Farm Visits July 19, 2012

I decided to take a week off last week to catch up on things in the office and get all my e-mails and phone calls returned. It always feels good to get caught up.

Today I am only checking one farm since it is a couple hour drive each way and I don’t really have any farms that are very close to Joe Bryson’s farm. Joe lives in Hale Missouri which is about 100 miles from Kansas City. The heat has taken a toll on Joe’s fields so a few crops have recently been plowed under such as pumpkins and cantaloupe. He got a little rain last week, but like all the farms around the area, a little doesn’t really help much. The only produce that is growing pretty good is his zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes and blackberries. I was surprised that Joe waters everything with city water, which I am sure, can get a very expensive. Joe was busy helping his grandson move so his son Pee Wee (this is his nick name) showed me around their farm and drove me to six other farms where they get most of their produce. All of the six families were Amish and grow produce for Joe, he purchases all the plants or starts them in his greenhouses from seeds, and his neighbors raise the produce and harvest it. The Amish farmers do not have a way to get their produce to the city and these particular farmers don’t grow enough to take to the local auction. This arrangement helps all the families involved, Joe knows how the produce he is bringing to the market is grown and the families make a little money. Two of the farms really didn’t have much left to pick only the farms that used drip lines still had fairly decent yellow squash, okra, tomatoes, cantaloupe and a few green beans. Since all the familys were Amish they did not have fans or air conditioning, I guess it is all what you get use too. At least they all had a nice breeze and some shade trees.

Next week I will be headed to Lexington Missouri and Buckner, I was hoping the weather would break but the extended forecast sure does not look that way. I hope there is still produce to check next week.