Young's Jersey Dairy is a family-operated dairy farm and restaurant located in

Yellow Springs, Ohio Yellow Springs is a Village (Ohio), village in northern Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,697 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. It is part of the Greater Dayton, Dayton metropolitan area and is home to Antioch ...

History

The Young family farm was established in 1869, which was when they built the property's iconic red barn. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, the Young family was forced to sell the farm to their neighbors. However, the family purchased the property again after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The Young's Jersey Dairy company began in 1946. Beginning in the 1950s, the family began selling milk from their dairy operations, expanding to cheese and some food items such as sandwiches and hot dogs in the 1960s. They started selling ice cream in 1981, for which they are best known today. In 2019, the farm celebrated its 150th anniversary, for which Ohio governor

Mike DeWine Richard Michael DeWine ( ; born January 5, 1947) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 70th List of governors of Ohio, governor of Ohio since 2019. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served a ...

presented the business with a proclamation.

Visitor attractions

Young's Jersey Dairy has several visitor attractions outside the scope of a typical dairy farm, including batting cages and

miniature golf Miniature golf (also known as minigolf, putt-putt, crazy golf, and by #Nomenclature, several other names) is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest ...

. The farm also has a

petting zoo A petting zoo (also called a children's zoo, children's farm, or petting farm) features a combination of domesticated animals and some wild species that are docile enough to touch and feed. In addition to independent petting zoos, many general ...

where visitors can interact with cows, goats, and pigs. They also have fall seasonal activities such as a

corn maze A corn maze or maize maze is a maze cut out of a corn field. Corn mazes have become popular agritourism attractions in North America, and are a way for farms to generate tourist income. Corn mazes appear in many different designs. Most have a pa ...

pumpkin A pumpkin is a cultivar, cultivated winter squash in the genus ''Cucurbita''. The term is most commonly applied to round, orange-colored squash varieties, but does not possess a scientific definition. It may be used in reference to many dif ...

picking, and wagon rides, as well as winter seasonal activities like allowing guests to cut their own

Christmas tree A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen pinophyta, conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, associated with the celebration of Christmas. It may also consist of an artificial tree of similar appearance. The custom was deve ...

Production and statistics

Young's Jersey Dairy produces about of ice cream per year and approximately of cheese. Half of all their cheese produced is sold as

cheese curd Cheese curds are moist pieces of curdled milk, eaten either alone as a snack, or used in prepared dishes. They are most often consumed throughout the northern United States and Canada. Notably, cheese curds are popular in Quebec, as part of th ...

s. They maintain a herd of approximately 50

Jersey cows The Jersey is a British list of cattle breeds, breed of small dairy cattle from Jersey, in the British Channel Islands. It is one of three Channel Island cattle breeds, the others being the Alderney cattle, Alderney – now extinct – and th ...

; the milk from the cows is used to produce their cheese. The milk used to make their ice cream is purchased from Reiter Dairy. The property has a

black walnut ''Juglans nigra'', the eastern American black walnut, is a species of deciduous tree in the walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to central and eastern North America, growing mostly in riparian zones. Black walnut is susceptible to thousand can ...

tree plantation of around 100 trees as well as a plantation of around 20,000 white pines that are used as Christmas trees. In the summer when it does the most business, it employs approximately 320 workers. As of 2009, Young's Jersey Dairy had over one million visitors per year.

Awards and honors

In 2009, Lauren Heaton of the ''

Yellow Springs News ''Yellow Springs News'' is an independently owned weekly newspaper that serves the community of Yellow Springs, Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake ...

'' called Young's Jersey Dairy "one of the most successful family-operated businesses in the region". In 2017, the Best of Springfield judged that Young's Jersey Dairy was the best local attraction, as well as best "kid's fun". In 2018, ''Ohio Magazine'' held a public poll for its readers to vote on the best ice cream in Ohio; Young's Jersey Dairy was the winner of the poll.

References

{{Coord, 39, 49, 38.7, N, 83, 52, 13.7, W, display=title Dairy farming in the United States Farms in Ohio Yellow Springs, Ohio Restaurants in Ohio 1869 establishments in Ohio