Quality First

Our family’s agricultural roots in Sussex County stretch back more than a century, beginning in 1910 when Jacob Tanis Sr. settled in the rolling hills of Northwestern New Jersey. His story began even earlier, in Paterson, where the young Dutch immigrant arrived with his family and a determination to build a better life. What started simply—selling extra milk from the family cow—soon grew into something extraordinary.

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Jacob Tanis went on to establish the world’s largest purebred Golden Guernsey herd, earning international recognition for excellence in breeding and milk quality. By the early 1900s, he had acquired his own land in Sussex County, where he built a herd of 2,000 purebred Guernseys and expanded the farm to more than 3,400 acres. Ideal Guernsey Cattle became synonymous with quality and achievement in the dairy industry.

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As the dairy landscape shifted, the next generation carried the farm forward in a new direction. In the 1960s, Jacob’s son—also named Jacob—transitioned from dairy to a prize-winning Aberdeen Angus herd and premium beef production, which continues to thrive on the farm today.

Each generation added its own chapter to the Ideal Farms story. In 1983, Jan Tanis-Jorritsma began selling Christmas trees on her parents’ lawn, following in the entrepreneurial footsteps of her father and grandfather. The following year, Jan and her husband, Ben Jorritsma, opened Ideal Farm and Garden Centre on the land they inherited from Jacob Tanis. What started as a small produce stand at Ross’ Corner quickly outgrew its space, leading to our current location—once the bull barn of Jacob Tanis’s legendary Guernsey operation. 

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We are now a fourth generation farm with Jan, Ben and their sons, Benjamin and Kyle, along with Kyle’s wife Lindsey, working to preserve the Ideal Farms legacy.