‘Very skeleton crew’ keeps Hillside operating
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If cows could talk they might say, “You still have to milk me or my full udder will hurt!”
“It would be very painful,” said Suzanne Kapral from The Lands at Hillside Farms, explaining one of the reasons certain farm chores are necessary, even in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic.
“They get milked twice a day,” she said of the farms’ dairy herd.
“We still have the animal care to do; all the nondairy animals need food and water and access to fresh air,” she said, explaining that “a very skeleton crew” of humans is tending to the livestock.
The dairy store at The Lands at Hillside Farms remains open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for people to come and buy fresh milk and eggs as well as other food such as soups and honey and dry goods. (Please remember to bring any of the store’s glass milk bottles back so they can be reused, Kapral reminds repeat customers; and please understand egg sales are limited to one dozen per person.)
While the dairy store remains open, Kapral said, Hillside executive director Chet Mozloom decided the barns should be closed to the public.
“When people come to Hillside, it’s a destination,” Kapral said. “They meet each other and they linger. We wanted to discourage visitors from gathering and hanging out together.”
Kapral’s job most of the time at Hillside is director of development and marketing. Recently she’s added “chief egg picker” to her list of chores.
Noting she’d just filled “two large white buckets,” she estimated they contained about 20 dozen eggs.
As she gathered eggs, Kapral said she’s looking forward to a time when the coronavirus threat has eased and the public will again be welcome to linger at the farm, admiring the animals and the rest of nature in bloom.
“We’re in a lull right now,” she said, answering a question about baby animals. “But in April we’re going to start to have more calves.”
And that will be lovely to see, she admitted.
“It’s the promise of new life and the promise of hope. That’s the wonderful thing about a farm, a small, locally owned farm. It has a soul.”