Hannah Miller of Maplebrook Farm in Sterling, MA, has been steadily working toward reviving her family farm. Her great-grandparents bought the farm in 1935. Her mother Nancy Miller grew up there and so did she.
“When I grew up on the farm I didn’t have much interest in it,” said Miller. Then, “when I was working for a local farm making goat cheese in high school, it spawned my interest in agriculture.”
She attended Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass Amherst, absorbing all she could with the aim to bring the farm back to an active working operation. After graduating in 2017, she immediately began working on the farm’s revival.
“I started with 50 chickens and a little herd of goats and selling eggs at the end of the driveway,” she said.
Her uncle had sold the farm’s last dairy herd of Ayrshires in 1998, when she was three. There are now cows on the farm again. Miller currently milks five cows in a single working parlor and sells out of the unpasteurized milk immediately.
“We restock every other day. It sells out within an hour. I don’t take orders. It’s first come, first served,” said Miller.
Reviewing 2024’s stats, the average milk production was 600 gallons/month. She sold an average of 1,000 to 1,200 dozen eggs each month.
Her customers have proven that they place a high value on buying healthy food. “I don’t have nearly enough eggs or milk to keep in demand,” she said.
Thinking ahead, her grandparents had placed the 175-acre farm under APR restrictions. Miller is the fourth generation. Her son, Elliott, the fifth generation, just turned 2.
Hannah Miller with her Maremma and chickens at Maplebrook Farmstead in Sterling, MA. Photo courtesy of Hannah Miller
Miller gives goat tours with the herd that has grown to nine mixed breed goats. She has given hundreds of goat tours and has a wait list of 600 people that come from as far away as the greater Boston area. “I give them year-round as long as the weather is agreeable. Rainy weather, the extreme heat, extreme cold as the climate changes have been a little challenging,” she said.
The walks are between a mile and two miles, an hour or two hours. Some people choose to meander while others choose to walk faster. The goats act as farm ambassadors, walking alongside, unleashed. She has a half a dozen teenaged employees that help out year-round.
Her uncle, John Allen, lives on the farm and oversees hay production, producing about 2,000 bales a year that go into the 200-year-old two-story barn. He has donkeys and a horse that add to the bucolic atmosphere. Her mother helps with flowers and is the daily egg collector.
Her initial egg stand on the end of the road grew to a small farm stand that was a trailer. Then a friend of hers from Vermont provided and labeled pieces of timber milled ahead of time for a 12-by-16-foot timber-framed farm stand that was erected on the farm in 2021. It has freezers and refrigerators for the farm’s milk. She also sells products from a dozen farms, including goat cheese from Blue Ledge Farm in Vermont.
“It is most satisfying to be working in harmony with nature every day. I love being part of the cycle, being able to raise my son in that environment,” she said.
“Elliott absolutely loves the farm. He knows most of our cows’ names and the goats’ names. He loves to get on tractors, and loves helping out with chores,” she said of her son. The most recent calf’s name is Primrose.
The challenges she’s found as she’s taken up the reins of dairy farming – which she sees as a dying occupation, especially in Central Massachusetts – is trying to access technical support. She has found that there’s a deficit of resources like veterinary services and reproductive services and supplies. She utilizes AI to breed her cows.
On the other hand, “I am really surprised how much support I have from the local community. They show their support through their purchases made year-round from the farm, being willing to pay the prices that I have to charge to make this a successful business. That surprises me and I am very grateful for it.”
She also has their back. In a time of concern of avian flu, she saw there was a huge demand and need for laying hens. She recently filled 35 orders for 16-week-old live pullets. “My clientele want ready-to-lay pullets. They don’t want to raise chicks,” she said.
For more information, access MapleFarmstead.com.
by Laura Rodley
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