Creamery Brook Bison
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
by Nicole Zappone @TheChronicleCT
Nestled in the quiet corner of the state, Creamery Brook Bison in Brooklyn offers a rich history of bison and the passion of its owners, Austin and Deborah Tanner, to provide for their family. The couple bought their farm in May of 1981 as a dairy farm, where they raised dairy cattle until they sold out of that business in 2002 and 2006 due to historically low milk prices. “We’ve been on farms our entire lives,” Deborah Tanner said. “I grew up at Mountain Dairy in Mansfield, and he grew up on a farm in Warren in Litchfield County.”
Deborah Tanner said her husband worked with her father at Hillyland in Scotland.
“He finally decided he wanted a farm of his own, where he could make his own mistakes,” she said. “He was good at making his own mistakes.” When the couple moved to the farm in Brooklyn, their daughters were 3, 4 and 5. “We absolutely loved being in this situation, having animals take to the shows and fairs,” Tanner said. Tanner recalled a time when their daughters would go to the milking facility, dressing up in coveralls like their father. “They had a little notepad, so that they could keep records on which cow came through first,” Tanner said. “They were very serious, and once they got to school, it was really difficult for them.”
The family lived a mile from the school, and because it was the last stop on the bus, none of the kids would let her daughters sit with them because they “smelled bad.” There were lots of other farms in the area, and the couple couldn’t understand why their daughters were getting made fun of. “I knew that wasn’t possible; they didn’t work in the barn on a regular basis,” Tanner said. “Every night, they had a bath and their hair was shiny clean.” Tanner recalled the kids in middle school “mooing” at their daughters.
“We decided when the first one was in kindergarten, that wasn’t worth it for us,” Tanner said. “We invited the entire kindergarten class to the farm, so that the children could see what it was they were picking on our children about, and also to let people know that we’re here and want to be good neighbors.” During that trip, they made butter, ice cream, the kids brought their own lunches and they played games. “They got to pet calves,” Tanner said. “The biggest complaint from the children, the ones picking on mine, was that someone got slimed only up to one part, but they only got slimed up to a shorter point, and that wasn’t fair.”
It was after that the family invited every single grade. When each class arrived, they would be given tours and agricultural education. “The students and the adults were amazed by how much agriculture is in everything that you own,” Tanner said.
She said that over the years, farms have become fewer. At one point, farms fed about 50 people; now they feed about 75. “The average age of farmers right now is about 59,” Tanner said. “We know one man who is 80 and is behind the scenes with his farmer son, who is in his 50s. It’s really not sustainable.”
When the couple bought the farm in 1981, they were getting about $15 for about 100 pounds of milk. That is equivalent to less than 60 gallons of milk. Today, that number has changed dramatically. “The price just recently went back down to $15 for 100 pounds,” Tanner said. “That is going to get a lot of farmers out of business, and that is scary. We don’t have enough milk here in Connecticut.”
Austin Tanner said his fascination with bison began in the fifth grade, when his class studied Thanksgiving and the history of Native Americans and bison. He fell in love and decided that someday, he would own a few of his own. For years, his family listened to his dream. It was one year, when milk prices were reasonable, that Deborah Tanner decided to go and get a baby bison for Christmas. When learning about how expensive they were, she decided to get her husband a membership to the National Bison Association (NBA).
When Austin Tanner’s first NBA magazine launched with advertising and was followed by a conference, the whole family attended, and he was hooked. It was in November of 1990 that Austin Tanner went to the National Bison Association auction in Pennsylvania with a check in hand, determined to get his first bison.
Later that day, he came home and told his wife he had not one but five bison and they were coming the next day. Those five bison were then named Harriet, Marion, Anastasia, Drizella and Maleficent.
On their farm, there is a store that sells different meat specials, such as the bison sampler, griller master and bison super sampler. Each package has a few pounds of bison meat.
The store is open Thursday and Friday from 2 to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. It is also open by appointment and can be scheduled by phone at 860-779-0837.
The farm also offers wagon tours to show where the bison roam. Guided tours offer a history of the farm and informative facts about the American Bison and agriculture. Price details and how to book a tour can be found at creamerybrookbison.net.
Creamery Brook Bison is located at 19 Purvis Road in Brooklyn. For more information, call 860-779-0837.
