Rick McNary

In our ongoing effort to support rural communities, Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB) and Shop Kansas Farms (SKF) sent Kylee Stout, KFB’s business development manager, to the National Rural Grocery Institute Summit in Montgomery, Ala. this summer.

Hosted by the Hunger Solutions Institute out of Auburn and the Rural Grocery Institute out of Kansas State University, the summit brought stakeholders from across the nation to showcase creative efforts to solve the challenge of rural grocery stores. 

It’s common to see the entrance to a ranch with the cutout of a brand in an arch over the drive or mounted to posts along the side. If you drive into the ranch, you will most likely see that brand on saddles, cattle, coolers and barns. That brand is that ranch’s identity and legacy.

Farmers, ranchers and growers have many enemies. From the time they plant that seed in the ground until it is harvested, numerous perils come their way. One might be insects so small and hard to detect that a farmer can lose hundreds of acres of crops before they even see the pests. Another might be too much rain or insufficient rain at the right times. Yet another might be weeds like the pigweed, which has 500,000 to 700,000 seeds in each head and can grow so tall it keeps the regular crop from receiving sunshine.

My phone rang at 2 a.m., and the voice on the other end was desperate.

“Pastor,” the man groaned. “I’m going to end it all. I left the door unlocked. I want you to come take care of my remains.”

It was in the early 1990’s and, although he didn’t attend the church I served, when you’re the only minister in a town of 400 souls, everyone calls you in an emergency.

We stepped into the surgical waiting room at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis in Wichita to wait for our daughter during her surgery. The room was packed.

There are two ways you can buy beef, pork, lamb or bison from a farmer. One way is to buy in bulk by selecting a quarter, half or whole of the animal. The other way is to purchase individual cuts such as ground meat, roasts and chops. What is the difference?
It depends on the licensing level between Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) of the meat locker processing the protein. One is state (KDA), the other is federal (USDA). 

The inaugural Oxford Farm Tour on Saturday, June 29, was attended by more than 100 people from as far away as Kansas City who toured each of the five farms in the Oxford area. Organizers of the event all agreed the enthusiasm and number of attendees exceeded their expectations.  

If you’ve ever gardened, the idea of raising eight acres of green beans may seem overwhelming since picking green beans is a labor-intensive job that stretches out over days because it ripens at various stages. However, Warren and Eileen Sutton of rural Norway in Republic County have figured out a way: by using a green bean variety that ripens all at once then is picked by a machine.

While many know Frederic Remington as a famous painter and sculptor of the West, few know he was once a sheep rancher in Kansas a few miles north of my home in Butler County.

Remington was born in New York and, when he turned 17, went to Yale where he played football and studied art. After his father became ill, Remington returned home where he met, and fell in love with, Eva Caten. After his father’s passing, they hoped to wed but her father would not permit her to marry Remington.

Early on a summer morning, Wanda Esping gazes out her second-story window over a field of sunflowers. Acres of yellow globes splash across land homesteaded by her ancestors along the Smoky Hill River near Lindsborg.
“Oh, Karl,” Wanda says to her husband. “Look at our girls this morning. Aren’t they beautiful? Look at the way they dance with the sun!”

Karl and Wanda began growing sunflowers shortly after the Easter Freeze of 2007 wiped out their family’s wheat crop.