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LOCAL | NATIONAL
ONE FARMER. ONE STORE. FAMILY BUSINESS: ROBIN AND ALLEN COCKERLINE OF WHIPPOORWILL FARM, SALISBURY, CT | MAINSTREET MAGAZINE | CHRISTINE BATES |MARCH 2018
"Life intervenes to create destiny. Robin and Allen Cockerline met at Montserrat Art School in Beverly, MA, planning on design careers. When their money ran out and the economy tanked in the mid-1970s, Allen took a job on a dairy farm. “It’s a primal need, an obsession that’s very satisfying and doesn’t let you go,” said Allen. “It’s the way you want to spend your day creating your own environment.”
... When Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma came out in 2006, customers came from all over looking for this grass-fed, hard to find locally raised beef. “If you’re eating grassland meat, your carbon footprint is light and possibly even negative.” – Michael Pollan"
NORTHEASTERN PROMISES | TASTING TABLE | DAVE KATZ | JANUARY 2016
This brown-haired beauty is a cross between an Angus and a Devon, and she lives on Whippoorwill Farm in nearby Lakeville, Connecticut, which sits between Millerton and Salisbury. Husband-and-wife farmers Allen and Robin Cockerline have been raising cows on their patch of land for the past 12 years, and it all started with grass. "He became very good at growing grass - good, nutritional grass," Robin says. Theirs is a mix of clover, alfafa and timothy."
THE RURAL WE: ALLEN COCKERLINE | RURAL INTELLIGENCE | APRIL 2014
"Allen Cockerline has been a farmer since 1978 and farming at Whippoorwill Farm in Lakeville since 2003 (with his wife, Robin, at left). While he enjoys his time in the fields with his cows, his favorite aspect of life at Whippoorwill is getting to know all the interesting people in his community. So whether it’s over dinner, teaching children agriculture or selling eggs, Allen always enjoys meeting new friends..."
WHIPPOORWILL FARM: TALES OF A FARM GROUPIE | MAINSTREET MAGAZINE | MEMOREE JOELLE | JULY 2014
"...Similar to its namesake, Whippoorwill Farm melds so perfectly into the Connecticut landscape that you might miss it if you don’t slow down on your drive through the winding roads that lead through Litchfield Hills. Most locals know of this charming farm and farmstand by word of mouth, although Whippoorwill is the first farm that comes up on the Eat Wild website, a trusted source for finding the best healthy and sustainable farms all over the country..."
WHIPPOORWILL FARM | BERKSHIRE FOOD + TRAVEL | SPRING 2014
"Robin and Allen Cockerline of Whippoorwill Farm in Lakeville, CT, raise grassfed beef, pigs and chickens and no hormones or antibiotics are used. The beef is dry aged then vacuum wrapped and frozen for freshness. When you visit their shop – open Fridays and Saturdays – there's a freezer full of cuts of beef and another freezer with cuts of pork, chicken and sausages. They also sell eggs and have raw honey from Vermont."
PHOTOS: STEPHEN WEBSTER (L) |ALLEN AND ROBIN COCKERLINE PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOHN GRUEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES (R)
POWER ENVY | THE NEW YORK TIMES | PENELOPE GREEN | NOVEMBER 2011
"... Over in Lakeville, Conn., Allen Cockerline, who raises grass-fed cattle with his wife, Robin, at their Whippoorwill Farm, has two large portable generators, 10 and 15 kilowatts each. One runs off his tractor; the other is powered by gasoline. (The tractor-powered one he bought with the farm; the other one cost about $1,500, he said.)
They are a necessary insurance policy for a perishable product, he said: “There’s $30,000 worth of beef in my freezer. I’m not going to let that go.”
But armed as he is against calamity, Mr. Cockerline will admit to some generator envy..."
UP ON THE [HOTCHKISS] FARM: GROWING A NEW KIND OF EDUCATION | HOTCHKISS MAGAZINE | DIVYA SYMMERS | NOVEMBER 2011
"The kind of tender-hearted farmer who takes care to ensure his cattle lead idyllic lives with ends that are as swift and humane as possible (the three steers he sold Hotchkiss were sent to a slaughter-house that runs on principles established by animal advocate Temple Grandin), not long ago he took a group of faculty and staff on a tractor tour up a narrow grassy road and down to a small, experimental rice paddy, where a Japanese variety already successful in Vermont was planted last spring. “Who would have thought we’d be growing rice?” he asked, with a grin. “But it’s credible. It’s viable. And we’re doing it.” "
BACK FROM THE DARK, WITH A FAIRY GODMOTHER'S HELP | THE NEW YORK TIMES | CELIA MCGEE | MARCH 2011
"... This time it could be called an affair with an inn. In 2005 the prominent decorator Bunny Williams published a coffee-table book about the three decades she has spent transforming a decrepit 19th-century manor house she bought in Falls Village, Conn., into a luxuriant estate, with seemingly endless gardens and enough needlepoint and fancifully carved furniture to make Sister Parish, her mentor, proud. She titled it “An Affair With a House.”
