Hampshire Farms

08/31/2026

The only way to get fresh milk from our farm is through our herdshare.
What's that? We legally sell you a share in our cows for $75. You become an owner.
After that-it works much like a vegetable CSA. You pay $60 upfront each month, which brings dependable income in that we can use for feed, equipment (coolers, jugs, shelter, vehicles...), hired labor for chores and the market, Vet bills, market stall rent-all the things we spend on each and every month to keep the milk flowing. In return, you receive 4-5 jugs of milk each month on your pickup day from the A2A2 Jersey cows pastured on our certified organic farm.
We do all the work-you just need to swing by and pick it up. Easy peasy lemon squeezy-oh, no, that's how you can make Ricotta with extra milk .
Anyway-the cows need us to sign up more herdshare owners so we don't have layoffs. Can't have the girls out looking for work. 😉

08/30/2026

Eastern Market at 5:40 in the morning is the most honest hour Detroit has. 🍑 No crowds yet, no music, just box trucks backed into the sheds and farmers stacking crates of peaches and sweet corn under a sky that has not decided whether it is night anymore.

The market has been running on that same ground since 1891. 🚚 Six blocks of it. Some of the families unloading trucks are the fourth generation to do it, working the same stalls their grandparents worked, while a hundred foot mural glows on the brick wall behind them and a guy on a bike cuts through the wet pavement reflections.

That is the part that never makes the highlight reels. Everyone shows up at ten for the produce and the murals and the smoked meat. Almost nobody sees the two hours before, when it is just work, and coffee steam, and the sound of pallets hitting concrete.

What is your Eastern Market ritual, and what do you refuse to leave without?

---

08/30/2026

🎶The rain rain rain came down down down...🎶
Coming slow-maybe all day. Yay!
Our pastures were getting desperate for rain, and we need them growing to feed the cows until first snowfall stops that.
The girls are in being milked and here is Chase looking a bit like Eeyore but enjoying his shower on high ground. 🐂

08/30/2026

Oops! We do really need an all day rain for the pastures.

Send a message to learn more

08/29/2026

08/28/2026

Eclipse view from the farm.
We are scurrying around getting ready for market.
After last weeks dismal bread failure, our baker put every brain cell and years of experience on the job to work and we will have bread on the table made with new crop spelt. Yay!

08/26/2026

It's official. We have too much milk. Imagine that. We are open for fresh milk herdshares at all of our drop off sites and at the farm. Eastern Market/Royal Oak-Saturdays and on Tuesday evenings.
Another exciting thing is that we just sold a beautiful fresh heifer to another small herd up here in the Thumb. When we were starting our herd 20+ years ago, we could hardly buy a bred Jersey heifer or even a milk cow for love nor money. Now, our cup runneth over. 😉🥛🐮🐮🐮

08/23/2026

A well trained Border Collie is worth a lot. Ellie Mae was tasked with bringing a cow in for milking. She ended up falling in the mud around the edge of a shallow pond. She got the cow-and a good bath. Yay, Ellie Mae!
Same pond that another cow tried to hide belly-deep out in the middle of. That time Mack swam out and encouraged her to come out.

08/21/2026

So this week, all the king's horses and all the king's men could not make the bread rise. No tears. It happens. Today, the chickens got 75 loaves of very short bread. They seemed quite pleased. We will try again next week.
We are set up at the market in Kingston tonight and we are all loaded for morning.
If you see Randy or Shirley-this week is their 42nd anniversary. Give them any advice that seems appropriate for the next 42 years.😉 

08/21/2026

A milkshare owner made her very first butter this week. Yay, Paulette!!!