A few months ago, we interviewed Susan Bates and asked her where she got her raw milk. She told us about Markegard Family Grass-fed in Half Moon Bay, California (south of San Francisco) and the amazing woman whose family operates it – Doniga Markegard. She recommended that we interview her. Susan wrote:
Doniga is well connected and dedicated to teaching others about carbon sequestration, mob grazing, and many other practices that are improving the planet — she’s a recognized world leader in cutting edge practices.
Her cattle (500 head) are permitted to graze on Open Space Trust lands in the greater Bay Area because she’s demonstrated improvement of the lands upon which they graze. One of those lands is the stunningly gorgeous Jenner Headlands, which until recently people were not allowed onto — only the land stewards, the Markegards and their cattle. It is designated sacred Native American land.
She’s spoken at many world conferences, like Slow Food in Italy and people like Joel Salatin ask her to come and give talks. She’s also very dedicated to the preservation of Native American lands and cultures and is also an expert in animal tracking (ie, mountain lions)!
She’s been written about in many magazines and several books.
And don’t hate her, but she’s also gorgeous, a great wife and mother to 4 amazing kids, a perpetual smiler and one of the nicest and kindest people you’d ever meet.
I, for one, hated her right away! But she was willing to do an interview, so I ordered her book (Dawn Again) and read it. OK, I was wrong.
Doniga has been busy writing a young adult version of her book called “Wolf Girl” which will be released in Spring, 2020.
Doniga and her husband, Erik have 4 children ranging in age from 9 to 17. There are bios of everyone on their website – https://www.markegardfamily.com
There are also numerous YouTube videos about the Markegard family and how they live. It’s kind of like watching Bonanza reruns. Everyone is healthy and happy and living off the land. There are mountain lions and campfires and fabulous views of the most beautiful land you have ever seen.
But, Doniga and Erik are managing 10,000 acres of land under a microscope for the entire world to judge. And while doing this, they are working with a wide variety of organizations to change the laws in California so the land and the people will be healthier. It’s a very big cause.
It all looks so easy and fun that you don’t realize how difficult it really is. They are living their lives in the spotlight because they are activists – showing the world that it is possible to live regeneratively with nature, as opposed to degeneratively (consuming and using nature).
They manage their herd to simulate the way the elk and antelope once roamed on California’s grasslands. Their management practices include keyline design, catchment ponds, permaculture, holistic management, rotational grazing and carbon farming.
If you believe that working with nature in a positive way is the most important lesson for us as human beings to learn, you will appreciate what Doniga and her family have sacrificed to this cause- mainly their privacy and their time.
In addition to the daily demands of family and ranching life, Doniga’s events schedule is daunting because she is tirelessly committed to educating her industry, legislators and consumers about the importance and means of stewardship of the land and its soil.
With Joan Baez
Regarding cheese:
Yes, Doniga makes cheese!
In 2010, 2 months after her daughter, Quince was born, Doniga experienced a deep depression. She was barely able to get dressed in the morning. Her husband responded by purchasing a Jersey cow for her! It seems funny now, but it worked and she regained her joyful spirit in the process of milking Daisy every day. Daisy gave her a reason to get up in the morning and milking her provided a therapeutic meditation for Doniga. This therapy also provided a lot of milk!
With Daisy
In 2011, Doniga invited cheesemaker Louella Hill, of the San Francisco Milk Maid to come to her ranch and teach a cheesemaking class. (Louella wrote Kitchen Creamery.)
They made yogurt, kefir, a chevre-style cheese, queso fresco and feta:
Yes, Louella came here to do cheese making workshops. It was before she had a book out. We supplied her with raw milk to do some of her tests for cheeses. The recipes I use are those first recipes that she was developing. I think she first contacted me because I had raw milk! I recently saw her when I went to do an event at PolyFace farm. She is really great!
By then, Doniga had 3 cows and she was getting over 10 gallons/day of raw milk.
She couldn’t sell it legally, even though many people were requesting to buy it. Instead, she offered it through a herdshare program where customers purchased ownership interests in the cows and paid monthly board and care fees in exchange for receiving their shares’ worth of the milk. There was no law against this, per se, but, still, they had to write “For pet food only” on their dairy products. It was a grey area in the law.
In 2014, Doniga found CDFA (California Department of Food and Agriculture) investigators outside her gates. She contacted the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, and connected with Pattie Chelseth who operates My Sisters’ Farm in Shingle Springs, about 40 miles outside of Sacramento. Chelseth had been given a cease and desist order.
Doniga, Pattie and Yannick Phillips, Legislative Outreach Advocate for the California State Grange, began looking for support for a proposed new law called the”small cow exemption.” It would allow small dairies (up to three cows and 15 goats or sheep) to distribute excess milk outside of their family farms.
Doniga was at the forefront of this effort. That year, she spoke at the 34th Annual EcoFarm conference at a session entitled “Safe, Wholesome Raw Milk from Your Farm,” along with Tim Wightman, president of the Farm to Consumer Foundation.
The legislation didn’t pass but, as a result of Doniga’s and others’ work, California is one of the states with the most liberal policy concerning raw milk.
From Farmtoconsumer.org
Until 2017, Doniga continued to offer a herdshare program. But, when Daisy retired, the excess milk supply decreased and eventually she terminated the program:
I went from milking four cows to now just one family cow. I milk her just 6 months out of the year and keep her calf nursing on her. When I want milk, I separate the calf over night and milk in the morning.
I make yogurt, feta and whipped cream mostly. She is a Jersey so our family is a bunch of cream addicts. Often, we only save the cream and feed the skim milk to the pigs.
Quinn with Annabelle
At this time:
The Cabrillo and Kincade fires in California this October and November came very close to the Markegards’ home ranch in Half Moon Bay and also impacted grazing land in Sonoma County where the bulk of their herd lives.
Doniga and Erik have been donating food to the victims of the fires and matching donations, dollar for dollar.
In one of her newsletters*, Doniga shared her thoughts about the Pescadero Cabrillo fire:
It came up from a brushy canyon, but when it hit the grasslands the fire slowed and was much easier to manage. This shows the importance of managed grazing. Cattle keep the brush from coming in on the grasslands and keep the fuel load down. When trees are on fire they create huge flames, but grass fires can be gentle, allowing the fire crews to put them out.
We’re grateful yet again for the work she is doing.
