When Earl Ransom was growing up, milking cows at his family’s Rockbottom Farm, there were 24 dairy farms in Strafford. Now his second-generation family farm — home of Strafford Organic Creamery — is the last one remaining. Ransom runs it with his wife, Amy Huyffer, and their four sons. Eva stopped by on a Thursday afternoon during the busy haying season.
In his lifetime, Earl Ransom has seen dairy farms disappear in his hometown of Strafford. When he was growing up, milking cows at his family’s Rockbottom Farm, there were 24 dairy farms in town. Now his second-generation family farm is the last one that remains. The hilly 600-acre farm has majestic views, lush pastures and about 80 mostly Guernsey cows. Earl runs the farm with his wife, Amy Huyffer, and their four sons. Amy moved to the state to attend Vermont Law and Graduate School. The couple met in 1999 and two weeks later decided to marry. In 2001 they began bottling their own milk in glass bottles and named their business Strafford Organic Creamery. The cows have names like Larkspur and Pomegranate, and they spend 22 hours on pasture, getting milked twice a day. The couple’s second eldest son, Jackson Ransom, recently graduated with a degree in dairy farm management, and he hopes to take over the farm one day. The family is in the middle of the busy haying season, and is working 14-hour days. Eva visited the farm on a Thursday afternoon to watch the bottling process, walk home with the cows from pasture for a milking, and to talk to the family about farm life. Filming date: 5/25/23 Music: The Great North Sound Society, “Pink Sunrise” This episode of Stuck in Vermont was supported by New England Federal Credit Union…
