Christmas at Worth the Wait Farm in Stevens, Pennsylvania, takes a lot of preparation.
“We try to do only the bare necessities on Christmas Day,” explains owner and farmwife Laura Landis, that way she and her husband Christian can spend more time with their children and extended family.
To prep, they take time on Christmas Eve to make sure all the animals are bedded up extra cozy and all their needs are met. Come Christmas morning, Laura and her husband Christian focus on milking the cows, feeding the calves and cows, and checking-in to make sure the chickens are fed and content.
Once they’re back to the house, it’s time for presents and Chris’ family comes over for brunch. Laura likes to make a baked French toast and her mom’s sticky buns are a staple Christmas morning treat.
Laura grew up on a dairy farm in New York, and remembers getting up as a family to help with chores Christmas morning. She would head inside around 10 a.m. and bring back to the barn cookies and hot chocolate for the employees and family workers.
“As much as I don’t like getting up to go to work in the mornings, Christmas morning was different. I don’t know that my kids will share that motivation, but I hope cookies and hot chocolate will help make it special,” she shared.
There’s always work to do and animals to tend on a dairy farm on Christmas Day. And at Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative, there’s always milk to be picked up and delivered to processing facilities.
While most other processing facilities are closed, the co-op’s Laurel, Maryland facility is a bustling place on Christmas Day. Milk trucks arrive starting around 4 a.m. and the last load will leave around 8 p.m. The Laurel, Maryland plant is one of the few destinations open and accepting deliveries.
By the end of the day, more than 80 milk trucks will have made deliveries to the plant. The co-op will take that milk and process it into high quality dairy ingredients like cream, condensed milk, butter and milk powders for food manufacturers all over this world.
This holiday season we’re thankful for our customers and consumers who enjoy the milk and dairy products we work to make 365 days a year.
May you enjoy the hustle and bustle of the season, and remember to celebrate with a glass of fresh cold Maola milk. Laura recommends pairing it with her family’s favorite gluten-free peanut butter cookies.
Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Directions: Mix together, roll into small balls and squish with a fork (in a crisscross pattern) onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
Christian and Laura milk 44 cows in a tie-stall barn and they farm 175 acres. They also have two broiler houses and grow organic chickens. Laura and Christian have three children, Leslie( 5), Jacob (soon to be 3) and Ava, (soon to be 1).
