By Clarence Cromwell
The citizens rallying to save Monte Sereno's historic Claravale Dairy considered professional help for the fundraising effort this month.
At the same time, dairy herdsman Ron Garthwaite laid down plans to attract more customers.
The foundation paid $15,000 in April for rights to buy the dairy property from Kenneth Peake within 90 days. They want to purchase the farm, the state's last small dairy producing nonpasteurized milk, and lease it to Garthwaite.
They've already raised pledges for $430,000, a third of the $1.4 million needed to buy and upgrade the dairy. But many of the pledges will be received in increments over the next five years.
Barbara Holden, a member of the foundation, said the group could probably call in about $100,000 of the pledges now. They won't move to buy the farm until they have between $200,000 and $300,000, enough for a down payment and a year of mortgage payments.
But Holden said the foundation will call in a professional fundraiser to help speed up the project. Since the organization can only afford about an hour a week, even at the discount rate offered by a local fundraising expert, they hope to buy short fundraising lessons rather than actual fundraising services, Holden explained. Between 10 and 15 area residents have volunteered to help raise money.
The farm will cost $1.25 million. Another $150,000 in repairs for the barn is needed.
The group also must make two more $15,000 payments--in the middle of July and October--to preserve its rights to buy the business and its land.
Holden said the foundation hopes to come up with enough cash for the purchase before New Year's Eve 1996.
Garthwaite is currently working from about 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. to operate the dairy. He and a handful of volunteers milk 10 cows twice a day, bottle the 50 or so gallons of milk with equipment dating from the 1930s and sell it to Claravale's loyal customers.
He intends to draw new customers, first by word of mouth and later with a marketing plan, starting with a sign near the road to alert motorists that milk is for sale. But a few problems must be worked out first.
The biggest one is the irreplaceable antique bottles that hold the milk.
"Right now, they're more valuable than the milk that's inside them," Garthwaite said, "which doesn't work if you don't charge a deposit."
Garthwaite found a Canadian company that produces the bottles and lids for them. With new, slightly different bottles, he can charge customers a deposit--something the dairy couldn't have done before without buying back all the bottles customers had kept before the deposit applied.
Garthwaite also plans to raise prices slightly. Peake, who has run the dairy since 1931, had been selling the milk for less than the cost of producing it.
Those two moves combined should allow the dairy to break even or make a small profit, Garthwaite said. Garthwaite said a number of health-food stores were eager to stock the dairy's natural milk, which is bottled fresh and unpasteurized. It goes from a bucket in the milking room, down a refrigerated cooling screen and into the glass bottles in a matter of minutes.
"There couldn't be a better location for this dairy," Garthwaite said, "because it's right in the middle of a bunch of people who are health-conscious and have money to spend on healthy food."
To volunteer at the dairy or contribute to the fundraising effort, call 535-0331.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, May 22, 1996.
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