If you thought the pricey glass bottles of milk from Ronnybrook were hard to swallow (tip: take the cap off and pour the liquid in a cup) you just haven't noticed the milk from Arethusa Farms. See, the gentlemen who own that Connecticut dairy farm just happen to also be the top two executives at Manolo Blahnik and their milk, like their shoes, does not come cheap. In fact the white stuff, which has been in some local markets for the last few months, sells for $4.49 for a half-gallon. And it isn't even "organic"—they use antibiotics.
George Malkemus and Tony Yurgaitis, the majority owners of Blahnik, decided to get into the dairy business on a whim after buying the farm across the street from their country house in 1999. Malkemus, who is from Texas and has some experience milking, said it was a natural fit. Though separate from their shoe interests—Blahnik himself is not involved—the move caused amusing responses from the fashion set: "I didn't quite understand it," Vogue contributing editor André Leon Talley tells the Journal. "They bought seven cows. It didn't register."
At first the pair just used the farm to raise award-winning heifers ("In 2004, two of their cows, Veronica and Melanie, took top honors at the 2004 World Dairy Expo—a first for a single farm.") but they recently upped the ante by opening a $5 million dairy processing facility in Bantam, Connecticut, that also has room for cheese making and aging, ice cream production and retail. First they've got to get that milk, which they tag "Milk Like it Used to Taste," to market though.
So what makes the milk at Arethusa so special? The little things, obvs. Though all milk is processed pretty much the same way in America, the "haute-living heifers" at the farm "munch on the finest, protein-enriched hay and rest upon soft wood shavings from Canada. Workers vacuum their bodies on a daily basis in a spa-like room. ("There's not a single fly" on any cow, boasts Mr. Malkemus.)"
And looking at the photos, it does seem a very clean dairy farm. However, unlike at "certified organic" dairy farms, Arethusa still uses antibiotics on their beasts—but only when they are sick, they say. Still, we think we'll stick with our regular old milk, thank you very much.
