When Farmer Bill and I visit with family and friends we could easily spend the entire time talking about the farm. I like to recite anecdotes about how I avoid farm work (by updating the website, blogging, working on the accounts, etc.). Bill is generally happy to talk farming to anyone who will listen -- and especially to people who are genuinely interested. And there seem to be a lot of people interested in what he does here on Straight River Farm. I think that many family members like the fact that they still have ties to farming and talk about us to their friends.
Yesterday we celebrated a birthday with a group of family. A friend of the birthday girl is one of Farmer Bill's biggest boosters. She gets a delivery of our strawberries every year and says that every other strawberry -- home grown or not -- is compared to Farmer Bill's berries. And most of them don't hold up well.
Nieces and nephews bring their children to SRF to experience picking strawberries. And I think I put myself on the hook to host an apple-picking party with multiple children sometime in September. We don't offer pick-your-own apples to the public, but I've had a couple of nephews who've come multiple years to pick Honeycrisp. We didn't have any family come pick apples last year because our crop was so light that it got picked, packed, and sold in short order. This year the crop is bigger and we should be able to provide a Sunday afternoon outing. Favorite things are riding in the Gator and watching the apple sorter work.
It's really nice to have kids here, so show them how things grow, and let them experience the country up close and personal. These days most children don't have any family members who farm; we like being the part of the family who does farm.
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