Greenwood breakfast hosts had a big farming decision to make

If you haven’t gotten around to attending one of the local June dairy breakfasts yet, there’s still an opportunity this coming weekend to get out to the farm for a sit-down meal alongside friends, family and neighbors. The Greenwood Dairy Breakfast, sponsored by the Greenwood FFA Alumni and the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, will be held on June 27 at the Jamie and Erin Gardner Farm, Taygin’ Acres, located at N11040 Owen Ave.

This will be the second time that this location will be used as the hosting site for the Greenwood Dairy Breakfast. Back in 2004, Jamie said his parents — Bob and Delores Gardner — hosted the breakfast when it was called Bo-De-J’s Dairy Farm. While the farm itself has not changed much since that time, that year of the dairy breakfast kicked off the start of a new chapter in the life of Jamie and Erin Gardner.

“The farm hosted it back in 2004,” he said. “It was a big year for us, we had the dairy breakfast and got married that fall.”

For many years after that, Jamie’s parents continued to operate the farm while he worked at Vita Plus in Loyal, the same place he had first met Erin after he had graduated from Greenwood High School and her from Loyal High School. In 2013 however, Bob was considering retirement from farming and asked his son if he wanted to take over.

“My dad bought the farm back in 1974 and he retired from farming in 2013,” Jamie said. “He had asked me if I had wanted to take over the farm, I wasn’t 100 percent sure and my dad told me if I wasn’t 100 percent sure you won’t be 100 percent committed. So he sold the cows and went to cash crop.”

But that wasn’t the end of the Gardner farm. After his father sold the cows, Jamie said they spent the next couple of years seriously considering Bob’s words. Were they interested in the farm itself, or was it just a job to them? At that point, they finally had their answer.

“I had to decide if I did this (helped out on the farm) just to help him or if I enjoyed doing this,” said Jamie. “We must enjoy doing this. In 2015 me and Erin bought 42 cows and 20 heifers and started things back up again.”

Under their direction, the Gardners gave the farm a new name, Taygin’ Acres, a name derived from the first three letters of their daughter Taya’s name, and the last three letters of their son Riggin’s name. From there, the farm regrew to a 70-milking cow herd, with 150 total animals on the farm.

Starting up again though, wasn’t easy. As a small, family-owned farm, Jamie said the weight of the work falls entirely on their shoulders. There were hiccups, there were questions, but as they went along, they found it got easier.

“Every day is a gamble,” said Jamie. “There are a lot of factors that go into farming. At first, we questioned if we made a right decision. This job is seven days a week 24 hours a day, it’s a big commitment. But once we got through our first year, it got better.”

In hindsight, Jamie said getting the opportunity to be raised on a farm was the biggest contributor to his decision to carry on the family tradition. Farming is a way of life, he said, and the best way to know the ins and outs of the job is to have lived it yourself.

“I think being raised on a farm is huge,” he said. “Being around a farm had the most impact. You kind of learn what to expect.”

About a year after getting started up again, Jamie said they were contacted by Pat Lindner to see if they would be interested in someday hosting the dairy breakfast under their new name. After some consideration and future planning of crop fields, they decided that 2021 would be the year they would host. Little did they know at the time how perfect their prediction would be.

“Pat Lindner contacted us in 2016 and asked if we would do it,” said Jamie. “We thought we should take our turn and do it in 2021. Our crop rotation was right for us to have a parking lot in the field across the road for the breakfast in that year. It’s the closest we can get for parking.”

Since almost every event, including dairy breakfasts, were cancelled last year, Jamie said he hopes people will take the opportunity this year to come out to the farm and simply socialize with the people around them.

“I don’t know if they will learn anything, but this is a chance for everyone to talk to their neighbors, look for more of a social gathering, see people you haven’t seen in a while or people you have’t seen without a mask covering half of their face,” said Jamie.

The Greenwood dairy breakfast will be held from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m. on June 27. Breakfast will include a meal of pancakes, potato pancakes, sausage, eggs, cheese, cheese curds, applesauce, butter, real maple syrup, soft serve ice cream, milk, juice, coffee, water. The event also includes music from 10-1 p.m. by the Rich Yurkovich band, raffles, hit-and-miss engines and local crafters.

To get to Taygin’ Acres, take Highway 73 north past Greenwood for three miles. Turn east on Capital Road and go east for two miles, turning north onto Owen Avenue.

What happens if I touch this guy?

A brave child attending the Loyal Public Library Safari event on June 16 cautiously pokes a finger at the hard, but warm shell of an armadillo that Safari Bob from Sustainable Safari in Minnesota brought with him. The boy’s action soon brought the rest of the children around to admire the little creature, which was one of five peculiar animals that were brought to the library for the event.

CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTO

CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTO