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Coopers' Hilltop Dairy Farm has been providing fresh milk, cream and egg nog to the communities around Worcester, MA for over ninety years.

This website serves to tell you a little about us and the products we produce. We hope you'll sit back, kick off your shoes, and enjoy your visit.

Our History

The hilltop on Henshaw Street was purchased by J. Arnold Cooper at the end of World War I. Grandpa had a green thumb and apple, pear, peach and plum trees were planted. Grandma Cora bought the first cow and son J. Harold delivered to milk customers as he traveled down the hill to school. Pasteurization was introduced in the 1930's. Milk routes supported the farm until milk routes dwindled with the advent of more automobiles and supermarkets.

A cash and carry business was established at the farm when the partnership of the next generation took over raising hay and corn, milking cows, pasteurizing, homogenizing and bottling the milk from the dairy herd and retailing the product to people in the community.

The hilltop continues to be a fine example of open space. People drive farther today so the community which we serve is larger than the mill village of Rochdale. Our milk customers are the reason that we grow crops, care for animals and environment and process and retail food. The customers compliment our product by going out of their way to purchase our milk. The customers complete the cycle.

Rochdale is located in the south end of Leicester, MA. Leicester is west of Worcester, south of Paxton, east of Spencer and north of Oxford.

From Route 20 in Oxford, at the traffic light, follow Route 56 North to Leicester. Turn right onto Stafford Street at the yellow blinker at the top of the grade. Turn left onto Henshaw Street and the farm is half a mile. There is a veteran's monument on the corner of Henshaw Street and Stafford Street. "Cooper's Hilltop Farm" is written on th 60 foot blue silo next to the barn.

From Route 9 in Leicester Center, travel south on Route 56 to Stafford Street.

From Worcester, follow Stafford Street from Webster Square up Dead Horse Hill. Turn right onto Henshaw Street at the veteran's triangle before you reach the yellow blinker on Route 56.

Our farm store is open from 9 am to 9 pm every day. We do close for dinner on holidays. However, the cows are milked twice a day.

 

Envirothon Holds Local Flavor

Quabbin High School Team Takes First in Presentation

By Mary Anne Magiera
TELEGRAM AND GAZETTE STAFF

RUTLAND -- Daniel S. Paradis was nervous.

He talked too fast, getting ahead of the note cards he held in his hand.

But, who could blame him?

The Quabbin Regional High School student was the first to speak, setting the pace for a competitive team that had poured an academic year into a project.

The team of five students from the high school in Barre was angling for points yesterday that would make up one-fourth of their score at the 16th annual Massachusetts Envirothon unfolding at Heifier Project International's Overlook Farm. Strengthening local food systems was the theme of this year's event.

The judges scored as the students took turns explaining how they will use an annual food festival to raise awareness among their peer and thoughout the community about locally raised food and farms. Eventually, the students said, they would like to introduce locally grown food into the school cafeteria.

Among the judges was a former state commissioner of food and agriculture, a wildlife biologist and editor of the state's wildlife magazine, and an associate commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Management.

The teams's confidence was high after the presentation.

"I though we did excellent," said Brittany J. Downey of Petersham. The students, she said, visited five different farms and interviewed several people in connection with their project.

The Quabbin team ended the day with a first place win in the presentation category.

Quabbin and the team from the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI were the only two of the 12 Central Massachusetts teams entered who took top awards in yesterday's event. Mass Academy placed second overall in the competition.

In addition to Mr. Paradis, who is from Oakham, and Ms. Downey, the Quabbin team includes: Joseph M. Paquin of Hardwick, Sara A. Zglobicki of New Braintree, CrystalRose M. Fales of Ware, and alternate, Lia M. Martin of Hardwick. The team is coached by Quabbin teachers Becky Bottomley and Stacey Hill.

The Bristol County 4-H team won yesterday's event. The team will represent the state in the international competition to be held in July at Mount St. Mary College in Maryland. A team from Acton-Boxboro Regional High School in Acton placed third overall in the competition.

About 500 high school students from throughout the state competed on 36 different teams. In addition to the oral presentations, students were scored on a series of wildlife, plant, soil, and forestry-related identifications and tests they had to make at three different field stations.

In addition to the competition, the students were given tours of Overlook Farm. A working farm of 270 acres, Overlook's mission is teaching the public about world hunger, poverty, and solutions through animal agriculture.

It was a perfect spring day on a rural farm. A chilling wind proved a nuisance, flapping tent panels during presentations and, at times, uprooting stakes and collapsing tent sections. It also rained intermittently.

The Overlook llamas enthusiastically nosed up to the fence at the edge of the corral to listen to the voices of students in the tents on the other side. A wagon of hay bales was fitted with a team of horses to take the students and coaches on tour.

"It's a chili kind of day," said Marjorie A. Cooper. The Leicester dairy farmer, who was chairman of yesterday's event, was making sure everything was in order for a special luncheon.

Thw 20-member Environmental Council of Millbury Memorial High School, who would serve the meal, was receiving final instructions from chef Louise DiMarzio. Ms. DiMarzio, who runs BritMar Catering Co. of Rutland, had volunteered to cook for the students. She had prepared food gathered from area farms and businesses.

"May is the hardest month to come up with these local kinds of things," Ms. Cooper said. "But, we used local wherever we could, and we feel confident in the meal. We also wanted a meal that represented Heifer Project, so the chili, bread, and salad are appropriate."

On the menu were two kinds of chili--one vegeterian, the other with chunks of buffalo provided by Alta Vista Buffalo Farm in Rutland. For dessert there were three kinds of cookies; one included cranberries from Clover Hill Farm in Hardwick. There was also ice cream specially made for the day--including white chocolate almond and peanut butter puddles--by Guy R. Powell of Robbie's Place at Crystal Caves in Auburn.