Jersey Cow Grazing

The Beginning

Young’s history begins in 1869 when relatives of the Young Family built the red barn.  Hap Young bought the 60-acre farm and house shortly after the end of World War II.  For the next 10 years, Hap and his three sons, Carl, Bob, and Bill, farmed the 60 acres, plus up to 500 additional rented acres.  They grew grain, raised hogs, and milked cows.

In 1958, the Young Family decided to try to sell our Jersey milk directly to the public.  The first sales room was a modest operation.  We built a 10’ by 10’ room onto the end of the milk room.  The equipment was also modest – some glass jugs, a refrigerator, a cash drawer, and the honor system.  The customer would drive up, open the refrigerator, get his gallon of milk, leave an empty jug and the money, and drive away.

There was a market for farm fresh milk, so in 1960, we build and opened our first real dairy store.  We started dipping ice cream in this store.  We also added other dairy products, like cheese, and snack foods.  This building is attached to the big red barn and is where we make our ice cream today.

We added onto this building twice over the next 8 years.  In 1966, we added a small bakery.  By 1968, we were running out of room.  What’s next?

Adding Family Fun Over the Years

We built the first part of our current Dairy Store in 1968, and started to expand our menu of sandwiches, sides and breakfast to our menu.  We located the bakery in the original store. The bakery complimented the ice cream part of our business, especially in the winter months.

By 1972, we needed more room.  We doubled the size of the new store building and moved the bakery production facilities over to it.  We used the original store building for a variety of things over the year, including publishing the Enon Shopper.  Today it is where we make all of our homemade ice cream and farmstead cheese.

Between 1972 and 1990, we added additional parking, more seating for the restaurant, and expanded the kitchen area to keep up with the increased demand for sandwiches and meals.  Our last large addition to The Dairy Store was in the spring of 1990 when we doubled our inside seating capacity and added a meeting room.

In 1990, we decided that we needed a mascot.  And what better mascot to have than a cow? We then thought one cow might be lonely, so we started discussing the possibility of a family of cows.  Dan Young (Chief Ice Cream Dipper and CEO of Young’s Dairy) started thinking at home about the idea of a family of cows and mentioned it to his wife, Cathy about helping come up with the idea.

One of Cathy’s friend’s husband, Dave Gullett, who does art work on the side heard the conversation.  He dreamed up a 4-cow family, a dad, mom, teen daughter & baby son.

After we had a picture of our cow family, we put it to our Customers to name them.  We named Cowtherine after one of the foremothers of the cow family, Cathy Young.  The rest of the family was Barnabe (father), Cafleen (teen daughter) and Cowvin (the baby).  You can sometimes see Barnabe wandering around the farm, greeting our Guests and posing for pictures.

In 1993, we added the first activity at Udders & Putters – an 18-hole, farm theme miniature golf course.  1995 marked the first year for our driving range.  1996 saw the addition of a state of the art 9 position batting cage which features softball and hardball pitching machines.

We opened a new full-service restaurant, The Golden Jersey Inn in 1998.  This beautiful timber frame building restaurant features great country style food with a generous helping of friendly service.

In 1999, we built Barnabe’s Walnut Grove, a perfect place to have a group picnic, family reunion, class reunion, company picnic or any other function.  Located just south of our popular Udders & Putters area, our Barnabe’s Walnut Grove can easily serve groups with our home cooked meals and delicious homemade ice cream from 50 to over 5,000!  All group picnics include a wristband good for all day entertainment – miniature golf, batting cages, driving range, Cowvin’s Kiddie Corral, Moovers & Shakers and seasonally Cowvin’s Corny Maze and Wagon Ride on the Farm!

We built an additional 18-hole miniature golf course in 2000 to keep up with the demand for miniature golf and for our large groups of picnic Customers.

More family fun things to do?  Cowvin’s Corny Maze – which opens each year in late August until the end of October – a fun trip through a maze in one of our cornfields, complete with a wagon ride to and from the Maze.  Pick Your Own Pumpkins – we plant about 30 acres each year of pumpkins small to large, and everything in-between!  You choose the perfect pumpkin out of the thousands in the field.  Pick Your Own Pumpkins includes a wagon ride to and from the pumpkin patch.  This activity starts on the third weekend in September for five weeks.

We added Cowvin’s Fast Slide in 2008 – a 30’ slide with a couple of bumps on the way down.  Lots of fun for children and adults (minimum height of 42”).  Cowvin’s Kiddie Corral is designed for our younger Guests and features bounce-house, little tractors that can be pedaled around a wooden track, a corn pit (instead of sand pit) to play in, little slides, hay bales and more.  This activity is located next to the batting cages at Udders & Putters. Cowvin’s Kiddie Corral is open on weekend starting in late April, then daily during the summer.  When schools start again in the fall, the hours are on weekends until late October.

