Bringing Loleta, California back to life, one ice cream scoop and grilled cheese sandwich at a time.
In a former bakery on the once - empty Main Street of Loleta , California , customer clamour for scoop of Hum Yum Caramel and Danish Butter Cookie crank ointment , plunge schnittlaugh - scented grilled cheese sandwich in tomato soup , and stock up on Oreo soft - serve ice cream sandwiches . Anything with even a drop of dairy farm here at Jersey Scoops is made from the organic Milk River produced by a pair of married gay farmers — and their young son , the “ Tiny Farmer”—who command the colorful , moo-cow - clad space with beaming smiles and a Wonka - alike verve for sweets .
They call themselves theFoggy Bottoms Boys(real epithet : Thomas and Cody Nicholson Stratton ) , and for both them and Loleta , pitch the smooth gold of bovines is a return to their base . In the nation’sleading state for dairy production(sorry , Wisconsin ) , where the first US commercial-grade creamery date back to 1857 , Loleta was an epicentre of dairy production , churning out milk and cheese through generations of dedicated family unit farmers . Fortunes curdle , though , with the closure of two of the biotic community ’s frontmost creameries , signaling a downturn in tourism and a fling of boarded - up storefront .
fundamentally , Loleta had become a dissimilar kind of westerly specter Ithiel Town .
The Foggy Bottom Boys family|Courtesy Will Suiter Photography
Today , though , the Foggy Bottoms Boys , who are often adorned in brace and bowties , are on a mission to breathe new sprightliness into the town ’s reputation for creamery circuit and degustation . While Loleta ’s vacant creamery and cheese factory might still be silent shells of their former selves , there was a line down the block in January for the grand opening of Jersey Scoops , where mob shared grilled tall mallow sandwiches in adjacent Loleta Community Park and savor music from the Cal Poly Humboldt Marching Lumberjacks .
Both of the Foggy Bottoms Boys come from farming families . For Thomas , it was sheep and volaille in Oregon ; Cody , meanwhile , hail from a long line of granger on an organic dairy farm in the foggy bottoms of the North Coast , where overawe graze on bedewed grass 365 day of the yr . Inspired to keep the generational tradition alive , Cody attended Eastern Oregon University to study grunge science and range land direction . It was here , near Thomas ’ hometown of Union , Oregon , where the pair fit , bonding over a shared passionateness for diversified farm animal and local solid food system . And after go back to Cody ’s hometown in Humboldt County in 2014 , they begin plotting how they could put their own revenue stamp on the Loleta ’s whitish tradition .
“ When we move to Humboldt County , we immediately started talking about how we could create greater value , ” Thomas recalls , citing Cody ’s folk history with dairy farm Bos taurus as the perfect inroad .
They began selling egg , do work toward their destination of establish their own multi - species regenerative demonstration farm , and share their journey on societal media , reaching particular renown on TikTok , where they treat their 161k followers to day-after-day morsels of playful agricultural edutainment , like introduce baby sheep to the sounds of “ Call Me perchance , ” mightiness - washing the milk barn to “ It ’s Raining Men , ” or splashing around in pool with their son , while wearing Foggy Bottoms Boys shirt that read “ Get Stuffed With Our marrow . ” ( The name Foggy Bottoms Boys is inspired by both the local climate — Humboldt County is famous for its London - esque fog — and the herd name of their dairy farm cows : Foggy Bottoms Jerseys . )
The industrious couple meet with local official to see what the town want and put together a line of work plan for a dairy farm of their own . “ We decided to make a dedication among ourselves and our booster , to rebuild ( Loleta ) in whatever physical body we could , ” Thomas explains . “ Luckily , thanks to thePacific Coast Dairy Coalition , which supply support to small dairy farmers such as ourselves , we ’re capable to make that economic value in a marketplace here topically , that keeps our dollars in a circular saving . ”
From their fairy tale of a farm with its lush - green pasture and a b line with white lookout fences and twinkling visible light , the Foggy Bottoms Boys have been able to maximise their efforts in more ways than one . “ If you look at a map , Loleta is wholly surrounded by clear blank space and immature pasture body politic , ” Thomas tells me . “ That Din Land was develop to be a very vibrant , verdant field , prolific in the ability to grow grass and sens for cows . For the retiring 100 to 120 days , we ’ve grown the capacity for dairy cow to be present here . We ’re able to get those extra certifications , like non - GMO and constitutional , just basically by doing what we do already . ”
Jersey Scoops ice cream made with dairy products from the farm.|Courtesy Will Suiter Photography
As for the touristry aspect of it all , they provide tours at both their barnyard and Jersey Scoops , as well as offer charcuterie tastings at their farm . In the future , they desire to spread a young facility in the Ithiel Town ’s former cheese manufactory .
“ The holidaymaker traffic was polar to the cheese factory , ” notes Thomas about the firm road - misstep travel that once flowed into the community . “ What we hope to do , collaborate with Farmer and central processing unit , is open up a facility in the old cheese factory that ’s encompassing of R&D and the innovation that set our production at a high class than any other Milk River . ”
“ We ’re listen to the community about what they need , ” append Thomas . “ And most of it go around around restaurants , solid food , and the ability to be welcoming . ”
The Jersey Scoops team|Courtesy Will Suiter Photography
Coupled with the proposedGreat Redwood Trail , which would yoke the Bay Area with Humboldt Bay , and provide another boon to local touristry , they ’re eager to rag a wave of momentum toward the futurity — with milk as the roadmap . “ nutrient is something everybody needs . If a little dairy community like this can do something , maybe a vegetable or soybean farmer somewhere can do something too , ” Thomas muses . “ As farmers , we attempt to have greater connectedness with citizenry , and the resiliency of local community is in feeding people . ”
The ice cream shop|Courtesy Will Suiter Photography
