About The Whitfords
A small hollow dairy. Six generations. Four fields. The chunks we've always known.
Who We Are
The Whitford family has chunked in this hollow since 1867, when Ezekiel Whitford first noticed the chunks were good. We run four fields — North Field, Sycamore Field, Creek Bottom, and High Meadow — and a single Settlin' Shed whose keys Otis carries. We are not a large operation. We do not ship fast. We do not stir when the milk is resting. Our jars are filled by the same hands that drew the milk, and our customers are, for the most part, people we already know — or people whose people we already know. We sell chunky milk. We sell the tools to chunk at home. We sell what's left over. That is the whole of it.
The Whitford Line
Four who keep the hollow running.
Bill Whitford
Patriarch & Founder
Bill took over the Chunkery from his father Ezra in 1974 and has not missed a chunkin' season since. Rises at four, chunks till noon, answers mail by candlelight.
Jebediah "Jeb" Hollister
Head of Chunk Grading
Jeb married into the family in 1993 and took over grading two years later after old Clem's eyesight went. Certified by the Appalachian Chunkery Guild. Holds the record for the largest Monumental chunk ever pulled (1.8 lbs, 2011).
Otis P. Clemmons
Keeper of the Settlin' Shed
Otis is Bill's second cousin on his mother's side and has run the Settlin' Shed for thirty-one years. He is the only living person who knows where the keys to the shed are kept. He has never given an interview.
Silas Mercer
Land & Heritage Steward
Silas came up from the next hollow over in 1998 and never left. Walks the Whitford land daily, tends the four fields by name, keeps the family cemetery clear. Bill considers him kin. Silas does not comment on this.