My name's, Ron "Buck"" Foust. Me and my brother and sister inherited our family farm. It's located in the rolling hills of the Piedmont Triad area just inside the Guilford county line next to Alamance in North Carolina. Four miles back of the Rock Creek Dairy industrial area off of I-40. Family history says that two brothers from Berk county, Pennsylvania came down here in 1796; liked what they saw and decided to set down roots. This area had already been settled in the 1600's. It was a draw for Germans, the French and Scot-Irish. So, we're part French [grnadma] and part German, [grandpa] , and a little bit of Filipino [courtesy of my Mom]. Dad was born in the house I currently live in; which his father built in 1915.,...although, Dad remodeled it so much over the years that it no longer resembles the original....but touches of it remain. Where once grew tobacco, are now fields of grain and seasonal fruits/vegetables. Dad started blueberries back in the 80's, blackberries were put in five years later, and chinese chestnuts were plants not long after that. Grandpa gave us Kieffer pears, apple trees and the muscadine grapes, which've made for so very many jars of grape jelly over the years..
Sis does the books. You won't see her out in the fields. She decided long ago, that that wasn't the life for her. For many years, it was just me and Dad out in the fields, producing food. Mom and Dad would "put up" a LOT of canned food for the pantry each year. Which meant stringing and snapping lots and lots of beans. Probably explains why Sis encouraged [insisted] that her children have no interest in farming. In spite of her efforts, Dad did manage to teach his grandson to drive a tractor. My niece, Ashley, tried - and succeeded in growing a potted tomato. (Alas, a one time experiment. Perhaps I should have given her another plant, each year.) Ashley has chosen to be an RN - and good for her. My brother's son, Glenn, chose to follow in his parents footsteps and become a police officer, and were are all proud of his choice. [Perhaps when the kids get older, they'll want to retire to the "slower pace" of a family farm....here's hoping.]
When my brother started nearing retirement, he decided to get back involved in the farm. He'd already gotten a degree from a Diesel Mechanics school outside of Nashville. So, he's the mechanic in the family. [I break it, he fixes it.] But he prefers to be a sit-down farmer,..sitting down, on his tractor and combine. He grows grain: oats, wheat, soybeans. None of which ever see a lick of pesticides or herbicides. Oh, he uses conventional fertilizer; just doesn't choose to spray any chemicals on his crops. I'm of a similar mindset. Been growing a great many of my crops organically for over 20+ years. I like being able to eat something straight out of the garden w/no fear of being poisoned. Unlike my brother, I do the produce side of the farming: vegetables and fruits. I'm the one you'll see at the local farmer's market or here, on the farm, handing out CSA boxes.
This is a working farm and our home - [for insurance reasons & now covid-19 ] we don't accept visitors to our property without an appointment.
