Walpole Heritage Farm Opens Dairy Store
Grand Opening 2-4 p.m. Sunday, January 6
by Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Editor
Great Brook Farm in Walpole, currently managed by the 9th generation of the Graves family, is moving into the 21st century with a new on-site farm shop selling its own raw milk, maple syrup and other locally produced products directly to consumers on County Road in Walpole.
The Grand Opening is set for Sunday, January 6 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. with free milk and cookies, Walpole Creamery ice cream, barn tours, calf petting and more to introduce the farm and its new shop to the public. Great Brook Farm is on County Road about four miles south of Walpole.
In the new shop, visitors will find a choice of half-gallon and gallon containers of fresh raw milk for sale, with a choice of glass or plastic bottles, Great Brook Farm maple syrup, Walpole Creamery ice cream and honey produced by local beekeeper Ed Potter. The shop is already open seven days each week from the time the cows are milked first thing in the morning to early in the evening.
"Selling our fresh, raw milk directly to the public is a great opportunity to add value--and some revenue--to the operation of the farm and for area people to buy locally," explains Cindy Graves Westover, whose brother Peter, 51, manages the farm on a day to day basis along with Cindy's son Andy, 24, who has an Animal Science degree from UNH. Cindy's dad, Bob, 78, who ran the farm for many decades, continues to make daily contributions to the challenging task of working a farm with nearly 160 cows, about 80 of which are milking daily. "If you don't diversify, if you don't adjust your operation to the realities of 21st century markets, you simply won't make it," adds Westover, who grew up on the farm when her father was the primary operator.
While drinking raw milk may strike some as worrisome, most people who grew up on dairy farms did so their whole lives and swear by its taste and nutritious qualities. And, after decades of taking a back seat commercially to processed pasteurized and homogenized milk, fresh raw milk is making a comeback. Proponents of raw milk note that, while pasteurization was necessary in the early 20th century because of lax sanitary standards in many urban dairies and rural farms, modern farm practices and machinery and up-to-date regulation of the milk production insures that 21st century farm produced raw milk is free from contamination.
"Now Peter's milk is tested every other day when it's picked up," according to Westover. "Even though we are selling raw milk here at the shop, it will always be a small part of our operation, and we will always produce it to the highest standards of cleanliness and purity for the commercial market. So people buying raw milk here can be assured that it is never older than 24 hours and is as pure as it can be!"
It is no longer news that New Hampshire's vital dairy industry has suffered from low milk prices for many years until recently and that many dairy farms have closed in recent decades. What is news is that milk prices have risen dramatically in the past year and allowed many well managed farms to operate in the black in 2007. But dairy farmers remain at the mercy of a regional market for their raw milk as absolutely as they are tied to tending their cows every day, and wise farmers are looking for ways, such as selling directly to the consumer, to create local revenue streams that are not as dependent on larger market forces.
They are also organizing to better promote their dairy products--as well as many other local products--through Internet sites such as www.nhmade.com and www.vitalcommunities.org. Westover notes that Great Brook Farm expects to use both sites to promote its new direct to consumer sales along with scores of other farms and local food producers in a trend that is steadily gaining momentum in New England and nationally.
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Grand Opening 2-4 p.m. Sunday, January 6
by Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Editor
Great Brook Farm in Walpole, currently managed by the 9th generation of the Graves family, is moving into the 21st century with a new on-site farm shop selling its own raw milk, maple syrup and other locally produced products directly to consumers on County Road in Walpole.
The Grand Opening is set for Sunday, January 6 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. with free milk and cookies, Walpole Creamery ice cream, barn tours, calf petting and more to introduce the farm and its new shop to the public. Great Brook Farm is on County Road about four miles south of Walpole.
In the new shop, visitors will find a choice of half-gallon and gallon containers of fresh raw milk for sale, with a choice of glass or plastic bottles, Great Brook Farm maple syrup, Walpole Creamery ice cream and honey produced by local beekeeper Ed Potter. The shop is already open seven days each week from the time the cows are milked first thing in the morning to early in the evening.
"Selling our fresh, raw milk directly to the public is a great opportunity to add value--and some revenue--to the operation of the farm and for area people to buy locally," explains Cindy Graves Westover, whose brother Peter, 51, manages the farm on a day to day basis along with Cindy's son Andy, 24, who has an Animal Science degree from UNH. Cindy's dad, Bob, 78, who ran the farm for many decades, continues to make daily contributions to the challenging task of working a farm with nearly 160 cows, about 80 of which are milking daily. "If you don't diversify, if you don't adjust your operation to the realities of 21st century markets, you simply won't make it," adds Westover, who grew up on the farm when her father was the primary operator.
While drinking raw milk may strike some as worrisome, most people who grew up on dairy farms did so their whole lives and swear by its taste and nutritious qualities. And, after decades of taking a back seat commercially to processed pasteurized and homogenized milk, fresh raw milk is making a comeback. Proponents of raw milk note that, while pasteurization was necessary in the early 20th century because of lax sanitary standards in many urban dairies and rural farms, modern farm practices and machinery and up-to-date regulation of the milk production insures that 21st century farm produced raw milk is free from contamination.
"Now Peter's milk is tested every other day when it's picked up," according to Westover. "Even though we are selling raw milk here at the shop, it will always be a small part of our operation, and we will always produce it to the highest standards of cleanliness and purity for the commercial market. So people buying raw milk here can be assured that it is never older than 24 hours and is as pure as it can be!"
It is no longer news that New Hampshire's vital dairy industry has suffered from low milk prices for many years until recently and that many dairy farms have closed in recent decades. What is news is that milk prices have risen dramatically in the past year and allowed many well managed farms to operate in the black in 2007. But dairy farmers remain at the mercy of a regional market for their raw milk as absolutely as they are tied to tending their cows every day, and wise farmers are looking for ways, such as selling directly to the consumer, to create local revenue streams that are not as dependent on larger market forces.
They are also organizing to better promote their dairy products--as well as many other local products--through Internet sites such as www.nhmade.com and www.vitalcommunities.org. Westover notes that Great Brook Farm expects to use both sites to promote its new direct to consumer sales along with scores of other farms and local food producers in a trend that is steadily gaining momentum in New England and nationally.
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