About

More than a Farm

Upinngil is a place and a business, but it is also a great deal more than that. It puts into action the belief that the key to regaining and maintaining environmentally sound farming practices is to re-establish the connection between consumers and the land that produces their food. When people visit a farm to buy locally-produced food , they not only re-educate their tastebuds, but they also begin to grasp the fragility and complexity of the process that puts healthful food in their stomachs. Our pick-your-own crops (strawberries, raspberries, peas, flowers, herbs) maximize the benefits to both the consumer and the farm: consumers enjoy a lower cost and absolute freshness by picking fruit themselves, and it reduces labor for the farm during the busy season. We welcome our local community to come hang out in the backyard, enjoy a picnic, or a walk out back to visit the cows.

The Land

We farm about 100 acres total on several plots of land scattered around Gill. Our location in the Connecticut River Valley, the terminus of the glacial ice sheet during the Wisconsin Period, is one of the most fertile places on earth. Much of the land at Upinngil has been in cultivation or used for grazing continuously for more than 300 years. We manage our land intensely and attentively, always striving to maintain a healthy, productive, interconnected and diverse ecosystem.

The People

Clifford Hatch comes from a tradition of New England family farming that reaches back to the early seventeenth century. Cliff grew up on his family’s farm in Granby, MA. He founded the farm on Center Road in Gill with his wife, Patricia Crosby, in 1987, raising his three children, Sorrel, Rhys, & Malcolm, in the farming tradition. Cliff’s vision and fortitude saw the farm through the early days before our valley was as excited and supportive of local agriculture. In 2000, Clifford’s family sold the Lyman family farmstead in Granby and Upinngil was able to expand to the land at 411 Main Road where the business operates today.  Cliff manages and oversees all aspects of farm production: the planting, cultivating, and harvesting of the field crops, tractor driving and equipment maintenance, payroll, bookkeeping, herd management, cheese making, and Sunday baking. He is active in local and regional farming organizations and serves on the boards of the Greenfield Farmers’ Cooperative Exchange, the Northeast Organic Farmers Association/Massachusetts, the Franklin County Technical School, and the Greenfield YMCA. During the precious moments he’s not farming (usual during the winter months) you’ll hear his “whistle blowing” above the store, where his model trains run.

Sorrel Hatch, “The Farmer’s Daughter”, has been with the farm for 30 years (since its founding when she was four years old). Sorrel is the linch pin that holds us all together. Many distinctive features of the farm Sorrel conceived, developed, and then taught to employees: the Little Red Hen Bakery, the Market Garden, the Farm Stand, Upinngil’s much sought after salad mix, the CSA program, the chickens and their many magical moving coops, Upinngil’s self-check-out and honor system, the pick-your-own flower garden. Sorrel works non-stop juggling her three boys and all that is Upinngil, which at this point can’t be done without the support team we now have. She and Isaac were married on the hill behind the farmhouse in 2013 and are raising their children (August, Everett, and Wilder) on the farm.

Malcolm Hatch Crosby grew up on the farm the youngest of three, caring for the heifer calves and the Center Road homestead after Rhys and Sorrel had gone off the college. He’s apprenticed with masonry builders and worked many seasons as camp counselor and now maintenance staff at Friends Camp in South China, ME. He now works seasonally for the farm in the winter on building projects and pitches in milking cows and working in the bakery as needed.

Isaac Bingham has been with the farm since 2013. He builds infrastructure, milks cows, places orders, pays bills, coordinates visitors & volunteer groups, and connects the farm to the wider community in countless ways. He is a carpenter, designer, ceramic artist, and timber framer whose works you can see all over the farm. His favorite product developments for  the  Farm are:  pastured raised Upinngil Pork,  Shiitake mushrooms, and the much-sought-after, year-round Upinngil Salad Mix.

Simon Eaton has been with the farm since 2009 and has become Clifford’s right-hand man. There’s not much that Simon doesn’t know how to do. He is production and harvest manager for market garden, hoop house and field crops. He grows and harvests the winter greens crops. He drives tractor, plants and cultivates field crops, maintains equipment, manages the potato cave, milks cows, and mills flour for the bakery.

