Photo by: Tessa Hahn
How Sassy Cows create quality from creamery to cart
By: Tessa Hahn
As the temperature inches toward freezing and the wee hours of the night begin aching for the rooster’s crow, Madison’s weekend crowd impatiently awaits glory. A glory that drips so freely with grease and just-out-of-the-frying-pan heat that customers know they’re getting far more than their daily dose of fat.
They’re waiting at Fried and Fabulous, a food cart run by self-proclaimed CEO/Janitor Steve Lawrence. Despite the fact that his treats may be slowly killing their insides, patrons line up for all things batter-dipped—cookies, candies…anything that will take the grease, even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
It’s clear from the patrons’ looks of complete satisfactory relief that the taste is entirely worth the fat. But what makes that fried dough and sweetened fat go down with ease? Only the finest local liquid delicacy deserves a spot in his food cart, Lawrence says. He chooses a herd of “Fresh Milk with Attitude” kind of cows. It’s called Sassy Cow Creamery, and according to Lawrence, it’s the best that’s out there.
The owner, however, has little sass or attitude to share.
Photo by: Kate Rosenbaum
The Business of Cows
Hovering just above a whisper and taking no bait for the feisty stories that must be behind a business of Sassy Cows, James Baerwolf is the businessman of the homegrown, cow-raising, family-made farming company. “Me and my brother Rob, we have the cows and the farm and our creamery,” he says. “The three together then, that’s what Sassy Cow Creamery is.”
Business remains business in the Baerwolf clan, but they’re in the business of cows, sassy ones at that. This mooing herd has an attitude that is far more palpable than its owner’s reserved business-only lifestyle. With a camera in sight, these Sassy Cow Creamery cattle strut profile after profile, throwing their heat-bearing nostrils into the lens daring it to hold their photogenic gaze. It’s evident these milk-bearing cattle recognize they hold a bit of clout in this Midwestern dairy market.
“The cows are the most important part of the puzzle because without the cows, we would just be a small dairy,” Baerwolf brother James says softly.
With the cow at the center, the family all around and the creamery in between, it’s clear this company truly believes in what it produces.
Sassy Cow Creamery is located about seven miles north of Sun Prairie, Wis. Situated happily in the middle of the two Baerwolf family farms, the creamery is the recognizable hub of the business. Miles of wind-rippling grassy farmland surround the cheerfully red dairy stop-and-shop, which opened four years ago and pulls a crowd of weekly regulars. Whether to pick up their organic skim, traditional 2% or even the wild strawberry milk from those crazy pink cows (a legend yet to be confirmed), the locals know where to get their quality dairy milk.
Sassy Cow’s Fabulous Fan
Lawrence is just one of these loyal locals. His enthusiasm for all that is Sassy Cow is something only the dozens of children who line up ready to inhale ice cream on a summer day could rival. Lawrence is a grown-up kid who teeters on the edge of giddiness when discussing the likes of Sassy Cow chocolate milk.
“If it weren’t for a desire to remain healthy and alive, in good shape, and if my body didn’t require other nutrients, I would drink nothing but Sassy Cow milk for all of my nutritional requirements. I would get the 2,000 calories a day from just Sassy Cow chocolate milk. It wouldn’t just be the only thing I would drink, it would be the only thing I would consume at all,” Lawrence says, just short of shouting for all of Madison’s late-night wandering crowds to hear.
Steve Lawrence is quite possibly Sassy Cow’s biggest fan. Describing the experience of drinking this milk as if it came from the Tiffany-blue box of standards, “The skim milk, the 2%, it has a sweetness to it that you just don’t find in regular grocery brand milk. The chocolate milk? Have you tried it?! Oh my God! It’s amazing. It’s like liquid chocolate ice cream, and it puts every other chocolate milk on the grocery store shelf to shame.”
