First-generation dairy farmers open the Parlor, offering raw milk, ice cream

Rachel and Dennis Zeigler’s dreams to run a dairy farm have come far since starting out with a milk cow in their backyard.

Zeigler Family Farms has since grown into a full-scale dairy farm and creamery, with more than 60 cows and a number of Eastern and central Washington pickup locations, including a storefront: the Parlor, located at 1406 S. Inland Empire Way in Spokane.

Open on Fridays and Saturdays, the Parlor stocks the Zeiglers’ farm-to-table ice cream, raw milk and ground beef. The location opened Nov. 3.

The Parlor marks a significant step for the Zeiglers, who have been pursuing the dairy farm for the better part of a decade.

“Sometimes, we can’t believe we’re at a place with our business that we’re at because we never dreamed it would grow this quickly and it would morph into what it is now with the storefront,” said Rachel, 39.

The two are first-generation dairy farmers, as they were general contractors before taking up the business, Rachel said. Dennis’ family had a few acres and a couple cows, while Rachel’s parents were grape farmers.

The contracting work spurred the farm business, as Rachel said Dennis, 39, got the itch after working on a house on a dairy farm property in around 2014.

“He just kind of dragged me along and now I’m totally in love with it, too,” Rachel said. “Shortly after that, we ended up just getting on Craigslist and buying a milk cow, and we had no idea what we were doing.”

The Zeiglers housed their cow on a half-acre pasture in the Tri-Cities – something their neighbors were not thrilled about, Rachel said. Eventually, they purchased land out in Harington – approximately an hour west of Spokane – and, from the ground up, built what’s since become a family affair run by the Zeiglers and their five children.

It was around three years ago when grocery store deliveries started that the Zeiglers felt they had turned a corner, finding a niche market with raw milk, Rachel said.

“We didn’t get any help,” said Rachel, adding that the farm delivers to several Yoke’s Fresh Markets, Rosauers and a couple other stores in the Spokane and Tri-Cities areas. “I know sometimes people look at our Instagram and think maybe somebody helped us out, but it’s been like a labor of love for a lot of years. We’ve just kind of picked at it as we could and used everything that we had to try to make this work.”

The Parlor, then, is a pun – referring both to an ice cream parlor as well as a milking parlor.

Rachel said the family’s goal has been to expand. And while a Spokane storefront made sense given the farm’s delivery range, Rachel said the Zeiglers were not entirely sure they could make it work until connecting with Celeste Shaw-Coulston last fall. Shaw-Coulston owns the Parlor property as well as the neighboring Lucky Vintage & Pretty Things, Chaps Diner and Bakery and Café Coco.

“Our style is very eclectic and old, and we love that it’s an old service station,” Rachel said. “It just kind of fits our vibe.”

Shaw-Coulston said she once considered using the former South Inland Way service station as the spot for Café Coco, but turned instead to downtown due to the city’s development moratorium in the Latah Valley. Café Coco ultimately opened in late July on West Main Avenue.

Between Lucky Vintage, Vinegar Flats Farm and a few other small businesses in that direction, Shaw-Coulston said the Parlor fits right in with that community.

“It just underscores what’s already going on and she was just a beautiful addition to that,” she said. “She’s so grassroots with it. I think it’s sweet that the public and the Spokane community get to recognize once again that those products are there, they can support that, and that local is available to us.”

While Zeigler Family Farms specializes in raw milk, the Zeiglers use a pasteurized base mix purchased from another farm to make their ice cream, said Rachel, who declined to identify the source of their base mix. Standout flavors to date have included peppermint, particularly during Christmas season, and salted caramel.

Rachel said the Zeiglers hope to someday obtain a pasteurizer of their own. Future plans for the Parlor also include adding some outdoor seating by opening the building’s garage bay doors.

“We would love to open another storefront down in the Tri-Cities to service that community as well because Spokane has been phenomenal,” Rachel said. “We’re just trying to slowly continue to grow our farm and be able to offer more milk to more stores in more communities even outside of Spokane.”