How many of you grew up on a farm?

[Hardrada]

Just curious since it seems so urbane or suburbane on DU.

[China_cat]

1. I'm one.

My uncle (who inherited the whole family farm) recently sold what wasn't held by family members to developers. I'm just sick about what they've done to it.

[Hardrada]

40. That happens so much in my state too.

Oughtta be a law against sprawl.

[huskerlaw]

2. Sorta, kinda

My parents have 2 acres of land at the edge of a very, very small town (think 500 people). We had a huge garden, and throughout my childhood we had horses, cows, chickens, rabbits, dogs, and cats.

Aside from the tiny town, everything around was a farm, so I spent a lot of time on actual farms.

[Maine-ah]

3. my husband did.

one of the oldest farms in the area. Been in his family for a couple hundred years. Unfortunately, it's no longer used that way and the local airport took a lot of the land, with "fair" compensation I might add.

[Lowell]

4. I grew up on the family farm in Ohio

It was back breaking work. We had 600 acres of wheat and corn and a barn full of dairy cattle. By time I got to school I'd already put in four hours labor.

I wouldn't go back to it for anything. When I went in the military it was like a long vacation. Small farmers have my utmost respect. They really struggle for every cent they make.

All of my uncles but one have sold their farms now. None of my cousins wanted to continue the business.

[Blue_In_AK]

22. I spent my early childhood on farms in Ohio, too

down by Wilmington.

[Lowell]

25. That's pretty area.

I was raised near Gettysburg. Still visit every fall.

[Omphaloskepsis]

5. We had a couple hundred acres...

We killed our own meat and had a garden. The only thing we sold was hay. My mom took care of that, my father was a mechanical engineer in town. I have shot pigs and cows.

[Crazy Dave]

6. I had about forty pot plants behind my parent's house one time

Does that count?

[Omphaloskepsis]

7. Not only does that count..

I think that puts you in the lead.

[Skittles]

35. BWAAAAAAHAAAAAAAHAAAAAA

:thumbsup:

[LynzM]

8. Briarius did....

I definitely didn't.

[lildreamer316]

9. Also sorta kinda..

my grandmother had one, chickens pigs cows garden to get in, etc. So did my uncle, a smaller one. Both had farmed tobacco until the early 80s.
I visited about once a month and stayed weeks in the summer.

[Kali]

10. Not exactly.

Spent many summers on my grandparents ranch. Have now been here more than 20 years and raised my own kids on the place.

[LostinVA]

11. Alot of my friends were farmer's kids

I grew up in a very rural area in SONJ. Crabbers and dairy farmers.

[Kali]

12. In the general population I think it is less than 2% in ag.

Rural people tend to be repubs, so I would expect the rate to be even less than that shockingly low number here on DU.

[skygazer]

14. I think that's a misleading statistic

Though a lot of farming areas are "red states", that doesn't mean that the majority is necessarily a huge majority. There are plenty of "W" stickers here in the Bay Area which is most definitely a blue area and there are plenty of Dems in farming areas. As a matter of fact, most of the small family farmers I know are Dems who resent the way Republican support of huge farming conglomerates has pushed them out of business.

I grew up in Vermont. Born on a farm but never really a farming family. Most of my friends were, however. I don't like blanket statements and generalities like "rural people tend to be repubs." I think that assumes way too much.

[Kixel]

20. Hmm...

I think facts back up the premise that rural areas are more conservative. Not all areas and not all people who live in those areas are conservative, but looking at the area I grew up many are. My mother refuses to call anymore for the DFL because she doesn’t like talking to the Republicans in her precinct (I was able to guilt trip her into it when I still lived in that area).

It is funny, I didn’t realize how conservative it was until I was older-I assumed everyone was a Democrat that I knew-union household brainwashing, why would anyone not be a Dem? I guess it took…

[Hardrada]

41. Is this southwestern MN or up by Fergus Falls?

[Kali]

24. I don't like blanket statements either, that is why I used the word "tend"

I am VERY glad to hear your impression that many small family farmers are still Dem (that used to be true around here) but it sure isn't my experience. First, there are hardly any family ranches left at all, and I think every one I know near me are repubs.

The Dems in this area are either townies, The Nature Conservancy employees, and a few old "homesteader" hippies from long ago that stuck it out :rofl:

[GumboYaYa]

13. A cotton farm outside of Newellton, Louisiana.

I can hardly remember a time in my life when I was not working. When I was about 10, I spent the whole summer working on my grandpa's farm from six in the morning until three in the afternoon hoeing cotton. A few weeks before school started, he presented me with my paycheck for the summer, a whopping $100. The next day, my mom took me to the bank, cashed the check and then drove me to the farm co-op where I bought my blue jeans for the school year with my $100.

I attribute much of my character to the lessons I learned from hard work on the farm.

[Hardrada]

42. Field work is just so very hard. I only put in a week at it

and that was enough and I went back to mowing lawns in town!! I admire your sticking to it.

