Page 38 2025 Logan County Spring Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March 2025 Unfortunately, partially into the harvest Farmer broke his thumb in P.E., so his “picker” was broken down. Farmer said, “my mom, dad and cousin picked most of the popcorn and I carried the full buckets out of the field then dumped them in the wagon and returned the empty buckets” to the others. Farmer’s bucket dumping job made it easier so the others didn’t have to leave the field and stop picking. On November 10, the family picked the last ear of popcorn. However, Farmer said getting the crop out of the field was just the beginning. It still needed shelled, cleaned and packaged before we could get it to you.” To finish harvest 2024 at East Ranch Acres, the Farmers used an Oliver model #2 picker to harvest the rest of the field corn. Farmer said, after they brought the Oliver home, “my dad and I worked on it most of the week to get it ready to use. It had been sitting for quite some time so it needed new tires, a lot of elbow grease, a ton of penetrating oil, some chain guides and a new board for the elevator.” Unfortunately, Farmer said the Oliver “didn’t work as well as we were all hoping after all that work and it was a little discouraging. It was shelling more kernels off the cob than it should be.” On the plus side, Farmer’s grandpa and Uncle Chase had come to watch and Farmer said “with the help of them and my dad we got it tuned in good enough to get through what we had left.” After we got it dialed in, Farmer said, “my dad even let me harvest some rows! Another day of learning and memories made today. It’s hard to believe this was top of the line technology when this picker came out.” Finally, the popcorn was transported from East Ranch Acres to the Farmer’s garage “a truck bed at a time.” Farmer said, “we use a New Idea antique hand crank sheller to take the kernels off the cobs. This took some fine tuning of the sheller to adjust it to smaller cobs.” After two nights of using the hand crank, Farmer’s dad put an electric motor on it. After the popcorn was shelled, Farmer said, “we cleaned it using a Clipper fan mill,” then “packaged it up and put the labels on.” For Farmer, it was quite the learning experience this past growing season. As he said, “my family and I have spent a lot of time and put in a lot of hours. It’s hard to believe that years ago this is how all farmers farmed before they had such large equipment.” This year, Farmer grew yellow popcorn and Becks field corn and said, “next year I’m looking to expand my operation into different varieties of popcorn, field corn and oats.” Farmer’s mother, Esther Tomlinson, said they may plant one and a half acres next year plus try growing Indian corn and do some crop rotation. Over the past several months, Henry Farmer has been sharing his bountiful harvest by selling his popcorn at various vendor shows around Logan County. Farmer said he has sold roughly 350 pounds of popcorn. Henry Farmer certainly has an entrepreneurial spirit and strong farming genes. He is already looking forward to expanding his operations next year. [Angela Reiners]
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