PIERMONT — Robie Farm is abuzz with mowing and prettifying ahead of its 150th anniversary celebration on Saturday.
To recognize the fact that six generations of Robies have farmed on 150 acres of rolling fields along the Connecticut River, often having to innovate along the way, festivities will include an all-day event complete with hay rides, barn tours, a bluegrass band and barbecue.
Family lore has it that rumors of the fertile land in the river bottom drew Lyman Robie to Piermont from his home in East Corinth in 1870. As Lee Robie and his wife, Betty Sue, paged through a binder of family mementos at their kitchen table on Wednesday, each photo and newspaper clipping resurrected a memory: Beauty, the prize-winning Holstein who begot a lineage of prize-winning Holsteins; the fire that destroyed their barn in 1975; trips to state fairs with Lee’s father and three brothers.
Sixteen years ago, Lee Robie was not sure if the family farm would ever reach its 150th anniversary.
“We were struggling paying our bills. Running a dairy farm was really tough. My wife, Betty Sue, and I were not sure if we were going to keep farming or if we were going to sell the farm, and take the worth of it to retire,” he said.
The economic model of small dairy farms that he and his parents had depended on was collapsing around them.
Their son, Mark Robie, 41, did not have any interest in farming until his parents told him and his brothers that they were in debt and would have to sell the farm. He and his older brother, Freeman, decided to transform the farm so that it could survive.
They were not willing to lose their “slice of heaven,” as Freeman, who died in 2016, used to call it. The brook that flows through the fields, the wide and lazy Connecticut River, the pond where a catfish can always be caught, the woods that grew over the old sheep pastures — all are parts of the landscape that the Robies cherish.
“It’s really hard when you’re beholden what you get paid, if you get paid,” Mark Robie said. The Robies were determined to take control of their economic situation — and that meant leaving behind the old model of selling their milk to large dairy suppliers.
Freeman took over the business side of the farm, while Mark decided to try his hand at making cheese. He has always loved the culinary arts, and he knew that there was unmet demand in the Upper Valley.
“We were adding value to our product and direct marketing,” he said.
They had their share of hiccups. Betty Sue vividly remembers her exhausting foray into bread baking. Yogurt and ice cream were dead ends, but raw milk, cheese and meat — especially their signature “Crankin’ Country Sausage” — were a success.
Diversification is a constant process at Robie Farm. The whey left over from the cheesemaking prompted Mark to buy pigs, while goats entered the picture as the best way to keep down invasive species without pesticides.
“It basically naturally morphed into a more traditional kind of farming, what it may have looked like 100 years ago,” Mark said.
Most recently, he built a greenhouse and is trying his hand at vegetables so that Robie Farm’s customers can do a one-stop shop at the farm store.
Their farm store along Route 10 is the nucleus of a cooperative of farmers that they have built over the last 16 years after converting their white horse barn into a storefront.
“We started selling our own products, and we had customers who said, ‘I want this much, I want that much’ — and all of a sudden, it was, ‘How do we fill this demand?’ So we started reaching out to our neighbor farmers, and it just grew that way,” Mark said. “It helps them; it helps us. It all happened really organically.”
Robie Farm is “HGAL,” a designation that Lee made to ensure that any product they sell is humanely raised, growth hormone-free, all-natural and local.
The farm offers a representation of the wide range of products that they sell, including a handful of pigs and turkeys, 16 milking cows among a herd of just under 50 cattle, turkeys and pasture-raised chickens. Jonathan Flocke — who moved to New England from Texas because of his commitment to local food — Lee Robie and their staff manage the business side of the farm.
Meanwhile, the seventh generation is already in line. Each afternoon, Mark and his wife Elaina’s two children, Eli and Lisette, ages 9 and 11, help on the farm wherever they are needed.
The Robie Farm’s open house is being held on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 25 Route 10 in Piermont. The Parker Hill Road Band will play from 3 to 5 p.m.
Claire Potter is a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at cpotter@vnews.com or 603-727- 3242.