Blahnik executives fashion a dairy farm

It's the Fifth Avenue of farms, the Barney's of barns, the Saks of cow stalls.

Welcome to Arethusa Farm in Litchfield, Conn., a flourishing dairy dynasty with designer pedigree and stiletto style.

The pristine dairy farm may seem an unlikely business initiative for fashion gurus George Malkemus and Tony Yurgaitis. The Manhattanites are best known as the top executives of the high-end shoe brand, Manolo Blahnik, the finely crafted, Italian women's stilettos and such made famous by Carrie Bradshaw in the HBO series "Sex and the City."

But don't let these city guys fool you. With the same commitment and attention to quality they put into their pricey shoes of desire, the longtime partners have crafted the creme de la creme of dairy products while gaining international attention for their cattle.

"This is not a hobby. It is a work of love," said Yurgaitis. "We wanted to save this farm."

The story did not start so altruistically in 1999, when the couple bought the place. It was more about being a little selfish when it came to the view from their house, which is across from the farm.

"We had this beautiful vista that we woke up to every day, and we didn't want it spoiled," explained Malkemus. "So we bought the farm."

The former horse farm could have become a golf course or tract housing - two earlier plans for the property - but Yurgaitis and Malkemus wanted to preserve the gently rolling pastures. When they started planning, the 300-plus-acre farm became home to 300 head of Holsteins, Brown Swiss and Jersey cows, heifers and calves, a chicken coop, nine barns, five farmhouses, and a nearby retail store, creamery and bottling plant.

In the beginning, they researched the place. They learned it was once a dairy farm called Arethusa (an extinct orchid). Anxious to preserve its history, they not only restored the farm's original name but purchased five cows because there was "something missing" when they looked out at empty barns, they said.

"Then the five just kept calving and calving, and we did more research and we knew we had to take the next step," Yurgaitis said. More cows were added, more land purchased and the business began to blossom.

The two were consumed with learning all they could about farming and it was clear there was not going to be a lot of profit, if any, in dairy farming. But the business was about more than just money. It was about the land.

"We were both concerned about farmland preservation as well as making this a working farm," said Malkemus, as he recited statistics reflecting the dramatic drop in the number of dairy farms over the decades.

"People can do a lot with a resource," he continued. "They can build a big house and throw resources around, or they can try to bring something back with that resource. We are people who wanted to bring something back. And we wanted to do something that would make a difference in the land, the community and the people."

The cows have won a wall full of trophies and ribbons that are proudly displayed in the sumptuous conference room inside the spacious, state-of-the-art milk barn. Arethusa made history in 2004 when two of its cows, Victoria and Melanie, were named Grand Champion Jersey and Grand Champion Holstein at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin. The efforts to develop the best herd of home-bred cattle in North American has established Arethusa as a premier diary breeding farm, both nationally and internationally.

And then there is the milk and all it creates.

Malkemus just wanted milk that tasted good, the kind he remembered from his childhood in Texas. As a seasoned fashion magnate in a company in which quality trumps quantity, he knew that meant taking time when it came to producing Arethusa milk, marketed as "milk like it used to taste."

"We use vat processing," he said explaining how using small batch, low-temperature, long-duration, slow heat and quick cool processes that preserve the flavor of milk rather than stripping it away. Such processing also means days rather than weeks when it comes to shelf life, the two explain. The more common pasteurizing methods are most cost-effective and quicker, but kill good bacteria and take away flavor, they maintain.

"You drink our milk, you don't put it in the refrigerator for a month," said Yurgaitis.

All the milk comes from about 80 cows from the Arethusa herd, a group of "ladies" Yurgaitis, Malkemus and their expert staff hold in high esteem.

Enter the milking parlor and the first thing you see is an oversized sign stating "Every cow in this barn is a lady, please treat her as such."

The herd enjoys spotless stalls, top-quality Canadian hay and personalized protein-rich grain mixtures from a computerized feeding system, with diets dovetailing with lactation cycles and special needs. They are treated to daily vacuuming and weekly baths in a spa-like shower room, including a conditioning treatment to keep their tails white.