About Us

A GROWING COLLECTION

Howdy! We're Sam and Eric Vanstrom from The Vanstrom Homestead in Kennedy, NY. We graze a bunch of critters on our 155 acre farm with the help of Eric's parents and our young children. Farming is in Eric's blood, going back generations. Sam is an over-educated import from Texas. We met our last semester at Cornell University at a date auction where neither of our buyers ever actually got their date. We apologize to our friends again, but we think it all worked out!

KIDDOS

We're a busy bunch with two crazy boys, a baby girl trying to keep up with those boys, and the memories of our special Annika who had a congenital brain condition and epilepsy. Dean is already an enthusiastic numbers-guy and artist. Will loves getting dirty, getting other stuff dirty, and everything with wheels. Tilly is set to be the biggest clown of them all, but only when she's not attached to mama's hip.

CRITTERS

In 2007, Eric started milking his own cows in a rented barn on the other side of town, 5 miles away. In 2009, we moved them to the home farm so we could transition to a rotational grazing system. The cows go out everyday, all year long. Most years, our young stock spend the entire winter outdoors! Since then, we've purchased part of the farm property and most of the farm equipment and animals are now ours. Eric's parents still help with the cattle and crops. We sold our 45 milk cows in June 2021, but kept two special mamas and about 40 young stock. Over the last few years, we've transitioned over to more beef-type cattle through cross-breeding and buying both feeders and breeding stock from local farms and sale barns.
We've always raised a couple pigs since they thrive on bucket milk and garden refuse. In 2014, we got our first goats and the next year we added sheep and chickens! We can't really decide what we like the best - it's probably a tie between the cattle and sheep. We currently have a flock of about 40 sheep, a herd of 40 cattle and raise 250 meat chickens seasonally. We purchase chickens, pigs and some young beef cattle from local farmers and sale barns; most cattle and sheep are born on the farm.

ALL BECAUSE TWO PEOPLE FELL IN LOVE

The most important decision you can make in life is who to spend it with. Luckily, a nice, hard-working boy and a nice, hard-working girl were forced together by a bunch of mutual friends and happened to fall hard.

Sam grew up in Texas playing competitive soccer until she joined FFA and dove head first into leadership and livestock. She ended up at Cornell majoring in Science Communication with minors in both Animal Science and International Agriculture and Rural Development, later earning a MBA and MS in Environmental Management from the University of Maryland.

Eric grew up milking cows and playing baseball and football. He had no plans for college until an internship with the local cooperative extension office. He attended Morrisville College before transferring to Cornell as a Dairy Science major. He then spent a semester in Sweden where he ended up on a farm instead of in a classroom, solidifying his career/lifestyle decision.

We partied in July of 2007, getting married in a small church surrounded by friends and family. The reception featured a green and yellow circus tent and a lot of sunburnt beer drinkers. We still get comments about how much fun the day was.

While Eric got the dairy running, Sam worked "town jobs." After Annika's health issues became apparent though, we knew we needed to find a way to have more flexible schedules. The expanded availability of health insurance gave us the opportunity for Sam to join the farm full time, milking some shifts and taking charge of expanding the meat business. In 2016, she started at a couple farmers' markets and quickly grew our meat business.

Eric then began an apprentice program to become an electrician while still milking cows. That lasted two years and now Eric is enjoying his 50hr work weeks. Sam also couldn't just hang out, so she became a USDA cattle grader in 2017 which has since led to a full-time remote gig playing with numbers for the USDA.

Gramma & Grandpa Vanstrom

Eric's dad, Tom, has always farmed, purchasing the main farm next to the Vanstrom homestead as a young man. Through his younger adult years, he worked various jobs while milking up to about 30 cows. Currently, he enjoys driving school bus and keeping daily operations running on the farm. He's the busy type and would honestly be lost without chores to get done.

Eric's mom, Carol, retired in 2019 to be a full-time grandma and part-time trail-rider. She grew up on a dairy farm as well, but spent her working career as a nurse. Now that she's got the time, there's always baked goods ready to eat and a grandbaby to spoil. Without both their hard work though, The Vanstrom Homestead would not exist and we'll be forever grateful for their support.