15 Years of Farm Stay USA: Celebrating Our Roots and Honoring the Founders Who Helped Cultivate a Movement (3)
Part 3 – The Enthusiasts
Welcome to Part 3 of our special anniversary series celebrating the passionate pioneers behind Farm Stay USA! As we mark 15 years of connecting travelers with authentic, working farms and ranches across the country, we’re turning the spotlight on the spirited founding members who believed in the dream from day one and helped turn it into a thriving national network.
When Farm Stay USA first launched in 2010, farm stays were virtually unheard of in the U.S., a far cry from their popularity in Europe. Many Americans didn’t realize it was even possible to spend the night on a farm; let alone why they might want to. But a small group of forward-thinking farmers and ranchers saw the potential in opening their gates and sharing their lives with curious, countryside-seeking travelers.
From the very beginning, we walked alongside these early adopters, offering support, tools, and a community that celebrated the value of rural hospitality. Together, we nurtured a vision of agritourism rooted in connection, education, and genuine experience.
Fifteen years later, these farms have flourished. They’ve grown into confident, innovative businesses, continually adapting like all successful small farms do. Their voices are stronger, their offerings richer, and their place in the agricultural landscape well-earned.
We are incredibly proud to have been part of their journey and even more excited for what’s to come next.
B and B Orchards, located outside of Salem, Oregon was inherited by the next generation in 2011. The hazelnut orchard had been leased out and the family was not in a position to move to the farmhouse or take over operations right away. 3rd generation, Bari, and her 4th generation son, Anthony, became aware of Farm Stay USA’s website that would allow them to share the farm with others. With a few upgrades and just the right number of modern touches, the farmhouse retained all the warmth and coziness of grandma’s house. These days, taking visitors around the farm and through the hazelnut orchard is a favorite: explaining how hazelnuts flower, set nut clusters, and are harvested. Equally popular, especially with kids, is visiting the farm animals: feeding the chickens, goats, cows and barn cats, and collecting fresh eggs. One family even spent an afternoon helping to plant flowers in the garden beds, their children wide-eyed and excited to dig in the soil, choose each plant’s spot and asking questions. As for advice to others, Anthony and his mother began modestly and learned as they went along. They searched out best practices, fostered strong relations with their neighbors stayed informed about local zoning regulations and even found grants and cost-share opportunities to offset some of their setup expenses.
Dogwood Hills is owned by Ruth and Thomas Pepler. The farm is located in Harriet, Arkansas and now offers a hands-on experience starting with morning chores, milking, harvesting fodder, gathering eggs, feeding the animals, and checking in on the babies as they arrive. It didn’t start this way. The first iteration before knowing about farm stays started with hosting pastors and their families in 2009. Their guests would walk down during chores and ask to help. It was the beginning of an idea. Ruth found Farm Stay USA and joined. She asked other farms about their setups and began from there with the assistance of her then teenage daughter. Her advice: start simply and as you get that operation under your belt, you can add another. Do things well and think through the business plan. Her farm has grown with cooking classes, a cooking show, a barbecue contest and more. Her favorite chore with guests is milking the cows, starting with the hydroponic barley fodder they hand feed, then on to the milk stand and the entire process of brushing down the cow, cleaning and milking. Afterwards everyone heads upstairs for a full farm breakfast made with the farm fresh milk. As for favorite guest interaction, Ruth tells of the guest that was very animal shy, scared to death of everything from the moths to the dogs and when she finally put a squirt of milk in the can, she just screamed and then squealed with delight. For Ruth and her daughter, Farm Stay USA proved more than a platform to advertise their property. It opened up international travel for them through USAid to help other farm communities set up agritourism operations and it gave the farm its own community in which to engage and share and learn best practices.
