Tieton Farm & Creamery is located in the beautiful Upper Yakima Valley, where we raise a diversity of animals and crops. We are a solar powered farm that is improving the land each year without the use of “artificial fertilizers and poisons”
Create unique cheeses from our healthy and loved animals while protecting the earth for future generations.
All farms will replace the mono-cropping model with a diversity of crops and animals, returning the earth to a healthy food-producing system.
— We are fighting global warming by using regenerative farming methods. The industrial food system is one of the biggest contributors to climate change.
— We raise our own milking herd animals and a diversity of plants and other animals to support healthy soil with no chemical or artificial inputs.
— We pasture our animals, moving them to fresh, yummy greens constantly.
— We do not waste; whey from cheese making is fed to the pigs and chickens, not sent down drains or off to chemical factories.
— We are the opposite of the industrial/commercial food system, using vast resources at the expense of the environment. We are a local food model. We grow and produce for local communities.
— We never buy milk from anyone. We are not transporting raw materials.
— We source non-GMO feed from local farmers using sustainable farming practices.
— We do things by hand, not using machines whenever possible, employing local people.
— We support local farms, local products and products made by democracies.
February 2017, unusually heavy snow collapsed a Quonset-style barn. Ruth was inside, with all of our goat mamas-to-be when the structure came down! Fortunately, no one was hurt.
The Quonset was built to house the animals until a true pole barn could be built. What was once a 5-year plan to take the farm to the next level is now a matter of our farm's very survival. A new barn had to be up by the end of summer 2017.
Previously, 3 years before, this same barn caught fire. Many friends and neighbors helped to repair it just in time for winter 2016/2017. The tarp covering was very expensive, and it took us 2.5 years of savings to replace it. It was heartbreaking to see it all collapse months later.
We were in a mad scramble to clear snow, to cobble together temporary housing for over 50 new babies with their moms, and begin the new milking season. Finances were stretched to the limit, we were not sure we could survive losing the barn a second time.
Our superhero friends and neighbors in Tieton sponsored a Go Fund Me to raise the community barn, and save the farm and all that it represented. Thanks to our friends, our community, online and otherwise, they raised 75 percent of the cost of the project and gave us a way to stay in business, while providing a home for our wonderful dairy herd.
We remain overwhelmed by the kindness, generosity and good will that came with the financial and emotional support. We would not have survived this loss without it. Our hearts are forever in their debt. The pictures are from our barn party celebrating these wonderful people.
We are extremely lucky that we found each other, found what we loved to do, found the right place, found the right people to do it with. We, the owners Ruth & Lori, have been in love with each other for over 20 years. We let love control everything.
When you love, you respect: When you love the land, you won’t poison it. When you love your animals, you take care of them. When you love the people you work with, you want them to be successful. When you love what you do, you will do the best you can. And when you love your customers, you want them to have the best you can give.
Ruth comes from a long line of avid gardeners. Growing up in Wenatchee, she learned to love the idea of growing things from her Master Gardener father, Ray Babcock.
Lori's interest for artisan cheese making really took hold after living two years in the Haute Savoie region of France. It was a magical place where animals grazed on mountain grasses and milk was daily made into delicious cheeses.
