American Family Farmer

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Jake Carter, Owner & CEO, Southern Belle Farm in McDonough, Georgia, just south of Atlanta. https://www.southernbellefarm.com Southern Belle Farm is an 8-generation family owned 330-acre working farm, open seasonally for fresh produce, berry picking, peach picking, fall fun, Christmas trees, and much more! It's Strawberry Season on The Farm, and they have lots of fun planned for guests this Spring! U-pick strawberries will be available to be picked right from the vines of their 15-acre strawberry patch or pick-up a bucket of their freshly picked strawberries from the Country Market. As good stewards, they strive to honor their God given family heritage to create a wholesome atmosphere, which strengthens family bonds within local communities and staff, while educating the public about agriculture.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Jerry Apps, author of "On Farms and Rural Communities: An Agricultural Ethic for the Future." https://bookshop.org/p/books/on-farms-and-rural-communities-an-agricultural-ethic-for-the-future-jerry-apps/20186975 Jerry Apps is a former county extension agent and is now professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he taught for thirty years. Today he works as a rural historian and full-time writer and is the author of many books on rural history, country life, and the environment. As agriculture, land utilization, demographic shifts, and socioeconomic and cultural factors. Apps highlights the urgent need to restore and better appreciate our rural communities. He urges the creation of an agricultural ethic that looks at the land and the people, celebrating all that has made American farming an essential part of our history while positioning it for a brighter future.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Steve and Jesse McBee of McBee Farms. www.mcbeefarms.com Their new series on Peacock The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys, is a new reality series that takes viewers behind the scenes of the high-stakes world of farming and ranching in rural Missouri. McBee Farm and Cattle is on the brink of becoming a billion-dollar business... or a financial disaster. They own and operate 2100 acres of fescue pasture and have been in some form of the beef production business since 1974.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Warren Shaw, President of the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation (MFBF https://mfbf.net/ ), a non-profit farming advocacy organization representing almost 3,000 family members across the Commonwealth. In this capacity, he assesses the overall direction and strategy of MFBF. Warren is also the owner/operator of Shaw Farm in Dracut, MA. https://shawfarm.com/ The 113-year-old family dairy has a herd of 100 and produces and sells conventional and organic milk as well as ice cream. MFBF is the Commonwealth’s largest general farming organization with more than 3,000 member families in 12 counties.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Tami Purdue, from Sweet Peas Urban Gardens, LLC. www.sweetpeasurbangardens.com & www.triangleunitedgrowers.com Tami is a trained as an accountant, but her own “foodie” journey led her from rapt engagement with entertainment cooking, to organic gardening, to a profound fascination with all the ways food culture underlies manifold concerns of health, justice, identity and personal expression. They grow local, organic produce because they want their community to enjoy health, resilience, and the simple pleasure of a well grown and prepared meal.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Lesley Sykes, founder, and CEO of Primary Beans. www.primarybeans.com Primary Beans is a new, direct-to consumer online dried bean company offering an array of single-origin beans from recent harvests, sourced across North America from climate-conscious farm partners. They believe that beans as the perfect food from a nutritional, culinary, and planetary perspective.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Dr. Chad E. Hart Professor, Iowa State University Department of Economics Area of Expertise: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics. Called "Dr. Doom" by some. Heading into 2024, he paints a somewhat more encouraging picture for grain prices than USDA does. When the Iowa State University Extension ag economist spoke to farmers at the Purdue Top Farmer Conference in early January, USDA’s latest estimates for 2024 average prices were $4.50 per bushel for corn and $11.30 per bushel for soybeans. Hart expects strong production, around 15 billion bushels or more, into the near future. Even with good demand for corn for feed and ethanol, it will take rebuilding export demand to move lots of bushels.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Glenn Roberts founder of Anson Mills. www.ansonmills.com. Glenn grew up in San Diego, California, the son of a professional singer and photographer, and a former Southern belle from Edisto, South Carolina. Somewhere along the road Glenn’s overarching interests distilled into the study of architectural history and the history of food. Glenn explored rural back roads looking for the famous white Carolina mill cornl. He found this corn in a bootlegger’s field near Dillon, South Carolina in 1997 and planted and harvested his own first crop of 30 acres in 1998. Today, in addition to its collection of native heirloom grains, Anson Mills grows Japanese buckwheat, French oats and Mediterranean wheat, and Italian farro. Glen works tirelessly to manage his old grains, the land, and their growers, as well as chefs and retail customers.