The real Farm-ville!

Even tho we live in the Midwest, we aren't farmers.  OK, my husband Alan grew up on the farm and has a host of hilarious stories to tell about his childhood adventures on the farm. Really, it's a wonder farm kids live to adulthood!

Last weekend we embraced our rural inner selves and took a field trip to some friends' farm just across the border in Oklahoma.  We loaded up 7 of our friends for the 75 mile trip to Wakita, OK - only 75 miles south of Wichita. As we crossed the border the main difference between Kansas and Oklahoma was obvious - the DIRT in Oklahoma is RED!  It's like God drew a line between the states...Kansas dirt is brown, Oklahoma dirt is rusty red!

What is this???  It's a field of golden, ripe wheat just begging to be cut!  Just for you farm novices, the farmers plant their wheat in the fall. Then it hangs out all winter and grows a beautiful green in the spring. As the summer heats up, the wheat matures and turns a gorgeous gold.  At this time, the farmers feverishly work to cut the grain, before any weird weather might ruin the crop.  During harvest, the crazed farmers work all day and into the right to get the crop in.  Our farmers friends were in the middle of harvest, but graciously invited us to visit and see them in action.

Here' s a pic of our friend farmer Eddie's big boy toy combine. - the machine that harvests the wheat. These things are modern marvels (unlike the ones Alan used as a kid) with enclosed cabs and even GPS navigation! Farmer Eddie uses 2 combines and 4 farm hands (3 men, one very able young college gal) to help him harvest nearly 2500 acres of wheat.

The farm workers are all powered by wife Connie, who serves AMAZING farm food daily. Are you familiar with the famous food blogger and cookbook author Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman? She lives right down the road, also in Oklahoma. Connie might not be as famous, but I'm sure she can challenge her in the kitchen! By the way, we all brought food to "pay our way" and make sure we had something to eat after the real men left the table?!

Did I mention that the tiny town of Wakita was the film site for the famous (infamous) Twister movie?  YES! While the Twisiter movie was really painful for anyone who knows anything about tornadoes to watch (not realistic), the movie was good for Wakita and a few Twister things remain...the Twister Museum and the Twister Cafe.

IMPORTANT thing I almost forgot - their farm is called "Green Acres", just like the TV show we all remember. So, as we rolled into the driveway we broke into song and some of us (Alan and I) made it through the entire theme song...probably evidence that we watched too much TV when we were kids!