Postcards From the Po’ Farm
First off, I need to refresh memories about where the name of the blog originated. My grandfather, who in the late 1930s bought the farm where we now life, called this 50-acre place the Po’ Farm, in reference to the “poor farms” that were prevalent in those Depression days. Fayette County’s poor farm, where people way down on their luck went to live, was out on McDonough Road.
My grandparents and my dad didn’t have to go to the poor farm, but my grandfather’s family did lose between 800 and 1,000 acres due to the boll weevil, the Depression and the financial ruin they brought. Pop’s nickname for this place shows that his sense of humor survived the hard times.
Coldest Christmas Ever
Our coldest Christmas ever, according to AI, occurred in 1983, when the official high temperature was 17 and the low zero. The cold weather slipped up on us. We had been lucky on the weather through November and December and were still cutting collards as...
Selling Under the Sheds
In recent weeks, we’ve made numerous trips to the Forest Park facility formerly known as the Atlanta State Farmers Market to pick up loads of Fraser Fir Christmas trees. Now place is called the Atlanta/Clayton County Produce Terminal, which more accurately...
The Adventures of Finding the Perfect Christmas Tree
Stephanie, Joanne and I, like other Christmas tree farmers, tend to focus on the imperfections of the trees we grow, but the truth is the quality of real Christmas trees used today is much improved. There was a time when families around here would go out...
Fetching Fraser Firs
On Thursday, in spite of an unfavorable forecast for the weekend, we decided to take a gamble on the weather and restock our Fraser Fir display with a fresh load from the mountains of North Carolina. Unlike back in the day when we drove up to the mountains...
Reminiscing About Cold Starts On Cold Mornings
The mornings during Thanksgiving weekend saw some sub-freezing temperatures which made starting our hayride tractors a little harder. (Pictured: Daniel Perkins (left) and Josh Choitz (right) seated in one of the three wagons making rounds at the tree farm) Daniel...