Hi! We’re Sweet Summer Farm. After years of searching and looking at farm after farm, we finally found the one. Please join us as we share our farming experiences. We are a family of three kids, a mom, a dad, and Grand too. We closed on our farm Monday, August 3rd, 2015. We have now bought a farm that is 6.9 acres, half pasture, and half woods. It has an old corn crib, an old barn and an Appalachian farmhouse that is about 100 years old. The house was built by Luther Benfield and his father Christopher. All of the wood was milled by Luther and Christopher from trees on the farm. Also, none of the wood on the outside or the inside had ever been painted.
The house was built for Luther’s wife Stella Arendale and their eight children. All eight children slept in the two upstairsbedrooms, one for the girls and one for the boys. Luther and Stella slept downstairs. Also, there was no running water! So they had to use an outhouse. Christopher Benfield and his wife Rachel lived in a log cabin next door. Unfortunately, their log cabin has been torn down.
We are very fortunate to have Mrs. Lillian Ward who is our neighbor across the street. She is one of the eight children that grew up in the house. A lot of the information we have about the farm came from Miss.Lillian. Miss.Lillian is the daughter of Luther and Stella.
Miss Lillian told us that they grew three different types of apples. They grew Ben-Davis, Sheepsnose, and horse apples. We were able to find two of the apples online, the Ben-Davis and Sheepsnose. Oh boy, we ordered them both. Then low and behold we found the last apple, the horse apple, in the 4-H plant sale order form.
Miss Lillian said they had cows, pigs, and chickens on the farm. Now the chickens have returned. We have six silver lace Wyandottes hens. We also have one very noisy Wyandotte rooster, Buster. This time, next year we hope to have added some pigs.
Just like Miss Lillian, another thing I love about our farm is the creek. It is my favorite place on the farm. The creek runs through the farm and divides it into pasture and woods. Miss Lillian told us how she and all the other children loved playing in the creek. Now the three of us love it too.
We feel very fortunate to know Miss Lillian and learn about the history of our farm. While it will not be exactly like it was in the past, we enjoy honoring some of the past histories. In the future, we will look forward to creating our own history here. We searched for so long for our own Sweet Summer Farm. We hope you will join us on our farming adventures.
