I have always loved a good story. Recently, I heard a speaker say that if you want to know your calling, you should revisit what you did most often as a child that drove your parents crazy. Let’s just say telling and hearing stories are definitely my calling.
This month, I’m blessed with the opportunity to be an Ambassador for Indiana Dairy. As a part of my duties, I interviewed John & Cynthia Adam of Knollbrook Farm in Goshen, IN. May I share a bit of their story with you?
I began by asking Cynthia a very simple question. What do you LOVE about being a dairy farmer? Her enthusiasm spilled on to the page with words of passion and revealed a little bit about her story, along with her tender heart for each and every one of the animals their family raises.
I love the opportunity to raise my children in a Christian environment, and having the time to instill good work ethic and respect along with stewardship skills in the next generation. All our children help out with the “girls” and the farm – from mixing feed for the cows to helping bottle feed calves. I also love the chance to observe how small changes in our part (diet, environment) can have a big impact on the growth, development of the animals. I enjoy daily interaction with our “girls.” We have a tendency to probably make them a bit ‘too much’ of pets—upon occasion. But after working with specific animals you learn personality . . . who likes to be scratched and where and which girls will come when called by name. It’s amazing to some people that all our girls have names (along with ear tags and or neck tags) and we still know them by name. We can even tell the Holstein girls apart. It’s similar to being able to tell a litter of Dalmatian puppies apart, each has different shaped spots in different locations, different body shapes and different head and tail shapes.
The Adams run a small family farm, of about 400 acres both rented & owned. They milk about 105 registered Holsteins and Jerseys. John and Cynthia started the dairy in 1998, so she could get back on the farm while raising their children. Cynthia had worked as a full time clinical dietitian at a local hospital but longed to spend more time with their four children – Nate, Nick, Luke & Faith now ages 21-13. The oldest two Adams are currently following in family footsteps by studying agriculture at Purdue while the youngest two are in Jr High and High school. John and Cynthia believe in promoting agriculture while also providing fun and educational environments, especially during the fall.
Given Cynthia’s background as a dietician, I took the opportunity to ask her a couple of questions about dairy foods and protein.
Why is protein important?
I really feel that having a balanced diet with foods from all the food groups is critically important to each individual’s optimum health. Protein is the backbone of the meal providing texture and satiety to the meal along with needed amino acids for growth and repair. Dairy protein is a very high quality protein with all the essential amino acids that are needed in the construction, repair, and rebuilding of muscle tissue and for growth. And it also tastes good and is very easy to incorporate into your meals and snacks.
I couldn’t resist asking what the Adams’ favorite sources of dairy protein are. Of course, milk is featured at every meal. With that many teenage boys, they go through close to two gallons of milk a DAY. Yogurt and a variety of cheeses also made the list. Cynthia said it was simply too hard for her to narrow it down.
Cynthia was even so kind to share a great recipe with us that I can’t wait to try out. It features high protein dairy that encourages you to eat veggies, too. Double bonus! I can’t wait to give this a try. It sounds so savory.
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This post was sponsored by Indiana Dairy. That means I was compensated for this post. For more details, you can read my Disclosure Policy. You get to read about agriculture in Indiana (AND hear from an actual Indiana Dairy Farmer), I get a few dollars in the Royal Emergency coffers. All is well and royally swell. This post was not edited or reviewed by anyone else as you can tell by my grammar and crazy random thoughts. I always give you my honest opinions in any Royal Review or Give Away post, that’s a Royal Guarantee!
Great story!!!
<3
The Adam family are great dairy ambassadors. And with Cynthia being an RD, she understands the importance of eating healthy, starting off with 3 servings of dairy daily along with foods from the other 4 food groups!!!