conservation edible
Better with age: a heritage dairy diversifies
robie farm, piermont, new hampshire
Visit Robie Farm to meet the cows and taste fresh milk and cheese. Check out the rustic farm store, open seven days a week— or order cheeses online at
robiefarm.com.
Robie farm is a true family business. Stop by on any given day, and you might spot Grandma Betty Sue harvesting cucumbers and snap peas in the garden, or Grandpa Lee out manning the tractor. Their son Mark, the cheesemaker, can often be found coaxing tangy Pier- mont and nutty Toma to age on planks made from white ash. And the youngest Robies—four- year-old Eli and two-year-old Lisette—well, they could be anywhere: they love to play hide-and- seek against a backdrop of green hills dotted with grazing Holsteins. The 150-acre property on the banks of the Connecticut River has been in the Robie family for six generations: Lee’s great-great-grandparents first homesteaded the farm in 1870. Lee and Betty Sue raised four sons in the same house where Lee’s father and grandfather grew up. Two, Mark and Freeman, still live and work on the property. But while their land is steeped in history, the family is not bound by tradition—they can’t be. “We’ve seen too many of our friends and neighbors lose their farms,” says Betty Sue. “They
want to hold on so bad—but with fluctuating milk prices and competition from the big agribusi- nesses, they just can’t afford to. It’s heartbreaking.”
18 · LAND&PEOPLE · SPRING/SUMMER 2014
mim adkins
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