Sarah Porrovecchio has been with the farm since 2014 . There’s some debate as to whether she should be called the cow wrangler or the cow whisperer, in any case she does both. Sarah is the farm herdswoman. She milks cows, bottles milk and makes cheese. She also manages cow health, breeding and calving; maintains and rebuilds fences; manages pasture rotation and mowing; and helps hay.

Emma Lindale is the farm Market Gardener. She started working at Upinngil in the spring of 2024 and has made herself indispensable, in addition to caring for all the market garden crops, and stocking and managing all the produce we buy in, she is also developing skills in dairy, store, bakery, and office. She has become a go to person for other employees if Sorrel isn’t around to answer questions, she does all our scheduling and helps keep things organized! She lives in Guilford and loves regenerative agriculture and her goats.

Phoebe Mathews grew up in Gill and lives nearby. She has been with the farm as a Baker since 2022, bringing her talents for creative flavor combinations to many Little Red Hen recipes and applying here artistic talents to the bakery signage. She walks the 1/2 mile to work at 6am most mornings regardless of weather and is an avid reader – she can even read while she walks to work!

Cynthia Durham has taken on a leadership role in the bakery, running the oven W, Th, and Sat mornings and coming in a few afternoons to bake cakes and other specialties. She enjoys planning for the holidays and baking special requests. She’s the baker to talk to if you’re looking for a birthday cake – but no last minute requests please! She’s a planner 🙂

Beth Stinchfield lives in Bernardston and grew up in Gill. She seems to know everyone. Extremely thoughtful, kind, and reliable she has been a valuable addition to the storekeeping team, helping Cliff in the bakery on busy Sunday mornings, Mondays, and Wednesdays. She contributes new ideas and recipes to the bakery often, the newest one being Upinngil Dog Biscuits – featuring our butternut squash and whole grain flour!

Qiong Wu prefers we call her Joan rather than struggle to pronounce her Chinese name. She came to live in Gill from China in 2021 and joined the bakery team in 2022. She is a master of dough shaping. Quickly learning all the back baker recipes, she soon started adding her own Chinese flair to bakery offerings, making her Dumplings on Wednesdays and Noodles on Thursdays. There’s not much she can’t do with her hands, a skilled seamstress with her own sewing business, she now makes all our kitchen aprons. And for Christmas 2024 festooned the store with her gorgeous All-Natural Wreaths – no wire! She is always bubbling with energy & new ideas for Upinngil and loves flowers, gardening, and her chickens.

Kayla Riddell lives in Gill and started working in the bakery as a storekeeper in 2023. She quickly demonstrated her skills as a future baker wizzing through baker’s assistant tasks at record speeds. She now works M-F in the bakery as back baker, front baker, and storekeeper. She can do it all!

Susana Wells-Tolley comes to us from Chase Hill Farm in Warwick, we’re very grateful that they can spare her Mondays and Fridays to work in the bakery. The eldest of many siblings, she seems to have the knack of being the calm in the storm. Under 20 and already knows she wants to be a midwife. Extremely efficient and organized, she serenely flows through the back baker tasks. She’s also taken over bakery inventory and ordering as well.

Adeline Riley lives in Gill and started working on the farm in 2023. Bringing a love for animals and interest in veterinary medicine she has been a valuable addtion to the Upinngil cow milking team. She currently milks five evenings a week, helps keep the dairy sparkling clean, the barn tidy, and often subs for other milkers on short notice.

Katherine Bordner lives in Northfield  MA with her husband Stefan and two year old son Thomas. She grew up in NH and learned to cook/bake from scratch at a young age, she spent 10 days backpacking through Ireland, where the places and people she visited inspired her culinary journey. Katie loves getting creative with her baking and is always coming up with new flavor combinations for her croissants and savory hand pies. She has worked at Upinngil since 2023 as both Storekeeper on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturday Baker.

Ariel Dixon is a lover of cows and finds great joy in milking them two nights a week and giving them neck scratches. She joined us in the fall of 2024 and resides in Florence MA. When she is not milking cows at Upinngil, she is teaching creative writing classes at Smith College or working on her novels. She has one published and another coming this year!

Sadie Miller has been a florist with the flower garden since 2022, making market bouquets for the store on Fridays and Saturdays. She loves sharing local, beautiful, affordable flowers with the community and teaching visitors to cut their own bouquets.