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What are some of your favorite things about Madison County?
First and foremost, the commitment to the well being of families
would be our first answer. In practicing the principle of subsidiarity,
knowing that supporting strong families will in turn produce the
greatest community benefit is evident when looking around to the
healthy schools, churches, businesses, and community life in the area.
It’s also unique in that we have a vibrant city with many amenities
and attractions, business and industry, mixed with rural life and
farmland, so you get “the best of both worlds” within a few miles
of each other.
How do you spend your summer breaks?
Summer is a busy time on the farm! We plant a 20-acre garden
of vegetables including sweet corn, watermelons, cantaloupes,
tomatoes, okra, peppers, and a few others that we harvest and sell
to the public from our farm from the middle of June to the middle
of July. During this season, it is all hands on deck! Everyone in the
family works around the farm, in varying degrees of ability, six days
a week starting quite early in the morning. Due to the high demand
during the summer of 2020, we had customers waiting outside our
farm stand as early as 4:30 A.M. The children have cousins that
also work on the farm, and the children spend afternoons playing
around the farm and in our pool as a reward for their hard work in
the mornings. After the vegetable season, we look ahead to our fall
harvest, typically harvesting cotton, and prepare cotton pickers and
other necessary machinery for the fall harvest. There is always
something to do on a farm!
What accomplishments make you proud during your time in Madison?
Besides getting married and starting a family, we started growing
produce commercially for retail stores. We learned a completely
different side of farming as opposed to conventional crops like
cotton, corn, soybeans, and wheat, which we still do. It is very labor
intensive and required learning new types of machinery. We built
a large cooling system and building ourselves that can store the
produce, which was quite an undertaking. Even though we don’t
grow commercially anymore, we still use the knowledge, building,
and machinery to grow produce that is fresh, local, and economical
for many in our community that have relied on our produce for
almost 20 years. Those in the lower income bracket or who are
on a fixed income buy sweet corn in bulk, put it up in their freezer,
and utilize it throughout the year. To be able to provide goods and
a service, while still doing something we love, gives us great joy and
a sense of accomplishment.
What drives you to have the job that you have?
Jeff deeply enjoys farming because it is a job with a purpose and a
tangible outcome. He sees his purpose as providing food and clothing
for people, both here in America and throughout the world, as a
necessity and one that comes with a heavy weight of responsibility.
America exports about 25% of its food to countries around the
world that do not have a source of food as readily available as we
do in America, and that begins with American farmers.
We believe having a lot of freedom in owning a large portion
of land comes a great amount of responsibility to care for the land
and manage it properly. We have the privilege to plant what crops
we choose, hunt, and adventure all around our property. These
are not freedoms that everyone enjoys and we don’t take that for
granted. We ultimately are driven by our calling to glorify God
in all that we do. There is ultimate freedom in glorifying God in
things both great and small, in the mundane and the extraordinary,
in plenty and in want, because it is all a gift.
QUESTIONS FOR THE KIDS
What is your favorite thing to do as a family?
JAMES I like to go on Gator rides around the farm to explore.
MORGAN I like going on trips together.
MYERS I like going camping and on rides around the farm.
What’s your favorite restaurant?
JAMES Chick-fil-A because I share a protein shake with my daddy.
(Jeff calls the CFA chocolate milkshake a protein shake, ha!)
MORGAN I like going on dates with daddy to Bonefish for my
birthday because they have the door you can spin around and
around in, and they gave me candy for my birthday.
MYERS I like going to McDonald’s because of their fries.
(She often goes on lunch outings with her grandfather,
Jerry Sumrall, to McDonald’s for a ‘hambooger’ and fries.)
What’s your favorite TV show?
JAMES Little House on the Prairie and Reading Rainbow
MORGAN Reading Rainbow
MYERS Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood
Hometown MADISON • 17