All the cows will come home sometime after the first of the year. But the Grey Barn Farm and Dairy is milking again, albeit with a smaller herd, and raw milk in glass bottles is available for sale again at the farm stand off South Road in Chilmark.
The milk and cheesemaking operation has been shut down and the farm stand closed at the Grey Barn farm and dairy in Chilmark following a fire in the creamery late Friday. Farm owners Molly and Eric Glasgow said the active milking herd of 22 Dutch Belted Galloway cows will be sent off-Island while the creamery is rebuilt at the organic farm off South Road.
The Grey Barn Farm stand has been closed following a fire in the creamery late Friday. "We’ve closed the farmstand for the foreseeable future. Also . . . we won’t be doing tours anymore,” owner Eric Glasgow said.
On Sunday, Claire Nichols was at the Grey Barn in West Tisbury. “My mom is the cheese maker here.
She’s making yogurt now. I like to play with the goats and walk around the farm.
We just moved here from New York and I like Martha’s Vineyard very much.”
Chilmark police are investigating the theft of 21 solar panels from the Grey Barn on South Road stolen sometime over Presidents Day weekend.
According to the police report, the crate containing the panels weighed over 1,000 pounds. The 270-watt panels are valued at $14,000. Farm owners Eric and Molly Glasgow are currently outfitting their four new barns with solar panels, about 300 of which have already been installed.
Chilmark selectmen will hire an engineering consultant to review two wind turbine projects planned for working farms on South Road.
The town selectmen voted to hire the consultant at their meeting Tuesday night after discussion about an appeal by neighbors of building permits issued recently for the Allen Farm and Grey Barn to put up wind turbines.
The Chilmark zoning board of appeals will hold a public hearing on the appeal on Jan. 19.