Porterdale Farm Adams Center, NY

Early Devotion

“His family tells this story about when Greg was a little boy,” his wife Lisa Porter recounts, “and how he was so excited to be in the barn with his dad that he went out with him really early at around 5:30. By 8 am he was so tired, he went and laid down—just for a minute. They found him later fast asleep in the utility room.” Greg is the third generation on Porterdale Farms, and he has never wanted to be anywhere else. “It’s all I’ve ever enjoyed,” he says simply.

Family in Farming

Lisa was also raised on a New York dairy farm and the couple met in college in farm finance class. “He was very smart so I decided I should sit next to him,” she recalls. The two became friends but not an item until after they graduated from school and Lisa’s work brought her near Porterdale Farms. The Porters raised three kids on the farm; their youngest, a daughter, is studying agriculture and might come home to farm. The couple also feels lucky to own and operate the farm with Greg’s younger cousin, Stephen Porter and his wife, Angela.

Feed the World

Lisa and Greg love what they do with all its ups and downs. “When you’re having a bad day, you’ve got to step back and focus on the idea that you’re helping to feed the world, that you are one of the stewards of God’s creation,” Greg reflects. Every day brings treasures, Lisa adds: “The miracle of seeing a calf born, of putting a seed in the ground in the spring and seeing the corn that comes up, the hay that grows back each year, the meadows in bloom.”