But down the town’s main street was another white New England clapboard that Ms. Williams had had her eye on since she first started coming to this tiny village ... The Falls Village Inn, built in 1834, was in foreclosure ... So when she learned last April that new owners planned to reboot it as smart lodgings, “I walked down, knocked on the door and volunteered my services,” she said. Free of charge: the Bunny Williams panache...
Since Ms. Williams would be around only on weekends, she enlisted Peter Rich, a former soap-opera writer with a decorating business in the vicinity, and Robin Cockerline, who, with her husband, Allen, produces organic beef on their Whippoorwill Farm and whose eye Ms. Williams had long admired... As Ms. Cockerline supervised and coordinated the renovation crew, Ms. Williams directed the moving of doors to accommodate king-size beds; leveraged in closets; outfitted new bathrooms; introduced soft, light colors to the walls; and found buys online..."
GRASS-FED BEEF (AND AUTHENTIC FARMHOUSE STYLE) IN SALISBURY | RURAL INTELLIGENCE | JULY 2008
"Robin and Allen Cockerline, who raise grass-fed beef in Salisbury, CT, are not the type of farmers who’d call their house “stylish” or describe their hamburgers or hot dogs as “gourmet.” But their good taste is quite evident at their quaint shop at Whippoorwill Farm, where they sell their meat (tenderloin, brisket, sausages, sirloin, pork chops and more) on Saturdays from 10 AM - 5 PM..."
NEW ENGLAND TRAVELER | YANKEE MAGAZINE | BEST OF NEW ENGLAND 2010
Directory Category:Things to Do in Connecticut
About Us: "Blink and you’ll miss the whimsical sign at Allen and Robin Cockerline’s tidy farmstand. Here you’ll find a selection of cuts of grass-fed beef plus naturally raised pork and chicken, as well as raw honey, fresh eggs, and organic produce."
CATTLE AT THE RED BUFFALO RANCH IN SEDAN, KANSAS | PHOTO CREDIT RIP STELL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
THERE'S MORE TO LIKE ABOUT GRASS-FED BEEF | THE NEW YORK TIMES | MARIAN BURROS | AUGUST 2006
"... My own delicious research shows the industry has taken giant steps. When I wrote about grass-fed beef in 2002 there were about 50 producers, and most of what they raised was not very good. Now there are about 1,000 of them, and after I grilled rib-eyes from 15 producers for friends, it was clear that more of them are learning to get it right.
Four of the steaks — the ones from Tallgrass Beef, Laurel Ridge Grass Fed Beef, U.S. Wellness Meats and Whippoorwill Farm — brought back memories of the beefy flavor meat had before cattle were stuffed with grain in feedlots..."
GRAZING: SUPPLIERS OF THE BEST GRASS-FED STEAKS | THE NEW YORK TIMES | AUGUST 2006
"Following are suppliers of the best grass-fed steaks that were sampled. Supplies are limited and shipping is not included. Prices are per pound...
FULL FLAVORED
WHIPPOORWILL FARM Complex flavor, beefy, tender. Rib-eye, $16; ground beef, $5. 189 Salmon Kill Road, Lakeville, Conn., open Saturday and by appointment; (860) 435-2089..."
SALISBURY JOURNAL; A TOURIST ATTRACTION, THEN FEED FOR THE COWS | THE NEW YORK TIMES | WINNIE HU | SEPTEMBER 2001
"It started out as a secret because Allen Cockerline, a veteran dairy farmer, was too embarrassed to talk about his latest cash crop -- a giant maze carved into his cornfield..." [Please note ... the maze no longer exists.]
VIDEO INTERVIEW
FARMING AT WHIPPOORWILL FARM, MACLAREN CONSERVATION EASEMENT
Farmer Allen Cockerline discusses agriculture at Whippoorwill Farm in Salisbury, Connecticut, on land owned by Malcolm and Linda MacLaren, and protected by a conservation easement with Weantinoge Heritage Land Trust.