We started making Young’s Farmstead Cheese in July 2009.  We are using only milk from our herd of Jersey cows to make the cheese.  We make Cheddar, Colby, Baby Swiss, Jersey Jack, Pepper Jack, Gouda and Fresh Cheddar Curds.  We sell several types and ages of Cheddar cheese – Jersey Girl is mild cheddar, Red Barn Cheddar is a little older and more medium cheddar in taste, Toreador the Ambassador Cheddar is aged about 12-18 months.  In August of 2010, we started smoking Cheddar and Baby Swiss cheeses in natural apple wood smoke. We also make Bourbon Oak Barrel Smoked Aged Cheddar, Maple Smoked Gouda, Beer Barrel Smoked Cheddar and Chili-Cumin Smoked Cheddar.

Our best-selling cheese is our fresh cheddar curds.  We make many flavors of this cheese – Garlic, Italian, Dill, Cajun, Plain, Sweet Basil & Garlic and Ranch.  The favorite of our Guests is the Deep-Fried Cheddar Curds we sell as a side choice at both our restaurants.  The Deep-Fried Cheddar Curds are available in Original, Buffalo or Sweet Chili style. Delicious!

Over the past several years, we have improved our property to keep it fun!  We’ve added a large outdoor restroom facility, new walking paths, installed ball dryers and a cover home plate area so we can operate the batting cages in the rain and have added to the landscaping around the farm.  We’ll continue to make changes – big and small – to keep Young’s Jersey Dairy a fun, attractive and delicious place to take your family and friends!

Young’s on the Moove was added in 2017.  Young’s on the Moove is our version of a food truck.  We can get out in the wider community to serve food and meet new Guests to introduce them to Young’s delicious homemade ice cream and breaded cheese curds.  The menu includes several Panini style grilled sandwiches featuring Young’s Farmstead cheese.  Tasty!

In August 2021. Young’s relocated its Dairy Store operation from the building it had called home since 1968 to a new state-of-the-art facility just a few hundred feet away. The Dairy Store boasts more than double the space of the previous building, with ample seating indoors and outdoors, two party rooms and a piazza with bricks dedicated to Young’s fans that raised over $36,000 for the Rocking Horse Community Health Center. Young’s Farmstead Cheese and Homemade Ice Cream production is also onsite in the new Dairy Store, with a window where Guests can watch the magic!

Approximately 1,200,000 Customers visit Young’s Jersey Dairy annually.

Our Fabulous Guests

Our Guests have always been great to us. Many have visited Young’s on a regular basis almost from the very beginning, and they never hesitate to tell us when they have an idea for us to use to improve our service. Young’s is a family tradition for many – we strive to maintain a place where families can keep visiting to create more great memories.

Young’s attracts mostly families. That is what we have designed everything here for — family fun. Parents and grandparents love to bring children and friends to the farm and visit. We will always focus on families as our Guests.

Amazing Employees

We are open year-round.  Our busy season starts in April and ends in late October. It takes about 320 employees to keep Young’s going during this busy time of year.  Most of our workforce is in high school or college and tend to stay with us for 4-5 years as they complete school.  We have a core group of about 80 full time Staff; many have worked with us for 20 plus years.  We are blessed with a great Staff who work hard to create great Guest experiences.  A dozen of our workforce, by the way, are Young family members.

Young’s and Our Community

Young’s, the Young Family and our great Staff have always been involved in our community.  We donate to over 250 organizations each year.  One of our bigger efforts is organizing and sponsoring the Young’s Ice Cream Charity Bike Tour.  This is a fun bike ride, around 250+ riders, that raises money for four local charities each year – Alzheimer’s Association, United Rehabilitation Services, South Community and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  In the past 15 years, our riders and volunteers have given over $1,160,000 to our charities.

The Young’s Tradition – Family Entertainment

Our Service Theme is “We Create Fun for Our Customers by Delivering the Best Customer Service, Everyday, with the Finest in Quality Products, in a Clean, Safe, and Entertaining Place.”  We keep this in mind when we do anything at Young’s. Creating fun for our Guests — families — is why we are here.

While we sell a lot of food and ice cream, our main product is fun, entertainment and helping to create memories.  We know we have to give our Guests a reason to visit Young’s.  There are hundreds of places to get a meal or a dip of ice cream.  We have to do a better job on service and quality to keep our Guests happy and coming back.