Swallow Hill Dairy
Photography by Allison McAdams
JAMESTOWN, OHIO — If you blink, you’ll miss a small structure off a country road in Jamestown, OH, faintly labeled “The Milk Shed.” And that would be a shame.
Cold cases are filled with white milk, chocolate milk, and even an orange cream or strawberry milk if your timing is right. Cars pull down the gravel lane with the occupants purchasing what they need from the self-serve shed and giving a wave to Swallow Hill Jersey Dairy founder Todd Fliehman, or his dad, Larry, who are usually nearby. The milk is non-homogenized, slow-pasteurized, and it comes with simple instructions. “You gotta shake it,” Larry says of the cream that rises visibly to the top.
Inside The Milk Shed is a picture of Todd as a teenager standing next to a bovine. “I bought a Jersey heifer when I was 14,” says Todd, who laid the foundation for his future with that purchase. He eventually set his goal to also bottle and sell the milk directly to customers, which he started doing in 2014. The dairy industry hasn’t always been easy, and when Todd posted a letter in 2018 that he was planning to close his business due to persistent challenges, local media took note and the community rallied behind Swallow Hill, causing a change of heart.
Today, 42 milk-producing Jersey cows with names like Mae Ann, Harvest, and Rainy dot the pasture surrounding The Milk Shed. And Todd is content selling his milk farm-side and to a handful of local markets, a cheesemaker, and local coffee houses. “I hear a lot of stories about people with gut problems who are able to drink this milk,” Todd says. “That’s what keeps me going. There’s a purpose behind it.”