pioneer Alexander Moore family. In brief, there were a series of owners but the bottom line is: Willowside was built, and demonstrates today, that it was constructed as a “big time” dairy and showplace. The buildings on the property, and there are many, have been brought up to code comply with the current, rigorous standards of the County of San Mateo. There’s no choice about that kind of thing—I saw earthquake standards put in place in old structures— I recognized them because I have them in my own home.

Willowside Farm manager Michael Head, a former Marine, impressed me so much. He has been working on resurrecting the farm’s original dignity for a dozen years—this is a man who is the best. My cousin and I could not believe that he had accomplished what he had. Fixing up the property was an immense project, more than any of us “mere mortals” could ever tackle. What a man!

And, now, one of the big long barnslongbarn will be used for events and weddings, with the nupitals performed at a nearby lake, so dreamy lake Lake2 you will never want to leave.

Right now there are rustic accommodations  (the former quarters for the cowboys, including circa 1950s handwritten “graffiti” on the bathroom door!) for overnight guests: I may not be accurate on the cost, but i think Michael said something like $60 bucks a night for a room in a place that has no equal on the Coastside. I mean, if you want ruggedness, if you want to experience the way it was, try one of the guest rooms. Very authentic.

I understand that, in the near future, “Outstanding in its Field” is doing a wedding at the dairy. Wow. I look forward to hearing about one of their lunches or dinners there.

I know, I know. The South Coast. The last frontier on the Coastisde—but this is worth it. The owner, and the managers, Michael Head and his wife, Julie Sittig have taken, perhaps one of the most special properties on the South Coast, and turned it into a treasure that will soon be known all over the world.

(In fact, Michael told me that someone took a photo of the main blue and white trimmed house, and was selling it as a postcard of an authentic old place to stay overnight in France.)

Michael pointed out a “Dawn” redwood
dawn

which is fringy-ier than the usual redwoods we are accustomed to seeing here on the Coastside. In the 1970s the “Dawn” redwood caused excitement when the same tree was found growing in China.

Willowside Farm has used a flock of cats as enforcers to move out the rats and other undesirable critters. And there are peacocks everywhere;  the males display the full spectrum of color

peacocks

while nature has protected the females with a neutral look so as they protect their young on the ground. When we were visiting, we saw baby peacocks trailing behind the mom, the color of “invisible.”

I applaud you: Willowide Farms.

(This was written off the cuff; I was excited by what I saw. Sad to hear that  “sticky fingers” took so much from the old Willowside, authentic relics, irreplaceable,  but so much history remains for all to enjoy along Stage Road…….)

willowsidedairy

[Image above, circa 1980. Me standing in front of Willowside Farms, photo by Suzanne Meek.]

[[Note: Local  artist/photographer Susan Friedman produced a documentary on Alice Mattei  before she died and the property was sold. The doc gave an accurate picture of how the dairy worked, the work ethic of the Matteis, and how everyone in Pescadero attended the parties there.] Also, above photo of Hillary, a “guard dog”, was shot with the new iPhone. It’s amazing what the new iPhone photo can do close-up. Not bad, huh?” Oh, and that’s my shoe in the picture!]

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*And don’t forget*

3rd Annual Willowside Ranch PICNIC & BARN DANCE

Saturday, 22nd August from noon – 8:00 pm
2400 Stage Rd. Pescadero

EATING, DRINKING, MUSIC & DANCING

with SAXYMAN & THE LADDS

There will be hotdogs, hamburgers, vegiburgers & sodas.

Bring you favorite side dish &/or something that you like to drink to share .

Bring your friends, but LEAVE YOUR PETS AT HOME.