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Cristian Gilces, a New York State FFA Reporter who has a passion for Urban Agriculture. www.nysffa.org Throughout his Supervised Agricultural Experience he has worked at the Queens Farm, and he is a long-term intern at Grow NYC. He is also an avid indoor gardener, with an indoor greenhouse full of house plants. He strongly believes FFA makes a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Arthur Erickson, CEO and co-founder of Hylio, a Texas-based company that designs, manufactures, and offers agricultural drones that precisely apply liquid and granular inputs to a wide variety of crops. https://www.hyl.io/. These units are extremely easy to use and reliable and make farming easier and more successful for everyone. Their systems have successfully treated hundreds of thousands of acres across the world and their customer base is growing every day.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Magen Allen of J A Farms Feed. www.jafarmsfeed.com Megan, her husband Jeremy, along with their four children, raise cattle, hay, and operate a feed mill and retail store in Bismarck, Arkansas. Magen is also a State Board Member with Arkansas Farm Bureau, Bismarck School Board Member, and Children's Ministry Volunteer at her local church. Since 2007, they have become a well-known feed source in Bismarck, Arkansas. Started by Jeremy and Magen Allen as a way to feed their own cattle, it has now become their passion. All mixes and individual products are available in bulk bags, 50-pound bags, or by the truck load.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Jean-Martin Fortier, a farmer, educator, entrepreneur, and best- selling author specializing in organic and biointensive vegetable production. His book, The Market Gardener https://themarketgardener.com has inspired hundreds of thousands of readers worldwide to reimagine ecological human-scale food systems. His teachings have been adapted to different online organic farming courses that support over 3400+ growers in over 90 countries. The book's goal is to help small scale Organic Farmers across the nation to become successful and get through the often-barren Winter months.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Melissa O'Rourke, Farm and Agribusiness Management Specialist at the Iowa State University Extension Service, morourke@iastate.edu . They discuss how the extension offices work, foreign farmland ownership, goat milk, how to keep the farm in the family, being good stewards of the land and women in farming, the problems that Iowa farmers face when trying to hire farm hands.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Peter Miller, an Organic Dairy Farmer from Vernon, VT https://www.vtmillerfarm.com and Harley Sterling, director of nutrition for the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union’s food service program. https://www.universalschoolmealsvt.org/ Learn how Miller Farm collaborates with the public school systems for bag in box organic milk. In 2009, Miller Farm became certified organic. What this means to the community is their animals spend their days out in the field grazing and munching. Their fields are not sprayed with herbicides or pesticides.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Greg Cohen, who is working with Farmer Doug to crate an "Agrihood," called Baiting Brook Farm. https://baitingbrookfarm.com/. Agrihoods are based around the concept of integrating farms and gardens into neighborhoods, allowing for the development of residential neighborhoods that have a rural feel. Integrating agriculture into neighborhoods also allows for communities to supply themselves with locally-produced food.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Anneliese Abbot - Author, Malabar Farm: Louis Bromfield, Friends of the Land, and the Rise of Sustainable Agriculture. http://historyoforganic.com/ She has been researching the history of organic and sustainable agriculture since 2015.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Ronny Lee a 6th generation Farmer who runs Lee Turkey Farm. www.leeturkeyfarm.com The farm was first purchased by Ronny’s great-great-great-grandfather, Clement Updike, in 1868. ​At peak, the farm-raised 7000 turkeys, which were sold typically live to various places, including a Kosher plant in Lakewood. When the Federal government became more strict in their regulations for processing, some of the clients could no longer stay in business, so they began processing turkeys themselves and built retail routes to supply turkeys to local “Mom and Pop” stores and butcher shops. ​Lee Turkey Farm no longer sells to any markets; today, they only sell directly to their customers.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Michael Francis, owner of Maple Ridge Nursery. https://japanesemaplesandconifers.com/ Facebook@japanesemaplesandconifers Michael is a fourth generation nurseryman that has been growing Japanese maples in the Atlanta area his whole life. They grow over 500 different varieties of Japanese maples, as well as hundreds of varieties of rare and unusual conifers. They have an online store and they ship trees all over the country.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Gary Steinbrenner & Maryse Laurin of LS Ranch & Farms/Bois D'Arc Christmas Tree Farm. https://boisdarcchristmastreefarm.com/ The ranch/farm was purchased and established in 2012 as a ranch for breeding Registered Texas Longhorns. In 2016, they started the Christmas Tree Farm, with a lot of love, dedication, patience, and hard work. All of their trees are organically grown.No pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers are used. Maryse and Gary explain how they got started.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Robby Kluver, Kluver Family Farms. http://kluverfarms.com/ Robby grew up on the family farm in Northfield, MN. After receiving his Masters he found a job working at Monsanto corn research group at Stanton, MN. Then, decided to use my familiarity with the seed industry and start his own company, “Kluver Family Farms.” He produces, utilizes, and sells his own line of competitive corn hybrids. President Joe Biden traveled to the Kluver farm and Dutch Creek Farms near Northfield, Minn., on Nov. 1, to talk about the rural investments the administration was making in America.