Kim was looking for a field to plant and a way to teach her children all about farm life, Chick was looking for help on the farm. Perfect match you say? Yes indeed, couldn't be better. But they didn't know each other.
Chick has 5 acres on one side of his farm that he grows corn for silage on. He calls this 5 acres "The Ponderosa", and he loves looking out from his kitchen window at the corn. Now he doesn't need as much corn as he used to. He had to stop shipping milk last summer and sold the majority of the milking cows due to his health. He still has cows, even still milks a few, but since the cow population is way down he doesn't need as much corn silage.
Kim grew up on a farm, and she also has eight children that she home schools! Feeding eight children from the grocery store is very expensive, especially for fresh items. She really wanted to have a garden this year, and was thinking about having one in her own yard.
That's where I come in. Kim's husband is my Sprint dealer. I was in his store getting a new phone, and he saw my cows picture I had as wallpaper on my phone. He was very curious so I told him about the farm, and from there things just grew and grew. His oldest son Elliott now works with us on the farm almost every day. But that is not the whole story.
I stopped in one day at his store to tell him just how much we appreciated his son at the farm. There were lots of customers in his store that afternoon, and only he was there, so while I was waiting for him to be free I started talking to a woman who is the director for a non profit type of organization, connected with a church diocese. She was talking to me about how hard her job was these days with the economy in the toilet, and I started to think that maybe we could somehow help.
So, I put Kim and Chick together on the garden idea. I was thinking about more than a garden, I was hoping it might help people who were unable to afford fresh produce. Kim and Chick agreed. Kim is trying to form a co-op of sorts, looking for people who will help her take care of the garden in exchange for fresh produce.
The co-op is still in it's planning stages. The seed has been ordered, the field will be plowed in the next few days. Kim has it all drawn out, she will plant about one half of the field, which has the potential to feed over 200 people. Chick will plant sweet corn on the rest.
A match made in heaven? Time will tell. Kim has agreed to plant sweet potatoes, which makes me happy as can be.
If you are interested in helping, give me a call. I will put you in touch with Kim. She is working on a "My Space" page for her project. I think it's a win win situation.
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