Call Michael & Julie for info (650) 879 0768

or email willowsideranch@gmail.com

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John Vonderlin: Willowside Dairy: Yesterday and Today

May 29, 2009 at 7:45 am · Filed under John Vonderlin, Willowside Dairy

Story by John Vonderlin

Email John (benloudman@sbcglobal.net)

Hi June,
This is an excerpt from the 1883 “History of San Mateo,” book available for reading or downloading at Archive.org. There is a section in the book covering the dairies of San Mateo and this description of the still existing Willow Side Dairy is included in it.  These days, as they describe below, they raise herding dogs and offer stockherding lessons. They also seem to host a number of competitions and other community events. It is on Stage Road so I must have driven by it. I’ll see if I can get some photos of the historic buildings the next time I drive by. Enjoy. John

Located just outside rustic Pescadero, CA, on the coast between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, Willowside is a herding facility on the site of a restored historic 19th century dairy farm. Various sized enclosures, large open fields, and a wide range of sheep accomodate the needs of herding students from novice to advanced.

Willow Side Dairy Farm. — North of Pescadero, and at the head of the val-
ley of that name, is situated R. H. Brown’s Willow Side dairy farm, em-
bracing a tract of twelve hundred acres of fine arable and pasture land. The
capacious barn — a two story structure, covering an area of sixty -four by one
hundred and twenty feet, is built on an elevated piece of ground a few hundred
yards from the main road from Pescadero to Spanishtown. The cattle are
stanchioned in four rows of stalls. A system of water-tight gutters, skirting
along the row of stalls, receives all the manure from them, both liquid and
solid. The floor is traversed by four tramways, on which a box car travels,
following along by the manure troughs, and collecting from them the offal.
When the car is filled, it is run to the rear end of the building, where it goes
on a platform car, which, running on a track. of its own, carries the loaded
box car to the dumping place, to be utilized in enriching the soil of the farm.
The barn has stalls for one hundred and twenty -eight head of cattle.
The upper floor is the hay floor, having a capacity for storing twenty-two
tons of hay. Here also are two feed cutters, one for cutting roots, and the
other for hay. The latter is driven by horse power, and the hay, as it is cut,
falls into a receptacle below, where it is mixed with grain, and in this shape
fed to the stock.
There is another barn close by, in which seventy-five head of cattle and
young stock can be sheltered, and the hay and feed for them stored.
A short distance down the hill from the first mentioned barn is the dairy
house, three stories high, and twenty-four by forty feet square. It is built
over an excavation in the hill-side, the face of the excavation fronting the rear
wall of the first story; this first or basement story is divided into two com-
partments, in one of which is kept the tubs and everything used for packing
butter. The size of this room is sixteen by twenty-four feet; the other is the
butter room, twenty-four feet square. Its walls, as well as the walls of the room
directly above it, are packed with saw dust, by which means an even tempera-
ture is preserved through all seasons of the year. The second floor is divided
into rooms corresponding in size with those on the floor below. The smaller
one contains a large iron boiler, always full of hot water, which is conducted
by distributing pipes to every part of the building where its use is required.
The larger apartment on this floor is the milk-room. In the center of it is an
elevator for raising or lowering milk from one floor to the other. Outside of
the building and close by the milk-room, is a one hundred and twenty -five-
gallon tank, into which the pails of milk are emptied as it comes from the cow,
and from which it passes through a pipe into the milk room. The top floor is
used exclusively for making and curing cheese. Cleanliness is a cardinal fea-
ture in the entire building. Evervthing has an air of freshness and neatness,
nothing whatever of an offensive nature being allowed to accumulate; all the
refuse is carried away through pipes to the hog-pens. (Bacon, anyone?)
There is also on the premises a stable and barn for horses, complete in all
its details. Mr. Brown has now one hundred and sixty-five head of cattle on
the farm, but when the improvements already begun are completed, he will be
able to maintain two hundred and fifty cows, and take care of their products.

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Biography of R.H. Brown

R. H. Brown. This gentleman, who is one of the prominent dairymen of
the coast, was born in Pointe Caupee Parish, Louisiana, November 25, 1839,
and received a thorough education in his native state. In 1860 he left his
southern home and came to California, via New York and the Isthmus of
Panama. His first settlement was in Klamath county, where he mined until
1862, afterward migrating to Idaho, where he remained engaged in mining,
sawmilling, etc., until 1872, when he returned to San Francisco. During a
period of seven years Mr. Brown acted as secretary for various mining com-
panies, finally removing in 1879 to this county, where he purchased an exten-
sive dairy ranch, a full description of which is given in another portion of
this work.

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