Farming Friday

I have decided to start a weekly post about the farm... and since "farm" starts with an "F", I figured Fridays were the perfect day to post about it!  Cute or cheesy?  Don't burst my bubble.  ;)

Sweet Corn for miles

This will likely include our garden as well, since most people think stuff from our garden comes from the farm.  It doesn't, people.  There is a very clear difference between the farm and the garden.

About 30 miles.  That's it, really. :)

For my first Farming Friday post, I will share a basic overview:

Bill "farms" with his Uncle Bob and Grand-dad Robert.  Bill "ranches" with his dad.   The difference, you may ask?  Farming involves planting seeds and selling the harvest.  Ranching involves raising cows.  See!  You already learned something new today!  :)

Farming:

Bill raises (interchangeable with "grows") sweet corn, cantaloupes, watermelons and pumpkins, primarily.  In 2011, he will be farming 255 acres of produce.  This is the most he has ever managed and will be quite a busy year!  They sell to local sellers ("peddlers"), a regional supermarket chain (20 stores) and a regional wholesale distributor (about 60 stores). 

baby watermelon

Bill is weird about me giving out too many details.  He's a conspiracy theorist.  Comes by it naturally... his dad is the same way.  :)

Ok, not really.  At least, he doesn't believe in aliens or JFK assassination rumors...  to my knowledge....

Ranching:
Bill has (I guess I'm part owner, so they're MINE too) 53 cows and 2 bulls.  :)  The market is looking rosy, so we may not own as many very soon.  :) 

Look at those beauties

I will share tons of pictures.  I hope you find this interesting!  Please let me know if you have specific questions and I'll try to answer them as best I can!

The farmer!

Love!