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.

Suspect facing second murder trial

Rick Reeves vividly remembers the day he learned that his colleague and close friend Jeffrey Labord had been shot to death.

“Devastating; that’s the best word I can use,” Reeves said.

It was equally troubling to learn that the man accused in Labord’s death, Seth Rouzan, 26, was released on probation because of a hung jury. Now Rouzan is facing another charge of murder after a homicide last week on First Street.

Labord “was a real good friend of mine, and this guy walked,” said Carl Collins, another of Labord’s former co-workers at the Richmond County Department of Traf-fic Engineering. “Now he’s charged with taking somebody else’s life.”

Rouzan was arrested on charges of armed robbery and murder in the Aug. 21 shooting death of 64-year-old Joseph Williams Jr. A 15-year-old boy is also charged with murder in the case.

Richmond County sheriff’s investigators found Williams shot in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 400 block of First Street. He died at Medical College of Georgia Hospital about 6:30 p.m.

Attempts to reach the families of Rouzan and Williams were unsuccessful.

Six years ago, Labord was found dead by a newspaper carrier at Doublegate Court, a cul-de-sac off Walden Drive.

“Originally I thought he was drunk and swerved around him in order not to hit him,” the carrier, Joshua Paulsakos, said at Rouzan’s trial in December 2007. “As I pulled back around, my headlights pretty much settled on him where I could see him … and
realized he wasn’t breathing.”

Paulsakos drove to the Daniel Village sheriff’s substation to report the death.

Residents of Doublegate Court said they heard two shots and a car peeling out but could not see anything in the darkness.

Collins said he heard about the homicide while driving to work. When he arrived at the public works shop off Mike Padgett High-way, everyone was wondering why Labord was not at work. Labord was identified as the victim about 10 a.m.

“It was like a ball of fire just came through me,” Collins said. “We had just talked to him 12 hours prior.”

THE RICHMOND County Sheriff’s Office collected strong circumstantial evidence pointing to Rouzan. Several of his friends testified that he told them he had killed a man the night before. They also said that the morning after the homicide, Rouzan was driving Labord’s car, which was loaded with a TV, liquor bottles and other items stolen from Labord’s house. During his drive around the East Boun-dary area, he stopped at a friend’s house and posed for cellphone pictures with a .380-caliber pistol – the same caliber bullet that killed Labord.

A drop of Labord’s blood was found on a pair of shoes hidden under Rouzan’s bed.

Under oath, Rouzan adamantly denied having any role in Labord’s death. He said he was in bed sleeping all night, though there was no evidence to substantiate this claim.

“Are you aware of any reason why your best friend would come in here and say that you admitted to him that you had committed murder?” Assistant District Attorney Rex Myers asked.

“No, sir,” Rouzan said.

The jury was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. According to the trial transcript, Superior Court Judge Michael Annis talked with the jury after about three hours of deliberations.

“They said that they’ve been hung up since early in the deliberations and that everybody seems to be pretty much dug in,” Annis told Myers and Rouzan’s attorney, Willie Saunders.

Back-to-school shopping like Christmas in August

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. After twelve months of saving, planning and anticipating this special day, it’s finally time to pay off those lay-a-ways and cash out those savings to bring big smiles to bright little faces.

In your family, this probably sounds a lot like Christmas, in mine, this is how we do back-to-school.

I’m sure it goes back to our childhoods -- my husband’s and mine. We didn’t have much growing up. Both from single-parent households, we made due with a lot of hand-me-downs and thrift-store items. Two pairs of shoes and a handful of pants had better get you through the year, because money was too tight for growth spurts and grass stains.

I remember joining the basketball team in high school just because everyone on the team got a new pair of sneakers and I always felt guilty asking my mom to buy me stuff -- she was working two jobs and going to grad school, it just didn’t feel right.

So I’m sure that because of our humble beginnings, our daughter’s appearance on the first day of school means a lot more to us than it does to her.

For my husband it’s all about the shoes: Three pairs of sneakers, two or three pairs of “girly girl” shoes and a true dress shoe. For me it’s more about the basics. Being able to dress in layers when it’s cold (this wasn’t always an option for me), having more than just two sets of uniforms, having hair accessories that match.

It’s important that she always has a fresh pair of socks, that her underwear isn’t worn and that if she gets a horrible stain on her uniform shirt, there are more to turn to.

After a lifetime of not having the little things that everyone else had, there’s a certain level of comfort in our daughter not having to sweat the small stuff.

She doesn’t have to worry about taking her shoes off for some crazy activity -- her socks are clean and hole free! She won’t cry when she spills paint all over her white tennis shoes. And she won’t feel the need to avoid eye contact when she accidentally loses her sweater on a field trip. These are just things, and while money is tight, Collette knows that we love her more than the money we have to spend on her.

For now, back-to-school shopping is the most meaningful shopping event of the year. Collette gets the latest fashions and we get to be the proud parents who can afford to get them for her.

A Barefoot Journey Back To Me

As a little girl, I could not be tamed, at least when it came to shoes. I loved to run around with my feet bare. It was more than love, actually. It was a need. I felt like I could barely breathe when I wore them. I remember pausing once, what feels like a million years ago, to debate if the sand on the beach was truly too hot for my tiny little feet tolerate. My threshold was quite high, and my heart longed to sink down into the earth with each step but when the sun had shined too brightly once before, I’d felt like my feet were melting.

So much changed in the years between then and adulthood — not the least of which was a former spouse who was afraid of dirty things, including feet. Eventually, I spent more time in shoes than out. I stopped pulling them off at the first opportunity. I would sometimes even put them on when I didn’t actually need them.

I observed myself and wondered what had changed, why the little rebellious barefoot girl kept wearing shoes. It wasn’t that I didn’t long to be barefoot because I did. It was as if… the longing no longer had any actual pull with me. I rather missed being the little girl who couldn’t bear to be shoed.

It was easy to chalk up to maturity, although I didn’t feel particularly mature during that time. Also, I found myself feeling more and more distant from the natural world. I didn’t want to be sticky from sweat. I didn’t want to get dirty, or to feel the grass under my feet for fear that I would get bitten or injured. I didn’t smell flowers, eye the moon as she waxed and waned through each cycle, or feel the magic of the forest surrounding me for morning hikes.

I was growing apart from the earth, I can clearly see now, but I didn’t recognize what was happening.

And then, a woman came to my home, an energy healer, and during her session with my wife, they walked together barefoot in the grass. She spoke of grounding and healing, and while my session was nurturing in its own way, I envied their ritual.

Just like that, I was haunted by the call of the wild once more.

The next morning, I snuck away to be with myself outside. I walked to the edge of the patio, slipped nervously out of my shoes, and stepped off into the grass. It was cool, and moist, and my toes rebelled a bit at first, reaching for the cleanliness of the sky. I coaxed them downward onto the earth and stood there for a while. One step, then another, and another.

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