Chesco dairy farm hopes art can save cows
It offers a corn maze, pumpkin picking, and hayrides, but Milky Way Farm at heart is a dairy business that's been run by the Matthews family for more than a century.
It offers a corn maze, pumpkin picking, and hayrides, but Milky Way Farm at heart is a dairy business that's been run by the Matthews family for more than a century.
Lately it hasn't been easy. Wholesale milk prices continue to fall; expenses continue to rise. The Matthews have had to sell a few of their cows.
In short, the 103-acre farm in Chester Springs, Chester County, has a lot in common with other dairy farms across the country.
"We can't just be dairy farms anymore," said Carolyn Eaglehouse, 47, whose father and stepmother, Sam and Melba Matthews, own Milky Way. Eaglehouse helps run the farm with her sister and brother and their families.
Along with the Halloween attractions, Milky Way hosts summer camps and birthday parties. It sells ice cream at its creamery.
Now, the farm is trying something new: Art.
At the family's behest, acclaimed Chester County artist Richard Bollinger, whose art has been displayed in embassies as part of a State Department program, painted Milky Way.
The farm hopes to sell enough prints of the watercolor to keep more of its cows.
The painting, set in soft early morning light, is a re-creation of the farm's logo. It features the 230-year-old stone springhouse beside a venerable sycamore tree and a wooden footbridge over a small pond.
Bollinger said he was struck by the scene.
"It just needed to be painted," he said.
Last month, Bollinger spent a few quiet mornings sketching on the farm as goats, sheep, and ducks roamed around him.
Sassafras, a playful calf on the farm, also modeled for the painting, its image reflected in the pond.
The farm is selling about 500 prints of Milky Way Morning at $95 each.
Trips to the farm have become a tradition for families in the area, some of whom have been visiting for decades.
Kate Pagan, 22, now a graduate student in Virginia, said she and her family came every year when she was growing up. She remembers eating a big, home-cooked breakfast before spending a fall day at the farm picking pumpkins.
Pagan took a friend from Virginia, 22-year-old Hannah White, for her first visit Friday.
Douglass Hanley, Uwchlan Township's manager, said the farm allows people to remember what the community used to be in the '60s and '70s, when the township was fertile with farms.
"We're pleased to have that remain as part of our community," he said.
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