Hill-Over Healthy & Fresh

Hill-Over Healthy & Fresh goes back nine generations of American farming. Johannes Barringer, from Germany, settled in Rhinebeck in 1710. Today, Fred and Donna Barringer continue the family agricultural tradition. Fred grew up in a family of dairy farmers. His Grandpa Preston started farming in the 1920s — he owned Guernsey cows, and raised four children through the Depression. Fred’s dad raised twelve kids while running a farm that milked Brown Swiss cows, tested milk, and peddled milk for Gates Dairy in Chittango. And today, Fred’s Uncle Ernest is still milking cows at age 86!
 

Fred started farming in 1971 on Center Hill in Craryville, NY. In 1980, he moved to the Hill-Over farm in Copake, NY, where he milks 72 registered Holstein and Brown Swiss cows. He owns 160 cows of all ages was a 4H leader for 20 years. Fred Barringer says, "Milking and caring for our cows is in my blood. I just can’t imagine doing anything else."