Dee Harley took a long journey to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a farmer.

Originally born in Yorkshire, England, she would often answer with “farmer” when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. At 16, she dropped out of high school to go on what she called “many adventures.” After crossing the world, she eventually settled down in Pescadero, in the rural southwest of San Mateo County.

Discovering that she was pregnant, Harley decided to finally take up farming and started out importing tomatoes. She bought a farm that hadn’t been used in 50 years, and after meeting a woman who offered to sell her goats, without any knowledge of animals, bought three. She bred the male with another goat and eventually the herd grew.

Now a mother, she began renovating the old buildings on the farm and getting serious. “It was a way to stay home,” she said. “It was an opportunity that came my way and I took it.”

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Harley’s child is now 14 years old, her original herd has exploded to 200 goats, she has 10 employees, and Harley Farms Goat Dairy, San Mateo County’s only dairy, distributes cheeses throughout the country and operates a small retail store in the farm’s original birthing stall. She went from milking the goats by hand to acquiring a milking machine that milks 16 at a time.

Last year she was named Farmer of the Year by San Mateo County, and this year she received the San Mateo County Sustainability Award in recognition of her sustainable farming practices.

Harley prides herself on maintaining a nurturing atmosphere, and it extends from her employees (to whom she offers housing) all the way to the farm animals. She even has a retirement home that she maintains for her goats that are no longer able to produce milk.

Harley is against using antibiotics and is very quick to say that sustainability is her modus operandi.

“We’re supporting a lifestyle and an income for the people that work here and that’s a big part of sustainability. There’s a great pleasure in using sustainable resources. It’s a very simple concept,” she said. “Sustainable means to me a method of agriculture that is economically viable, socially just and humane. We are all of those.”