This is the last column I get to write as the Managing Editor at Ozarks Farm & Neighbor. Wow, those are some tough words to say. But don’t fret, dear reader, for we have wonderful things in store for you. I’m writing today to share memories of my own, to share some memories of another columnist, Frank Farmer, who’s hanging up his hat, and to introduce you to a talented and successful woman who will be taking my place, Lane McConnell.
The Memories
To begin, let me say, I love Ozarks Farm & Neighbor. Putting together editorial content for you, our reader, over the past four years, has been a joy. I am on to different ventures, but before I go, I want to reflect on some of the fond memories I have made, not only with my colleagues like Frank, Stan, Sandy, Eric, Kathy, Melissa, Jerry and others – but also with you all, our readers.
I’ll never forget some of my earliest farm interviews. I sure was green! One time I wore dress sandals to an interview. I ended up tramping through a turkey barn, filled with thousands of birds, in next-to bare feet. You’ll only make that mistake once!
Since that time, I’ve been across your farms on (boot-clad) foot, in trucks and on four-wheelers. You, our readers, have opened your home to me to tell your stories, and then begged to send me off with home-baked goodies or frozen beef or jams and relishes. It’s no wonder I loved my job, I got to make so many new friends and tell so many of your stories.
While I served as editor, my family was always half-terrified to let me come back to the farm to work cattle, haul hay, or even come sit around on the deck and visit, for fear our activities, conversations or mishaps would end up in print the next week. Unfortunately, Ryan, my boyfriend, and his family, ended up with probably the worst story in print. Remember the time I ran over a huge tree stump with the hay rake? I timed it perfectly too, their rake had to be overhauled right in the middle of hay season.
Then, there are the stories I have yet to tell. I guess you never will get to read the tale of my dad’s brawl with a momma cow last fall. I’ll give you one guess who won that argument. Sorry, dad, you knew it’d have to show up here some time.
On Frank Farmer
Frank Farmer contacted Stan Coffman, our publisher, and me a few weeks back, and said the time had come to say goodbye. Frank is a true, old school, real-deal journalist. He always will be, even if he decides to step away from his typewriter. Every time I saw Frank, I would beg him to write. Write, Frank, keep writing! Never before and likely never again will I come across someone whose words flow like water out of his mind, through his fingers, and onto paper. Every time Frank sent me his column, I felt like I had a treasure. History retold of a life lived to its fullest, his words always at their greatest.
I remember when we ran Frank’s novel, “The Wild And The Free” in these pages a few years back, in serial form. I was at one of our Amish friends’ homes in Seymour, doing an interview. One gentlemen relayed a story to me of how he always read “The Wild And The Free” to his brother who’d been blinded in a farm accident. To have readers showing such diligent appreciation for your work; what an amazing compliment. A long, long time ago Frank wrote in a column regarding his interview with Judd McKnight, “They don’t make any more Judd McKnights, either.” Well, let me say: They don’t make any more Frank Farmers, either.
Frank, my dear friend, I myself, and the readers of Ozarks Farm & Neighbor, will miss seeing your thoughts grace these pages.
The Next Step
Lastly, today, I want to introduce you to a friend of mine, Lane McConnell. Hers is a name you’ve seen in these pages before, as a freelance writer. Lane is a writer and a farm girl. She comes to us having worked at both the Brownfield Farm Radio Network and the Missouri Department of Agriculture. She knows Ozarks Farm & Neighbor and the people this paper serves. I could not think of a better person to step in seamlessly, and take OFN to the next level. I’m excited to see what she has in store for you. If you want to contact Lane, E-mail her at [email protected]. She’ll be needing recipes, too, so go ahead and send those in to her, for our Country Christmas Cookbook, coming up soon, friends!
Goodbyes
So many of you have impressed upon me the importance of being willing and able to adapt, to grow, in our ever-changing industry. In my time here I have seen resilience from our region’s dairy farmers and innovation from our diversified family farms. From our beef farmers I continually see a desire to improve our methods and our product. You, the farmers, work so hard, so we can better feed our country. Is there a more noble profession or endeavor?
My heart bursts with pride as I think of what agriculture has done for our country, and the people of agriculture who have been the catalysts of that progress. We fight for our way of life every year, against urbanization, against vegetarianism, and perhaps worst of all, against a consumer so far removed from the frolicking calf in the tall green grass. As Frank so brilliantly wrote once, “Food is not free to mankind. Only the opportunity to produce it is there for the taking.” I think his words express exactly what sets us, the agriculturists of our nation, apart.
I cannot stress enough how honored I have been to tell the story of agriculture in the Ozarks. I cannot say enough how each of you, the livestock producers and farmers of this region have impacted my life, as you work so hard to advance agriculture. Please, stay the course.
Blessings and love to you all.
