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lily51_gw

What is your farm's specialty?

lily51
13 years ago

It seems each farm not only has a name, but something it is known for, either in appearance or production. Maybe it's the color of the buildings, the style, what you grow, the equipment brand your family has always used, flower gardens.....

My husband's family was always a Ford family. Somehow,now,they are John Deere people.

For the first 8 years my husband and I and our children grew and sold strawberries in addition to the farm. We had a nice little business, either "you-pick" or we took orders. Everything we had had strawberries on it! I added 1/4 acre of statice (flowers) that I started from seed in a small greenhouse, then cut and sold to craft stores.

Once I retired from teaching, we built a greenhouse again to start plants for myself, our grown children and their families, our extended family and neighbors.

Comments (6)

  • pamghatten
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Daylilies ... I grow, sell and hybridize dayilies as an all consuming "hobby". I tell people to look for the purple barn ... they also come to pet my miniature donkeys.

  • calliope
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have a range of greenhouses and grow wholesale potted ornamentals and nursery stock. The business hit its second decade this year. People still call the place the Old XXXX farm, though I found out that gent's family was in fact the fifth family to live here. The second owner was the one who built the farmhouse sometime in the 1820s. Suppose the one who entered the land when the government opened it up for settling in 1804 had a log cabin. I used to love to listen to my elderly customers who would come and sit a spell as I worked, more to visit than buy, lol. I found out a lot about this place's history like that.

    Seems the little one room schoolhouse down the road, the teacher would send two boys each morning across the fields to our spring head to pull up buckets of water each morning and cart them back to the school because they didn't have a well there. The old schoolhouse is still there, but it's been converted into a house years ago.

    Many people around here know us by our trees. We've planted many since we've lived here and we have an old black locust by our back door almost nineteen feet in circumference and it is certainly older than the house and still blooms lovely scented flowers in the spring. We have an old deserted coal bank as well, long covered over but the tipple is still there until a few years ago.

  • lily51
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks for your posts. Your descriptions makes me want to visit your farms! I love the country life and the history that goes with it.

    pamghatten---how long have you been working with daylilies? The number of varieties are amazing.

    calliope--I do love greenhouses. Know what you mean about the "old xxxplace"...that's how this neighborhood is.

    I am so amazed at what all people do with their farms.
    Keep on enjoying that country life !
    Lynn

  • bulldinkie
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    ours is known for being old a 1700 brickhouse owned by a col,geaorge himes in battle of Gettyysburg.We also raise Texas longhorned cattle.excuse error my erase button doent wotrk.

  • pamghatten
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Lynn, I've been growing, selling and hybridizing daylilies for 12 years now. I have a little ober 400 named cultivars, and 150+ seedlings that I am evaluating. Not large scale by any means.

    Each year I add some and get rid of some. This year I got rid of more than I added, to make room for next years seedlings. I would prefer to reduce the number I have and concentrate on hybridizing, but the money i make selling pays for the new expensive cultivars I want to add to my hybridizing program.

    There are a lot of great dayliliy growers in OH!

  • goodhors
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    We are kind of "the horse place with the red house" on our road. Since the riding ring is beside the road, often has jumps or other things we train the horses on, it is noticed by folks driving by.

    The other thing is all the horses are bays, better to match when being driven, so no one (non-horsey) can tell them apart! We do hear about it when I put fly masks on, again the non-horsey ask why they need to look like "Zorro"? Are they running too much, does a mask slow them down? Some of the reasons they invent for masks are VERY creative!

    If husband is driving we do get folks stopping to watch, they are entertained with the carriage and exercises he does for nimbleness and speed control. These are light horses, though tall, used for Combined Driving. Quite a different look and way of going than you see with Amish or Draft horse driving. And NOTHING like old Western buggies except sometimes the horses are galloping.

    People we know compliment me on the flowers or bushes in flower, but pretty much everything is horse oriented. The Dexter heifer was noticed a little out in the field, but you really can't tell how small she is from the road. Being dun brown, probably most folks think she is a pony!

    We have been here so long that few older folks are still around. The old guy across the road had the best stories, knew EVERYTHING. Told us our house used to be his hired man's house. Finally sold it to the lady before us. They were mostly white trash, left a mess of the little barn and yard. We did clean up a lot since buying, added the horse barn and storage areas on one side.

    Husband does a lot of work in front of the workshop/garage. He gets comments on his latest project as he does his shopping in town. He was surprised how many folks use our road as they drive south to work. LOTS of folks keeping an eye on his projects! The most recent was the camper-on-trailer, because we sold the dually pickup. Camper would not fetch anything if sold, is in GREAT condition, so he decided to put it on a trailer to pull with the new truck. Camper won't fit on new truck. He got some GREAT conversations and jokes out of that! He said the poll has men and women equally divided on using it. Men ALL LOVE it, think the whole thing is a great idea, "Really cool, comforts of home with so much room!". ALL the women are skeptical, more "OK, looks kind of odd but useable. Pretty redneck!" He has taken the trailer camping last summer, said they got finger pointing in small towns, with a regular PARADE of folks coming by in the campground! LOTS of questions, so he gave tours of the various features and benefits of designs. Poll of men and women's opinions of camper-on-trailer stayed 50/50!!

    Now I am "really" looking forward to our fall vacation, as an "object of envy" by the other campers!! At least there is plenty of room to bring home even LARGE souvenirs.

    People may not know our name or farm name (which is only for marking the horse trucks), but they know WHERE we are and most of our antics!!

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