On Monday, all of us at Pie Ranch are going on a road trip to pick out our new Jersey cow. We imagine the experience of walking around Claravale Dairy will be like a herd of kindergarteners in a puppy store. We will get really excited and fall in love with all of the cute faces. However, we’ve promised ourselves we can only bring home one, and she has to be gentle, sweet and patient.

We are very excited about the newest member of our farm family. In addition to giving us milk for drinking and for custard pies, our new cow will provide us with cream to make into butter, which is an integral ingredient in our pie crusts. A dairy cow will help round out our educational programs, giving the youth who visit the ranch an opportunity to interact with a quintessential farm animal and truly make the connection between agriculture and food; between cow and pie, so to speak.

This cow has extra special significance because of the history of the land Pie Ranch occupies. The historic Issaac Steele Homestead on Green Oaks Creek was a cow dairy, established in the 1860′s. In its prime, the Steele dairy had over 1,100 cows, which roamed the hills and coastal terraces which now host our crops and pastures and visiting school groups. The Steeles made cheese from their milk, and even sent a slice from a giant wheel of cheese to Abraham Lincoln to show support of the Civil War efforts. Isaac’s brother Fredrick was a General in the Army. We at Pie Ranch like the idea of sending President Obama a slice of a giant economic stimulus pie.

Our new cow needs a name worthy of her new role and historical significance. We’d like to draw from the list of Steele dairy cow names, which we found in Special Collections at Stanford, and in the spirit of democracy, we’re putting the vote out to you. So look this list over and send your vote to cowpie.ranch@gmail.com. Votes should be in by next Friday, February 20th. We’ll announce the winning name at the next barn dance on February 21st.