Farmers, a Photographer, a Fiddler – and Ice Cream

I’ve been in the food business most of my life, but it dawned on me recently that I don’t know squat about farming or farm life. That’s where the food comes from – the farm. How difficult can it be? You get some land and put seeds in the dirt and out comes the food: or, you get a few cows and walk them to the milking machine – no problem.  ...Not quite.

Farming ain’t easy

Federal prisoners have more free time and flexibility than farmers do. There are no sick days, holidays, paid vacations; no guaranteed salaries or hourly wages …sometimes they even have to pay to work. Twelve months of hard work yield three months of iffy income: crops aren’t guaranteed to grow, cows don’t guarantee milk and chickens don’t guarantee eggs.

This story started because I’d heard about a farmer on the back roads of Swansea who is opening an ice cream stand. – Wait a minute, there already is a farmer on Swansea’s back roads with an ice cream stand. I decided to visit them both.

Each of these farms has been family owned since the 1880s when James Garfield was the president of the U.S. Each is held together by strong and determined families.

read the entire article about the Bakers and Simcocks in the July issue of the South Coast Insider