Family hoping there’s still a lot in store for their dairy
Courtesy of Twin Brook Farm and Dairy
Randi Marchezak and her father, John, keep Twin Brook Farms and Daily going in Somerset Township.
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Courtesy of Twin Brook Farm and Dairy
John Marchezak got things moo-ving when he purchased Twin Brook Farm in 1952.
Courtesy of Twin Brooks Farm and Dairy
The elder John Marchezak ran a farm store on his property from 1962 to the early 1970s – an initiative his family would embrace a half-century later.
Courtesy of Twin Brook Farm and Dairy
Randi Marchezak and her father, John, opened a store for the first time in a half-century at their Somerset Township farm.
Courtesy of Twin Brook Farm and Dairy
John Marchezak launched a family farm in 1952 that is still in operation.
Randi Marchezak grew up on her family’s Somerset Township dairy farm, and eventually into a marketing professional.
She graduated from Pennsylvania State University with the intent of breaking away from her agrarian roots, and secured a job with a large company. Marchezak was on a decidedly upward career path, working in three states, when the roots tugged at her feet.
“I thought about farming again,” she said, reflecting back a decade. “I decided to give this a shot, to get out of marketing before I started to make too much money and not want to leave. I moved back from California and started to work for a farm co-op.”
That endeavor eventually led to a return to Twin Brook Farm and Dairy, off Interstate 70. The 400-acre spread is owned and operated by her father, John, for whom Randi now handles marketing along with selling, bottling and delivering milk.
“After the cows are milked, I take over,” she said, laughing.
Her comeback story, however, is not the only one to evolve at the farm her paternal grandfather, also John Marchezak, purchased 69 years ago. John the elder opened a store on the property in 1962 and operated it until the early ’70s, before shutting it down. For the next half-century, the Marchezaks would use the building – featuring the original porcelain bricks and a concrete floor – as a calf nursery.
Now it is a farm store again. Randi, her dad and anyone who could help undertook an laborious four-month renovation and cleaning of the structure and opened for business about two weeks ago.
For the most part, it is a typical farm store, with milk the Marchezaks produce and bottle – whole white and chocolate – along with honey, maple syrup and eggs.
“We’re also interested in bringing in local cheeses,” said Randi, who resides in the Morningside section of Pittsburgh.
It is a quick stop for local residents seeking a few items, but don’t want to drive to a larger market and stand in a checkout line.
Yet, in a conspicuous way, this is an atypical farm store. It is based on the honor system. Between 12 and 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, customers simply enter, select items, check a price list, add the figures, leave cash and write down what they’ve purchased – for inventory purposes.
“We trust our community,” Randi said. “Plus, we don’t have enough staff to have someone in the store right now.
“We were looking for a way to sell our milk – that’s a priority. We have what people might be interested in.”
They’ve had customers in the early going, some of whom remember the original Marchezak store.
“There have been comments on Facebook and from folks who stopped by, saying they were at the farm when they were children,” Randi said.
Milk, understandably, is the signature staple at Twin Brook. It is a longtime dairy farm, and is positioned to be one for a while.
“We’re probably milking 20 to 25 cows,” Randi said. “We have about 50 calves and heifers that are not milking yet.”
Guernsey cows are a tradition there, a breed that, she said, “don’t have highest milk production, but provide the most quality – in nutrients and flavor.” The family also has Jerseys and Holsteins, the latter of which “eat anything and are milking machines.”
Like many dairy farms, however, Twin Brook was struggling a few years ago.
Randi’s dad decided to sell about 100 of his cows when she interceded, saying she would help him with the farm – in some way – if he agreed to not sell that much of the milking herd. John agreed to carry on, keeping about 20 animals – Guernseys and Jerseys. That’s when Randi came up with an initiative to help save the business.
Through Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance, the co-op she joined upon returning “home,” Randi had met a chef, Chad Townsend, who began making artisan ice cream at home with his wife. He had a keen interest in Jersey milk because of its high fat content, which is ideal for ice cream.
She contacted Townsend, who had started producing Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream, which he sells at shops throughout Allegheny County. Randi asked whether he might be interested in using Twin Brook’s Jersey milk, and after tasting it, he went for it. The Marchezaks’ product is now used at Millie’s new production headquarters in Homestead.
This started in April, early in the pandemic, and led to Randi sharing space at the facility to pasteurize and bottle milk that she can distribute to customers.
Among her clients is Alisa Fava-Fasnacht, a cousin and owner of Marketplace at Emerald Valley in Washington, which sells Twin Brook milk.
All of this, of course, started with Randi’s grandfather, who wasn’t necessarily interested in farming when he returned to Washington County after serving in World War II. But working above ground instead of below was preferable to a man who was raised in a mining family, but was adamantly opposed to joining several brothers in the mines.
In the early ’50s, the elder John Marchezak purchased land off a man who didn’t like him, but grudgingly agreed to a deal. John started to tend the land and bought some Guernseys – a tradition that is carried on by John’s son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.
“It’s just really cool to be back where my grandfather started a farm,” Randi said. “It’s almost surreal to be following in his footsteps to some degree, and exciting to produce this milk, give it a spotlight. And it’s nice to support the community.”