THREE
GENERATIONS.
ONE HERD.
We've been on the same 180 acres of Vermont hillside for sixty-two years. The cows still have names. The barn is still red. We still do it the slow way.
GRANDMA
ELEANOR.
In 1962, Eleanor Whittaker — a 28-year-old schoolteacher with no farming experience — signed the papers on a falling-down farmhouse and twelve acres of pasture in Stowe, Vermont. The bank laughed. Her mother cried.
She bought four Jersey cows at auction that fall. By spring she had a small milk route. By 1970, twenty-eight cows and a cheese cave dug into the hillside. She never advertised once. Word just spread.
Eleanor ran the farm until she was 78. Her son Tom took over in 1990. His daughter Maya — that's me — came back from college in 2014 and never left. I'm 34 now. The farm is mine. The mortgage is still mine, too.
HOW WE FARM.
Our cows eat pasture from April to November and stored hay in winter. No grain, no corn, ever. The milk is yellower and richer for it.
We don't use growth hormones. We don't routinely use antibiotics. Healthy cows on good pasture don't need them.
Daisy, Gertrude, Maple, Biscuit, Chairman Meow. We know them. They know us. Stress is bad for milk.
Butter is hand-churned in 5-gallon batches. Cheese is aged 60–120 days. We'd rather run out than make junk.
Come visit. Walk the barn. Pet a cow. The farm store window looks straight into the milking parlor.
80% of what we make is sold within 50 miles of the farm. Shipping is a bonus, not the business.
42 JERSEYS.
ALL NAMES.
Jersey cows give less milk than Holsteins, but it's three times more butterfat. That's why our cream sits on top of the bottle, and our butter is naturally yellow.
Current milkers: 42 · Heifers: 18 · Calves: 9
Daily output: ~280 gallons · Milking: 5am & 5pm
COME SAY HI.
Farm store open weekends. Saturday tours at 10am. We promise the cows are friendlier than they look.