Cool Ranch: This Family's Animal Farm Will Make You Want to Move to Southern California

It was the early days of the pandemic when Lauren Malloy's father, a Vermont physician, called his daughter in California to urge her and her husband, Keith, to stock up on supplies. "Like any loving dad, he was worried about us," says Lauren, who had just given birth to the couple's third child, Clay. "I said, 'Dad, remember where we live? We're better prepared than most!'"

Indeed, the Malloys, who call four acres in bucolic Santa Barbara County home, were already remarkably self-sufficient. They had a cow (and therefore fresh milk on tap), chickens (for eggs and the occasional roaster), pigs (more meat), and a vegetable garden teeming with kale, cabbages, herbs, and much more. And in the kitchen, Lauren even had a soon-to-be-coveted quarantine staple: a trusty sourdough starter. "If I was worried about running out of anything," she recalls, "it was probably toilet paper."

Not that Lauren and Keith claim to be "real" farmers. "We don't make money from the farm," says Lauren, who is a partner in Women's Heritage, a brand celebrating modern homesteading. "We're more like hobbyists." Married since 2010, Lauren and Keith both grew up with a passion for the outdoors. Lauren worked at a neighbor's dairy barn as a teen in Vermont and went on to study animal science and work in wildlife rescue. Keith, a native of Ojai, California, grew up surfing, riding, fishing, and hunting. Along with two of his siblings, he's now a filmmaker and one of the celebrated trio of Malloy brothers who've been surf influencers since the 1990s. Twelve years ago, the couple moved to Gaviota, a locale they chose not only for its close proximity to the ocean, but for its "wild, wide-open spaces," perfect for raising a young family in tune with the rhythms of nature. And it's here that their children—Milly, June, and Clay—are growing up alongside not only cows, pigs, and chickens, but also four horses, one miniature mule, three dogs, and a cat.

Lauren's enthusiasm for back-to-the-roots living was the impetus behind Women's Heritage, the venture she started as a lifestyle blog in 2016 with two friends, Emma Rollin Moore and Ashley Moore, sharing advice on animal husbandry, cooking, fermenting, crafting, and herbalism. Two brick-and-mortar Heritage Goods & Supply shops (where you can take weaving classes or buy live baby chicks) followed, as well as a book, The Women's Heritage Sourcebook ($35, barnesandnoble.com). Of course, some might merely dabble in this ultra-DIY world, or see it as a passing thing. But for the Malloys, it's no flash in the pan. "I'd rather buy feed than a new pair of shoes," Lauren says. "And I love that when the kids have friends over, I can tell them, 'Go out and play with the animals.'"