[Left Is Write]

15. Does it count that my dad did?

[Christa]

16. On a farm in Africa

Very far away from where I live now ... I used to look at the skyline as a kid and wished to be in far away wonderful places - and my dream came true.

[Silver Swan]

17. I am a genuine farmer's daughter

I grew up on a small (122 acres)farm in Michigan. We had horses, cows, pigs, sheep and chickens. We grew wheat, oats, barley, corn, beans, and alfalfa.

My mother lived on the farm until her death two years ago. Then my sisters and I sold the farm to another farmer. I didn't want to sell--it felt like losing my roots.

[Kickin_Donkey]

29. I know how you feel ...

My dad sold the farm, over 1,200 acres, last year. My immigrant grandfather started it in the early 1900s and my dad and his siblings were born there.

I, too, feel like I've lost my roots. The blood, sweat, and tears my family put into that soil for almost a century ... now someone else's land.

But time marches on. I'm trying to look on the bright side: Now that I'm released from that legacy, I can move anywhere I want.



On edit: Great name, Amber Waves -- I remember the 1970s (or early '80s?) TV movie with Dennis Weaver. Welcome to DU.

[Hardrada]

43. We still own the farm. I guess my wife and her sisters feel

the way about it you do about yours. I am surprised at the diversity of crops on some of the farms people have mentioned. Not so here in Iowa.

[Dangerously Amused]

18. I was born in a barn.

At least that's what my sister tells me. Does that count for anything?



My Dad did grow up on a farm and has many stories to tell of the hard work and occasional fun. I have nothing but respect for our farmers.



:hi:

[Kixel]

19. Country Girl

There was a barn on the property that had livestock in it on occasion, but I didn’t have to do chores-ergo, I was a country girl and not a farm girl. My parents both grew up on farms and a lot of relatives were farmers, so it’s ingrained in me a bit…

[Blue_In_AK]

21. I did for the first eight years.

[LadyoftheRabbits]

23. I'm living on one right now...

(Or at least when I'm not at uni :)). Didn't grow up on it, but I'm making up for lost time.

[Taverner]

26. I went to a farm once

Does that count?

[Kickin_Donkey]

27. I grew up on a farm and lived on it till a year ago ...

when my dad sold out (he retired and no one in the family wanted to take over). We had over 1,000 acres of peaches, prunes, walnuts and almonds in the Central Valley of California.

It was a great way to grow up.

[MnFats]

28. grew up in a farm town and worked on farms in high schooll

which taught me a great deal of respect for famers. it's hard to imagine anyone working harder for a living.
baling hay is no fun....it's hot, dirty, backbreaking work.
and that's just what WE had to do! When we'd arrive at 10 a.m. to bale hay, farmer Z. had been up for about 5 hours working on other stuff...and he'd work for another five hours after we left mid- to late-afternoon.
Nice fellow.very well informed. hated Nixon.

[Hardrada]

44. My Uncle Knute (yes, I had an Uncle Knute) used to get up

about 4:30 or so. He had corn and beans but also dairy cattle. When we stayed on his farm in the summer as kids, he would not expect us to get up that early. This was near Rochester MN.

[ileus]

30. WV dirt farmer

42 head of cattle
60 chickens
8 dogs
8 hogs
6 cats
35 rabbits (for eatin')
4000k bales of hay per year
That was at the peak of my fathers farming in the mid 80's

Yeah I'll never live on a farm again...

[Sequoia]

31. Raising my hand.

Big farm with cows aplenty and crops we had to can. Summer's were not spent as a child playing outside or going swimming, just working, working, working. The tomatoes were plump, sweet and juicy. The cucumber were crisp and tasted and smelled good and fresh. Lettuce and corn, crisp and sweet.

[Hardrada]

39. That's an ideal kind of farm with that diversity!

[Sequoia]

45. It was like a boarding school.

The downside was eating cow liver EVERY Wednesday and having to work summers in the canning room instead of going swimming or playing which kids should do. When I move to Los Angeles I thought the store bought veggies were awful. The celery was dry inside, the cucumbers tasteless, and the tomatoes never juicy or sweet. Thank goodness there was the Farmer's Market though. Now that I live in northern Cal the veggies are like I remember.

[yellowdogintexas]

32. country girl. not a farming family but everybody else was.

our house was surrounded by a 50 acre field with wheat in the spring and either soybeans or corn in the summer.

[femmocrat]

33. I grew up in the city and moved to a farm.

I would never go back to the city. Ever.

[Skittles]

34. my grandparents lived on a farm in Minnesota

so they are not totally alien to me :D

[Hardrada]

36. I was curious. I was a townie but used to bicycle out to

farms where friends of mine lived. And I had great aunts and great uncles who had farms. And my wife and her sisters grew up on a farm which they inherited after the loss of their parents, my in-laws.

[Kali]

37. A good portion of the US population is still within one or two generations

of farming. The change has been shockingly rapid.

[pokerfan]

38. Wheat farm

[Jokerman]

46. We worked my grandparent's farm

Up until I was about twelve. Now it's a housing development

[momophile]

47. for a few years when I was around 11 years old

my parents went bankrupt and lost it, though.