Cows, Christmas, crafts

RADNOR, Ohio — Dairy farmers, Kelly Van Gundy and her husband, John, wanted to spread the message of dairy and Christmas. To do so, they started hosting a Christmas market at their dairy farm.

“(The Christmas market) had always been something we were interested in,” Van Gundy said. “This is the one idea that all the kids were in agreement with.”

The couple and their six children milk 60 cows in a single-5 parlor at their farm near Radnor. The herd of Jersey cows and a few crossbreds is grazed most of the year. The family grows alfalfa, timothy and sorghum-Sudan grass in addition to corn. The Van Gundys also have a 2,500-sow nursery.

“John and I try to diversify as much as possible because we are small,” Van Gundy said.

The family thought about hosting the Christmas market for a few years before trying it out.

“Our daughter got married in 2020 and we cleaned out the barn for the wedding,” Van Gundy said. “That’s when we decided ‘OK let’s do this.’”

Van Gundy reached out to a tree grower to bring in Christmas trees to sell as well as bringing in local vendors. From there, Christmas on the Creek was born.

“It really gave us an opportunity to connect with the community,” Van Gundy said. “As a dairy farmer, it’s important to network and have conversations with people so they know where we are coming from. The urban sprawl here is growing so fast, we want our community to have a face to the farmer.”

The following year, the Van Gundys hosted monthly open-air markets to help showcase many of the local vendors.

“Since then, our Christmas on the Creek has taken off,” Van Gundy said.

Now, Christmas on the Creek has hot chocolate, vendors, a nativity, Christmas trees, music, visits from Santa and children’s activities.

“Christmas has always been special for us,” Van Gundy said. “We get a different aspect of the season. We get to share in everybody’s joy, those holiday moments.”

Each year, the Van Gundys try something new with their Christmas on the Creek and have something for the whole family to participate in.

“That first year, we did it outside and it was beautiful, but then we got a big snowfall and we had to move all the trees,” Van Gundy said. “Then we learned the trees do better inside than outside. So, we cleaned out John’s machine shed.”

The Van Gundys have also held story time in the barn and this year’s event will feature live animals for a nativity. Kids can dress up in costumes to fill in as characters for the nativity.

“We also offer wreaths and porch pots that I set up in the old milkhouse that I made a little shop with and have coffee and gifts,” Van Gundy said. “All the kids still help out. It’s all hands on deck. The big kids are good for their muscles and the littles just add to the excitement.”

Growing up on a dairy farm, Van Gundy developed an interest in cows, but her family sold the herd when she was in high school. However, her passion for cows did not go away.

“I knew from the beginning that I loved agriculture and even though my dad sold the cows, I still had a heart for farming,” Van Gundy said. “I knew that (dairy farming) is what we were going to do at some point.”

Van Gundy kept two cows from her family’s herd and housed them at a neighbor’s farm in hopes of bringing them to her own farm someday.

John did not grow up on a farm but worked for farmers in the area and was active in 4-H and FFA. When the couple wed, they began looking for a farm.

One day on his way home from work, John saw a small 25-cow dairy farm. He stopped in and asked if they could milk cows there. Farm owner Sylvia Zimmermann said yes, and a partnership and friendship were launched. John did relief milking for her while maintaining a full-time job in town.

After many years of milking together, Sylvia was ready to step back from the dairy and John took the reins to milk full time.

“We combined our herd and her herd,” Van Gundy said. “When she was ready to step back, we bought the cows from her, then John started milking on his own.”

For the past 22 years, the Van Gundys have leased the parlor and pack barn, while raising replacements at a farm site the family purchased three miles down the road, where the family resides. The Van Gundys named the farm The Dairy on Fulton Creek.

“Not coming from a farm, it is really hard to break into agriculture on your own,” Van Gundy said. “We have wanted to farm for quite some time.”

All the Van Gundy children — Lauren, Eli, Jonah, Jack, Titus and Meredith — help on the farm. Jonah is farming full time with his dad, and Jack, who is still in high school, has expressed interest in returning to the farm as well.

“John puts it best when he says, ‘I don’t know if we could have offered our children a better quality of life than the life we have here on the farm,’” Van Gundy said. “They get to touch animals every day, they get to learn to work hard, they have to have faith, a strong faith in the Lord. … We are very happy even though there are a lot of battles that go along with dairy farming.”