Co-op Member Spotlight: Lady-Lane Farm
Garry and Lacey Hansen, Lady-Lane Farm
At Lady-Lane Farm, owned by Garry and Lacey Hansen, the love of making ice cream and other dairy products from start to finish is a passion they live yearlong. The process begins in their barn in Mulino, OR, where their 75-cow purebred registered Jersey herd call home, along with chickens, pigs, beef cattle, as well as three donkeys and two goats that Lacey refers to as her emotional support animals. They bottle their milk with the All-Jersey label in predominantly glass bottles that can be found at retailers throughout the Willamette Valley, five farmers markets in the Portland Metro area and their newly opened Farmstand situated at their dairy farm and farmstead creamery.
While milk is their main draw (sold in glass half gallon, quarts, and pints), which includes full-fat, reduced fat, skim, cream, half and half, and flavored (chocolate and Jersey Java year-round and seasonally strawberry and eggnog), they also make butter, cheese, and ice cream. Fresh cheese curds in savory varieties like garlic and herb, dill and cheddar are hard to keep on hand, and their Cheddar, aged 3-12 months is rolling out too. Lady-Lane ice cream comes in pints and single-serve half pints, with the most popular flavors being Farmhouse Vanilla, Chocolate and Oregon Strawberry, and close runners-up are Banana Cream Pie, Butter Pecan and Milkman’s Mocha. They are also looking at developing yogurt and other cultured products.
Dairy isn’t the only food they produce. They raise Jersey steers for ground beef and also have Wagyu cattle to sell prime cut steaks. In addition, The Hansens raise Berkshire hogs to sell milk-finished pork products, including sausage, pork chops and holiday hams, along with farm fresh eggs from their flock of chickens. All of these products can be purchased at their Farmstand at Lady-Lane Farm, open every day from 10am-6pm, and the King, Beaverton, Portland, Oregon City, and Milwaukee Farmer’s Markets.
“Covid triggered everything,” Garry said. “We faced a lot of challenges and outdoor Farmers Markets became a big part of our survival,” he added. “The reason we have so many different things going on now is because of the trials the pandemic presented and I think we’ve done a good job handling those challenges by moving into new products and new ideas to stay relevant,” Garry said. “We’ve always listened to our customers, and they have pushed us into so many different ventures,” Lacey added.
A few of those “things” include farm tours and special events like Easter Egg Hunts and Harvest activities, day camps and even a “cow train” on the farm. And, in the coming year will include an expanded processing plant, ice cream dipping counter and espresso bar for the increasing number of visitors. “One of the biggest things for us is that we’re going on 15 years with the intention of getting our product to market, but what has happened is that people have started visiting the farm and that has become a huge part of our business,” Lacey said. “This led us to build the The Farmstand at Lady Lane Farm and give tours on a regular basis, so people can meet the calves and see the cows and really learn about dairy farming. We really want to provide a place for people to bring their kids to experience life on the farm and give them an encounter they’ll never forget.”
Garry was dairy farming way before he had visions of making his own products. He is a third-generation dairy farmer who moved off his childhood farm in 1992, where his older brother and parents remained, and started Lady-Lane Farm on a rented facility nearby. It was this location that he named his farm after one of his older Jersey cows named Lady, who would take her time walking up the long lane from the pasture to get milked. In 2000 he was able to purchase the farm he’s currently at, but there was one problem, there was no place to milk the cows, so he continued to pay rent and a mortgage while building a milking parlor, moving the milk cows in 2002 to their current home. Subsequently, that’s not the last parlor renovation, which in 2019 was changed to a robotic milking system to cut down on labor needs. The farm currently has seven employees. “In the mid-2000’s there were indicators that the business wasn’t sustainable, and I was at a crossroads,” Garry said. “That’s when I researched putting in a bottling plant and it seemed like a good fit, so I purchased used equipment from a gentleman retiring in WA and it took 3-4 years to build the infrastructure and install the equipment.”
In May of 2009 Lady-Lane bottled their first milk. They’ve come a long way from the first little dorm fridge that customers could buy a few products from to the now 3,500 square foot building, featuring all of the protein products they produce: dairy, beef, pork, and eggs. In addition, they showcase and sell products from other artisans like children’s books from a friend who writes them, aprons from a friend who makes them, a neighbor’s hot sauces, locally roasted coffee, and honey from the area, along with their niece’s photography that features rural living on canvases, notecards, and journals.
In addition to caring for their animals and making delicious products, the Hansens love to show their Jersey cows, both locally and nationally. In fact, the couple met at a county fair in the early 2000’s and married in 2018. The Lady-Lane prefix has had national show success and put a bull into stud and they remain very involved in their breed association. Garry is currently on the American Jersey Cattle Association’s board of directors and has also served on the Oregon Holstein Board, Willamette DHIA board, OR and Clackamas County Jersey Cattle Club boards.
“I love being with cows. Cows make me happy,” Garry said. “It’s hard to describe the sense of pride it gives you knowing you make a quality product for people,” he added. “And I like to keep busy,” Lacey injected. “There is never an end to having things to do on a farm, and to be able to be around animals and make a product from start to finish is something I never get tired of,” she said. The couple agreed that Wilco is a big part of their business support, in addition to being Garry’s favorite place to shop. “Their amount of stock and wide variety of available products makes it our go-to. You can get everything you need from clothing to fencing, and their member discounts are appreciated,” he said. “The biggest thing is the significant savings on fuel, which we use a lot of in our operation.”
