Southern Belle Farm brings tradition to the masses (NASCAR.com)
March 5, 2010
Listen up, city folk. Some of you are about to learn something.
You know those great big tall round structures you see as you pass by a farm? Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat … they’re not missile silos. They hold grain. Corn, maybe. They can hold all kinds of stuff that farmers grow, but whatever they hold, they’re not equipped with the latest in modern warfare.
Jake Carter is a seventh-generation farmer and co-owner of Southern Belle Farm in McDonough, Ga., and he’s heard it all since the 200-acre property was opened to the public in 2006. Then again, it might be at least part of the reason why the Carter family has thrown the doors open to the place.
That, and they’ve taught many a child exactly where milk comes from.
“We knew through my nieces and nephews, that if we didn’t preserve some of our heritage and show them what farming was about, even they would lose track of where their roots came from,” Carter said. “We started noticing a lot of the kids in the area didn’t know a lot about farming, because our community has been developed pretty heavily with subdivisions and commercial property.”
The Carters—Jake’s father is Jimmy Carter, but not the former U.S. president—have had offers from developers. However, the family’s roots in the central Georgia soil run deep and they want to keep it that way.
“We decided that we didn’t want to go that route since we’ve been here so long,” Carter said of the decision to not sell the property. “We wanted to preserve the farm and have something to pass on to our children and grandchildren, to show them the way of life of farming. It’s just a unique thing that we’re proud to be a part of.”
There are any number of activities that farm visitors can experience, such as a corn maze, hayrides, pig races, pumpkin patches and cotton picking. There’s even something called a corn cannon, which is exactly that. It’s a cannon that shoots corn, kind of like the contraptions that fire freebie T-shirts into the crowd at ballgames.
During the summer, visitors can pick their own strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. Southern Belle Farm does produce commercial hay that it sells to outside interests, but other than that, its primary goal is to serve as a destination for tourists, school groups and the like.
Bring on the city folk.
“It’s always intriguing for city folk to come in,” Carter continued. “They don’t know what [the silos] are. As far as they know, there’s nuclear weapons stored in them. … They don’t have a clue what those are, so we enjoy explaining that to them.
“The kids, you ask them where milk comes from and the majority of them say, ‘Kroger.’ We enjoy being able to share that with them. There’s a lot of things that we do here that city folk don’t fully comprehend, and that’s kind of why we’re here.”
The Carter family has been farming the land on which Southern Belle Farm now sits since 1938. Carter’s great-grandfather, J.A. Carter, had been a sharecropper who eventually saved enough money to purchase the property. It’s been in the family ever since.
“It’s a very important part of my life, to be able to carry on traditions that my great-grandfather did,” Carter said. “Being able to get up in the morning to work the land, it runs in our roots. It’s in our blood. We enjoy doing it. I don’t see any other way to make it.”
Carter has a one-year-old daughter, a true Southern belle who he hopes will one day carry on the family tradition.
“Life skills learned here on the farm are just invaluable,” Carter said. “A hard work ethic, seeing things come to fruition and the character it builds is just second to none. You can’t explain. The way I was raised, I intend to raise my children the same way.”
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