Friday, June 4, 2021
CapitalPress.com
9
GOLDEN GLEN CREAMERY
Ruiz family runs dairy, makes cheese
with Darigold as well as local
restaurants, farmstands and
wineries.
On the farm, Ruiz said they
also raise their heifers, so the
cows stay on the same farm
their whole life. Even with her
agricultural background, Ruiz
said that she’s still learning
every day at her dairy.
“I say cows are like kids,”
she said. “You cannot take your
ier,” she said. “Everything we
shipped to restaurants now
went to farm stands.”
BOW, Wash. — Norma
Family plays a big role in
Ruiz first fell in love with cat-
the operation. Ruiz said three
tle at her grandfather’s dairy
generations work on the farm.
in Mexico, where they milked
Her father works with her in
20-25 cows.
the creamery and even the kids
Now, she is the owner of
help with pulling weeds.
Ruiz Farm and Golden Glen
“I think every single family
Creamery, which milks around
member is involved in some-
thing around the farm,” she
150 Holsteins and Jerseys.
said.
After five
The most
years work-
ing on Whid-
rewarding
bey
Island
aspect of the
raising heif-
dairy is the
ers for dairies,
fact Ruiz can
Ruiz bought
work
with
Golden Glen
her family to
Creamery in
help give back
2014.
Two
to the com-
munity. She
years
later,
Golden Glen Creamery said she is
the dairy next
door became Norma Ruiz stands by her family at Ruiz Farm and Gold- able to teach
available and en Glen Creamery. From left are Bennette Ruiz, Adrian her nephews
nieces
she was able Mendoza, Irma Ruiz, Livan Ruiz, Zalaika Hill, Juan Ruiz and
the value of
to get a loan and Norma Ruiz.
farms and the
through the
land, especially
Farm
Service
eye off of them. It’s constant because they’re the future gen-
Agency to purchase it.
eration and will ultimately
“I found it to be some- learning and understanding.”
thing I really liked,” Ruiz said
At the beginning of the inherit the farm.
of working with the animals. COVID-19 pandemic, Ruiz
Ruiz said it was a steep
“It’s something that brings you was fielding calls from Seat- learning curve for her daughter
back to your childhood, bring- tle restaurants canceling their when they moved from Cali-
ing back memories of working orders and became worried fornia to Washington, because
with Grandpa.”
about how she was going to the daughter wasn’t exposed to
The creamery makes sell the cheese.
agriculture when they lived in
more than 20 kinds of hand-
“Then we started seeing the city. When the rest of Ruiz’s
made cheese, and it partners farmstands were getting bus- family visits from California,
By ALIYA HALL
For the Capital Press
the first thing they will ask is to
see the farm.
“The little ones love it,” she
said. “My nephew wants a cow
to put in the backyard.”
On farming, Ruiz said it’s
not about the money, it’s about
the passion for what they do.
She has instilled in the next gen-
eration that it’s hard work, but
as long as they feel rewarded in
what they’re doing, it’s worth it.
“I can work and do things
and the little one can go and get
his feet wet in what it is to work
and have responsibilities and
chores at four in the morning,”
she said. “At the end of the day,
he’s going to feel fulfilled. The
skills he gets at the farm he’s not
going to get outside.”
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