Our Story
Photo credit to George Roy
We are a 7th generation family run farm that has been farming on Pit Road in Java Center, NY since the 1860's. While the small farm is becoming a thing of the past, we pride ourselves in being a small family farm where we are personally involved in every aspect of our farm and the care of our animals. Whether you are buying grassfed beef, hay or any other of our great products, you can trust that it has all been raised with care and pride. We hope that you love our products as much as we love raising them. Feel free to click on the "more" button below to learn more about our story.
Craig and Tom standing together as the first bales of hay of the new farming venture hit the ground in 2011.
Owen (lt) and Gavyn (rt) patiently waiting for our first two cows to arrive on the farm in 2009.
Our History
The history of our farm began in 1862 when a young Ulrich Kreutter arrived in the U.S. from Telheim, Germany. Ulrich settled in Java Village and worked as a blacksmith and eventually built his own blacksmith shop on the farm property. Once he settled in the home on Pit Road (which we still live in today) he went back to Germany, married Anna Barbara Schweizer, and they returned to the farm on Pit Road.
In 1870, Ulrich had George Barber of Java Village construct a dairy barn (the red barn in the picture above). Barber had built a number of barns around the Java area, many of which are no longer standing today. The barn was constructed of wood sawn in a sawmill in Protection in the Town of Holland. The largest beams in the barn are made of beech and all joined using mortise and tenon construction.
In 1908 the property passed from Ulrich and Anna to their son Henry Kreutter and his wife Grace, they would raise three children on the farm. In 1933, upon the passing of Grace the farm was then passed onto Henry and Anna's daughter Mildred and her husband Richard Landphair. They raised four children on the farm, Craig, Kermit, Carol and Beverly.
In 1955 the farm was purchased by Craig and Mary Landphair. During their ownership the barn underwent a major expansion with a large addition being built in 1960 where they were milking 80+ head of cattle at a time. By today's standards that is small, at the time it was considered a major expansion for a small family farm. Craig was one of the most meticulous farmers you would ever meet with a beautiful herd of Holsteins and a spotless barn. Craig and Mary would raise 4 children at the farm on Pit Road. Craig retired from farming in 1995 and the cows and equipment were sold at auction. Between 1995 and 2010 the farm was rented out to various local farmers for hay production and row crops.
In 2008 Craig and Mary's grandson Tom and his wife Angela made the decision that it was time to devise a plan to keep this wonderful property bordering Beaver Meadow Creek in our family for generations to come. It quickly became clear that in order to accomplish this goal we were going to have to learn how to become farmers. Angela may have been a little apprehensive about this plan since Tom had never baled a bale of hay or owned a cow before, but she pretended to go along with it. Craig may have also been a little apprehensive about this plan since he was well aware of the amount of work and stress that we would face. Luckily Tom ignored everyone and in 2009 our first two belted galloway cattle arrived, the Siler family began planting hay in our fields for us because we lacked the equipment to do so, and we started researching equipment and how to operate it. In 2011 we began our venture into selling small bales of hay with all sorts of equipment arriving at the farm and in 2013 we sold our first grassfed beef. Finally in late 2014 our plan to purchase the farm was realized and we continue to operate this 7th generation family farm with our 3 children.
We take great pride in our family history and this farm. We will always do our best to pass that pride on to you in the products we produce for your family. Thanks for taking the to read "Our Story."