Generations-old family farm grows with addition of store

SANBORNTON — Swain Farm has been in Laura Garcia's family for four generations, but has never had a store until now.

Garcia opened the store in May, which she runs with her husband Joe. The store sells the farm's fresh beef and maple syrup, as well as products from other local farms and businesses.

“I feel like it was never really what it could be. When we came here, we wanted to utilize it in the best way we could,” Laura said. “That's why we built the shelves. We got more products in. We started advertising.”

Laura, 24, and Joe, 23, met 10 years ago at 4-H. They had a liking for each other, and went on a date. Their first date was a casual one, hanging out on the family farm.

“We went up here, and he cleaned up the entire barn more than I had,” Laura said. “And I was just like, 'that's fun.'”

Eventually they got married, and had two children, 2-year-old Elaine, and 6-month-old Frank. Joe eventually went to the University of New Hampshire to study animal science, then got a job in Vermont as a crop consultant and fertilizer seller. Laura followed him, eventually becoming a stay-at-home mother. Both grew up around farms, and the life they were living did not match their aspirations. That was when they turned their attention to then Swain Farm.

David Swain, Laura’s grandfather, ran the farm until 2014, when he was injured after a kick from a cow. After the injury, they sold the cows, and he was unable to continue to manage the farm. In 2017, David died at age 80, on Christmas Day, which according to Laura was his favorite holiday. After his death, his wife Elaine Dearborn Swain, 86, managed the farm as well as she could, but could not do it on her own. Enter Laura and Joe.

“We weren't farming, and we weren't running a business together, and that's what we always dreamed,” Joe said. “The family farm is still just sitting here, and the time became right that somebody needed to take care of it.”

The couple moved to the farm in January. Now, they rent the space from Grandma Elaine, and hope to eventually buy her out entirely. They have been putting in work to revive the family landmark.

“We've been putting a lot of work into the fields, making sure they're growing, they're healthy, they're full [of] nutrients, so we can actually have a good crop,” Joe said. “That hay will be for sale, and some of it we're going to keep to feed the beef cows. And then hopefully by October, we'll have a herd of dairy cows in here.”

Bringing dairy cows to the farm will supply fresh milk for the store. The milk will be processed, bottled and sold all within 25 yards. Laura grew up just 1 mile down the road. As a teenager, every Saturday, she would follow her siblings to the farm.

“We would help grandpa milk the cows, then would go inside and have breakfast with grandma,” she said. “It was always my favorite Saturday tradition.”

Laura and Joe have renamed the property Swain's Legacy Farm to remember David.

“I felt like coming here was really to restore what he had started, and I wanted the name to pay tribute to everyone who had helped and bring back the legacy of it,” Laura said.

Elaine, who has lived in the area since she was 8 years old, expressed her gratitude for her daughter and son-in-law’s interest in revitalizing the farm.

“It was dying. I felt sad. I'm not able to do anything anymore, and David's been gone for seven years now,” Elaine said. “It's been a struggle just to pay the bills, but now to have some life and somebody that cares about the farm making it beautiful again.”

Beth Shehadi, a customer at the new store, has lived in Sanbornton for 42 years. She described Hunkins Pond Road, where the farm is, as a main thoroughfare from the upper bay to the town square. She's driven it so many times, it has allowed her to see the evolution of the farm.

“To see this revived and get more life, it was very exciting,” she said.

To learn more about the farm and its store, visit Facebook.com/61572499454573.

Despite the farm going back four generations of Swains, the farm has existed for more than eight generations, back to the Hunkins family. Josephine Woodman was taking care of the farm when her husband left her. Still in charge of the farm, she remarried into the Swain family, to Laura’s great-grandfather, starting a new line of farm ownership.

This extensive history has prompted the Lakes Region Conservation Trust to conserve the farm and its land. At its peak, when David was in charge, the farm was over 850 acres. The trust oversees conservation of the original 330 acres. The rest of the farm is now split between various family members.

The farmhouses near the store are original. The barn which houses the store and other nearby buildings were constructed by David after original structures burned in a fire. The story goes that the fire started on David’s first day of sophomore year in high school.

“He dropped out of school, got a job, [and] rebuilt the barn all before winter as a high schooler,” Joe said.

The couple’s dream of owning a farm is on its way to coming true. They intend to raise their kids, the fifth generation of Swains, on the farm. Joe wants to teach them the values he was raised on: farming, agriculture, hard work, and honesty. But most of all, they want the farm to stay a farm. They recognize the difficulty of the industry, and Joe shared David's favorite quote.

“Let God do the worry, and we'll do the work.”