Serenity Sheep Farm Stay brilliantly converted two shepherd’s wagons to welcome guests on her farm, located halfway between Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park in Belgrade, Montana. LaVonne opened in 2009 after discovering (from us) that there was a thing called a “farm stay” and it could be something she added to her farm to generate additional income. Originally one of her favorite chores with guests was to show them how to milk her goats. These days the goats are gone and instead she runs a wool mill where guests can learn the process of taking a sheep fleece and turning it into roving. LaVonne’s advice to farms thinking of starting up with a farm stay – make friends with your local county health and planning departments in order to understand what permits you might need and what you are actually allowed and not allowed to do on your property. Her other bit of advice when it comes to hosting guests – you never know who they might be. She admits she is a “hugger” and she includes this in her welcome note just in case this is something that might make a guest uncomfortable. One guest asked if she really did hug her guests because he had read all her material. When she queried him as to why he was checking, he responded “I like to know what I am headed into.” It turns out he was an FBI Investigative agent! Farm Stay USA gave LaVonne a basis for her operation that has now welcomed guests from 29 countries and all over the U.S. As one of her friends said, “Leave it to LaVonne to bring the world to her.”
Stillwaters Farm is a family owned and operated 153+ acre farm and vineyard in Henderson, Tennessee with a menagerie of animals (including a peacock!) and gardens. Valeria began hosting guests in 2007. At first it was just a way to accommodate friends and family who wanted to visit the Pitonis since they had uprooted their lives in a move from Florida to Tennessee. This quickly turned into a career decision with Valeria focused on educating guests about the important role agriculture plays in everyone’s lives. With the opening of her farm to guests, there were lessons learned. Be yourself in your presentation as all farm hosts are as varied as what they grow. Use direct booking to save your guests the additional fees – this also is more efficient (for everyone) and makes interactions more personal without a middleman. Her favorite experiences with guests these days revolve around the grape harvest from the vineyard recently installed in 2023. They are able to truly engage their senses in the feel, the smell and of course the taste of a ripe wine grape. As for memorable experiences, Valeria tells of a young man who brought his mom to the farm specifically to learn how to build a compost bin. They spend a Saturday together building a small one where the boy learned how to use power tools, think through the process and enjoy a job well done. Only a year later, he passed away, but his mom still visits from time to time because this was one of his favorite places in the world, a bond they will have for life. Farm Stay USA, for Stillwaters Farm, gave them the credibility they were looking for as part of a network of farmers who work hard, share their knowledge and believe in their collective future.
Vermont Grand View Farm is located in Washington, Vermont just south of Montpellier and closer to the Canadian border than to New York City. The farm is run by Kim Goodling and her family. They first started hosting guests in about 2005 after purchasing their farm and realizing it was the perfect setup for what they were then calling a “bed and breakfast”. The farm is recognized as having Vermont’s first flock of Gotland sheep, an endangered wool breed from Denmark that is slowly being revived in the U.S. Not just about the sheep, Kim has connected her guests with Vermont’s rich agricultural life, teaching about maple sugaring, shepherding, fiber arts, and sustainable farming. They can help with chores or just settle back to snuggle with the sheep. Farm Stay USA has helped Kim spread the word about her farm and what she offers. Guests have arrived to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and weddings. They have come to grieve the loss of loved ones and to get lost on the dirt county roads. They’ve come to get engaged and then write wedding vows. They’ve been opera composers, internationally know singing groups, Pixar graphic artists, German knitting experts, journalists, photographers, people from Siberia, Australia, Italy, India, Canada, Japan, Germany and France. The most memorable was the very first family who had a little girl. She went to help collect eggs. When she felt how warm the freshly laid egg felt, she went running to her grandmother sitting on the porch and held it out to her saying “Look, the hen laid an egg, and she even cooked it!” Teaching moments come in all shapes and forms and for all age levels and farmers like a good laugh now and then to see the farm as an outsider.
As we celebrate the enthusiasm and evolution of our founding members, we’re reminded that the farm stay movement in the U.S. has always been fueled by heart, hustle, and a deep love for the land. These early partners dared to try something new and helped shape a community that continues to grow.
But the story doesn’t end here.
In the coming weeks, we’ll share Part 4 – The Rest of Us, featuring a final group of farms that also launched in the early 2000s. those who, like Leaping Lamb Farm (my own!), were neither brand new nor deeply seasoned when they joined the Farm Stay USA family. The last part in this series offers a personal glimpse into how this movement not only supported other farms, but also helped save my own and how a vision for a nationwide farm stay platform took root. Stay tuned!
If you haven’t read Part 1 – The Trailblazers or Part 2 – The Ranchers be sure to check them out!
(Header photo courtesy of Dogwood Hills)