EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on Aug. 11, 2024.
If you’re driving along Powerline Road West outside Copetown, you may have noticed a distinctive red building.
It’s not by accident that Summit Station Dairy’s on-farm store looks like a train station. The 100 acres Joe and Minna Loewith purchased nearly 80 years ago are located near what was once known as the Summit Station, along the Toronto, Hamilton, and Buffalo (TH&B) railway line, and the building was designed with that history in mind.
The roughly 10,000-square-foot structure incorporates a retail store at the front where you can purchase white, chocolate or strawberry milk and fresh cheese curds, with the processing facility in the back. A viewing window gives customers a glimpse into how the milk they’re buying is made.
Today, Ben Loewith operates the family dairy farm, along with his father Carl, his uncle Dave, and his wife Jennifer Howe that his grandparents started with 15 Holstein cows in 1947.
“We’re considered what’s called a closed herd. We’ve never brought other animals into the herd. It’s always been the daughters and the daughters of those original 15 cows that Joe bought way back when,” says Jennifer.
Ben came up with the idea of bringing back home milk delivery at the onset of COVID, when supply chains were affected and some farmers were dumping milk because processing facilities weren’t running. It’s been almost a year since Summit Station Dairy’s refrigerated vans started delivering glass bottles of milk to Hamilton-area residents within a roughly 30-minute radius of the farm.
Summit Station Dairy also offers farm tours where you can get up close and personal with the baby calves.
“One of the reasons we built the building as we did was there’s so much interest from school groups, industry groups, and the general public about coming to see the cows, the farm, and learning about where their food comes from. Now that the dairy has opened, requests for those kinds of visits have increased tenfold,” says Jennifer. “Saturday mornings, when the cows are being milked, we take small groups on a guided tour. We take them through the barn, they go into the maternity pen, they see the baby calves, and they end up in the milking parlour, where they can get an opportunity to try and milk a cow.
"They then understand what it takes to make the milk, and they feel better about the milk they’re consuming because they’ve seen how the cows are cared for; they’ve met the people who make it; and that’s all part of the experience we’re trying to create.”
The front of the store is available to rent as event space, and there are plans to partner with local chefs and food people and do some cooking and butter-making classes, as well as a baking with sour milk session. “So much wonderful baking can happen with sour milk, and it’s a way to keep milk from going down the drain,” says Jennifer. The family is even working towards making their own yogurt later this year.
Summit Station Dairy products are available in some independent grocery stores and farmers' markets, including the Waterdown Farmers' Market. They’re also interested in getting local cafés to learn about their milk. “It froths up beautifully, and it really does elevate a coffee,” says Jennifer.
Learn more about Summit Station Dairy & Creamery at summitstationdairy.com.
