PEABODY — What do Winfrey’s Fudge, the Topsfield Fair, Farmer Brown’s Market, Bagel World and Kane’s Donuts have in common?
They all get their dairy and beverage products from one of the best-kept secrets in Peabody — Dunajski Dairy Farm.
The company motto? There are cows in Peabody. In the case of Dunajski, there are 250 of them.
“My grandfather started the business about 100 years ago. We are a true working dairy only 20 miles north of Boston, but nobody knows where we are,” said third-generation owner Ted Dunajski, 79. “We are the poor guys down the street from Richardson’s — and are just a scratch on their wheel of progress — but we are the true deal.”
Dunajski products are sold under the Pure Country label. You will find Pure Country cream in every piece of Winfrey’s fudge, while Pure Country chocolate milk is a customer favorite at Bagel World.
Kane’s, Farmer Brown’s and 200 or so food stores, including many Lynn convenience stores, all get their Pure Country dairy products, fresh juices, lemonade and iced tea from Dunajski, who says his cows have been the exclusive supplier of milk at the Topsfield Fair for decades.
The label was created out of sheer necessity — and a little clever marketing.
“Dunajski is tough to pronounce, so we started the Pure Country label in the 1990s,” said Dunajski. “People have trouble with Polish names. Pure Country is easier to remember.”
The six-acre farm is located on Buxton Street, a little dead-end road off of Route 114. Most of the cows — 95 percent, to be exact — are Holsteins, which Dunajski says produce the most milk. The remaining 5 percent are Jerseys, which give less milk, but have more butterfat and protein.
The cows are friendly, clean and well-cared for; every cow has a name and is registered. Veterinarians visit every two weeks for preventative care, and are also on call for emergencies. Feed mix is analyzed on a regular basis by a nutritionist to assure the cows are getting the vitamins and minerals they need.
Cows are grouped by age and housed in about five locations. The population is always evolving. On a recent visit, four new calves born in the last two days were sleeping in their own pen, wrapped in warming blankets.
The dairy also owns a 140-acre farm in West Newbury where it grows feed, primarily corn. They also grow feed at a handful of other local farms.
Dunajski’s grandfather, Frank Dunajski, started the business in 1920.
“He started with one or two cows,” Ted said. “Before long, he and his brothers were delivering milk by horse and wagon to the Polish community up and down Derby Street. Danny Boy was the name of the horse, and he knew all the stops, but every time he heard a fire alarm he had to be held down.”
The elder Dunajski died of leukemia in his mid-30s, leaving his widow, Magdalena, with seven children aged one to 18. One of those children was Ted’s father, Theodore — only 13 when his father died.
“Thank God he had a good wife,” Dunajski said. “My father worked hard and found a good Peabody wife — my mother, Genevieve Wocjik. They never argued.”
Ted Dunajski has worked the farm since the age of 10, later graduating from Essex County Agricultural School (now Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School) in 1960.
“We were still delivering house-to-house with a milk truck,” he said. “As the young kid, I got all the second- and third-story deliveries.”
Dunajski works the farm seven days a week with daughter Christine Dunajski Cochrane, son Michael Dunajski, daughter-in-law Tracy Dunajski, and another eight or nine employees.
The day begins at 4 a.m. and ends well after dusk, with approximately 110 milking cows each producing about 1,100 gallons of milk daily. The milk is processed, bottled and loaded onto trucks for same-day delivery by mid-morning.
When the pandemic hit, the dairy never skipped a beat.
“Business at first dipped down, but then it seemed to get busier when the corner stores picked up,” Dunajski said. “Supermarkets had a hard time. We had had only half those stores we normally supply, but were selling more milk. The challenge was people were scared to deliver milk, so I had to go out on our trucks and make the deliveries.”
Today, the dairy sells to more than 200 convenience stores and supermarkets and about a dozen restaurants. Dunajski said the dairy has a huge presence in Lynn, but still faces challenges.
“I wish we had more family, but like everybody else, labor is our biggest problem,” Dunajski said. “I’m not sure what the future holds as there isn’t another generation after my kids. I’m proud of what we do holding it together all these years.”
