Friday, June 3, 2022
CapitalPress.com
Providence Farms: Family farm
expands to include retail store
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
ENUMCLAW, Wash. —
Ryan and Haylee Menson-
ides own and operate Prov-
idence Farms, an organic
dairy
near
Enumclaw,
Wash., where they strive
to be good stewards of the
land, produce high-quality
milk — and raise four boys.
“I am a fi fth-generation
dairy farmer. My grandfa-
ther was born in the Nether-
lands and had a small dairy
and a little store where he
sold the milk,” Ryan said.
“In 1953 my grandparents
came to this country and
started a dairy in Modesto,
Calif. My parents both grew
up in that area.”
His grandfather was
killed by a bull when Ryan’s
dad was only 14.
“My dad’s older brother
ended up with the farm, so
my dad worked for other
dairies, then moved to
Washington to run the dairy
part of the producer-handler
farm near Roy, Wash., called
Faith Dairy,” he said. “My
dad ran the dairy part of that
operation for 25 years, and
that’s where I grew up.”
Ryan went to Washington
State University and got a
degree in public relations and
marketing, then worked for a
big feed company in Califor-
nia’s Central Valley, where
he met his wife Haylee.
They moved back to
Washington, where Ryan
continued to work as a sales-
man. He realized he was
tired of telling other people
how to run their farms and
decided he wanted a farm of
his own.
To get started in dairy-
ing, they got a Farm Service
Agency loan to buy cows.
“We started in 2012 with
144 cows, a hope and a
dream, and a rented place,”
said Ryan.
In 2017, they purchased
their farm.
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Haylee and Ryan Mensonides with their boys, Titus,
Noah, Luke and Jacob.
“We are a cooperative
member of Organic Valley
and will continue to work
with them, but will soon be
processing a portion of our
milk, selling dairy products
through our own retail loca-
tion here in Enumclaw,” he
said.
He said that’s the only
way to get the full value of
their product.
“We want to stay in this
business. We have four sons
— age 5, 8, 11 and 12. We
want them to follow what-
ever passion they fi nd and
love, but if they want to
come back to agriculture
we’d like to have something
for them to come back to,”
he said.
The goal is to take 10%
of their sales direct to con-
sumers and become more
sustainable.
“We moved to Enumclaw
so we could be in the sub-
urbs of Seattle, become ver-
tically integrated and have
a consumer base nearby,”
Ryan said.
“We are converting a
nearby vacant gas station
into a drive-thru market,”
Ryan said. “We’ll sell our
milk and products and also
carry other small farmers’
products and give them a
place to sell their products
year-round.”
They now have 350
milking cows and manage
about 600 head from start to
fi nish.
“We work with the
Washington State Farmland
Trust and help conserve a
large farm about an hour
south of us. That’s where we
raise feed and have all our
heifers,” he said. “We are
also working with (the Nat-
ural Resources Conserva-
tion Service) to put in a new
irrigation system on the Gra-
ham heifer farm in Pierce
County and a newer irriga-
tion system here on our farm
as well.”
With the new venture into
direct marketing they are
creating a new type of job.
“The fi rst four years, I
worked off the farm two
days a week in a sales job to
pay our living expenses —
until the farm got so big that
I couldn’t do both anymore.
Now we are at a point that
we must create our own job
to supplement what we are
doing,” Ryan said, and this
will hopefully enable them
to stay in agriculture.
Anyone interested in
what they are doing or the
products they are selling can
check them out on Facebook
and Instagram or their web-
site: mountrainiercreamery.
com
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