Last week I joined my Hampshire "Agriculture, Ecology, and Society" class on an afternoon field trip to Flayvors of Cook Farm, a fifth generation family dairy farm that sells homemade ice cream from their Hadley homestead. Part of the joy of this experience stemmed from that fact that I recently dropped my emotionally crippling computer programming course in exchange for adding a class that takes exotic (at least to a Californian) autumn adventures to ice cream farms. Until this exposure, I had never heard of or understood exactly how to picture this kind of establishment. To only further this confusion, when I explained the upcoming ice cream farm trip to my friends, many of them simply laughed, mockingly questioning my mental health.
Therefore, given the lack of exposure to this amazing outing, I’ve decided to get you all psyched about taking a trip to the Cook’s ice cream farm. Located close to Hampshire, a simple walk through their bucolic back woods and sprawling cornfields can bring you straight to this Hadley dairy farm. However, a more conventional route is to take Route 9 over the Connecticut River and continue through four lights. When you reach the fifth light, turn right onto South Maple St. and follow for 2.5 miles until you see to your right a farm/general store labeled “Flayvors.” Visually, it is a captivatingly beautiful pairing of scenic charm.
Pulling up to Flayvors, you can immediately see the outside setup is situated with calves and cows to watch while sitting at one of the many picnic tables. However, warning signs are abundant, cautioning visitors to be weary of the electric shock fence separating us from the animals. This is largely because the health and safety of the cattle is crucial to the future of Cook farm.
The inside of the establishment is quite similar to the quaint set-up of numerous New England general stores. The walls are cozily wood paneled, old-fashioned display cases house glass milk jugs, local and seasonal items are abundantly spread across quaint tablecloths, and handmade crafts and trinkets decorate surrounding shelves.
Before taking the trip, I had spoken briefly with Sara and she voiced how unnaturally large the cows seemed for an organic farm. I too was shocked by the absurd size of these cows, particularly the black and white ones, but wondered whether it could simply be the type of breed. Sure enough, when we sat outside with the cows to appreciate their contribution to our ice cream (all purchased for us by our kind professor), our entire class was given a lecture about the history of the cattle, the farm and the creamery by the mother and partial-owner of the establishment, Beth Cook.
Beth gave us a rundown of the Cook Family farm, which has been in business since 1909. They feature both Holstein and Jersey cattle, Holstein being the classic black and white cows and Jersey being the slightly smaller maple colored cows. Only in 1998 did they decide to expand their farm to offer a new product line of Flayvors homemade ice cream.
The unique name of the creamery is derived to one particular Holstein cow, Fayvor. Fayvor is also the reason why so many of the Holstein cattle are gigantic. You see, Fayvor was one special cow. Consistently ranked in the category of excellent, in part for her magnificent appearance and quality of milk production—her lactation tested above 4% for protein (an extremely rare feat)—Fayvor has had a tremendous influence on the breeding and merchandizing of Cook Farm. With 13 daughters who inherited her good genes, her standard of excellence has been passed down through the Cook’s Holstein cattle. Today, 90% of their herd traces to Fayvor. The Fayvor strain of cattle represents the strongest family on the Cook Farm, as perhaps the best in the breed for high protein and butterfat tests, winning the Cook family farm the Premier Breeder award for all of Massachusetts for the past 18 consecutive years!
The ice cream is a clear example of the quality of excellence embedded in everything the Cook family is committed to giving its customers. The pure, creamy texture is truly like no other and well worth the trip as a break from the Northampton Herrell’s routine. Also, the milk is worth tasting, regardless of whether you choose skim, 1%, 2%, whole, flavored, or even raw. However, Beth is quite adamant about only selling raw milk to those who have done their research and made an active choice about why they prefer it to other milk. As you can see on the homepage, there is a big, bolded section linking customers to pages with information about purchasing raw milk. If you are still confused about this controversy, check out Beth’s links, they are quite helpful.
I also encourage you to check out the 24+ unique flavors offered and hope that you take advantage of this wonderfully unique opportunity to have farm fresh ice cream.
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