Producer: Hatchland Farm
Location: North Haverhill, NH
Found at the Littleton Co-op: milk and cream
Website: facebook.com/hatchlandfarm
Dairy production has a long and significant history in the United States, which we celebrate in June with National Dairy Month. The recognition, dating back to 1937, was originally called National Milk Month, and was started to promote milk during a national surplus. Before modern refrigeration, milk was not popular with consumers in the warm summer months, but farm milk production continued. Today, we move beyond milk to honor the contributions of dairy and the hardworking people who stand behind it. Not only does milk and dairy offer nutritional value to a daily diet, supporting local dairy means supporting local family farms persevering in an especially difficult and volatile industry. At the Littleton Food Co-op, we are honored to support local and regional dairy producers, and are excited to share a glimpse at some of their stories in June and beyond.
Some entrepreneurs have an internal battle on whether or not they should start their business before they dive in; for Howard Hatch, it required going through an actual war. Howard went to the Thompson School of Agriculture at the University of New Hampshire and worked on other NH farms as a herdsman. The Vietnam War draft changed everything. After serving in Vietnam in the 70th Combat Engineer Unit he knew he could no longer be someone else’s herdsman; he longed to work for himself on his own farm. He bought property in North Haverhill, NH in 1971, and by 1999 he was purchasing an additional property to expand operations. Not only did direct customers love Hatchland Farm’s milk, so did other companies; to this day, the milk from North Haverhill is sold under the Hatchland brand and under private labels for distributors in the northeast. The farm is home to over 600 cows, mainly Holsteins.
Perhaps most gratifying for the original Hatch patriarch: Hatchland Farm has remained a family owned and operated business. Howard Hatch now co-owns the farm with his wife and two adult children. Daughter Kristen has also spoken of getting her daughter, Emily, involved in the business to continue the local dairy legacy.
Status of product availability at the Littleton Co-op, and labeling of producers (such as local, Black-Owned Business, NH-made, etc) and product status or ingredients (gluten-free, vegan, etc) is based on available information at time of publication. The food world is an ever-changing landscape and information presented here may not reflect the most up-to-date information available.
