WQED Weekly
Farmer Dick Koon
Clip | 8m 50sVideo has Closed Captions
This segment features an interview with local farmer Dick Koons.
This segment of WQED Weekly features an interview with local farmer Dick Koons. Dick talks about the kinds of animals and vegetables on his farm, what he enjoys about farming, why he thinks it is important for people to be connected with their local farmers, and the future of independent family farms.
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WQED Weekly is a local public television program presented by WQED
WQED Weekly
Farmer Dick Koon
Clip | 8m 50sVideo has Closed Captions
This segment of WQED Weekly features an interview with local farmer Dick Koons. Dick talks about the kinds of animals and vegetables on his farm, what he enjoys about farming, why he thinks it is important for people to be connected with their local farmers, and the future of independent family farms.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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It's 8 a.m.
on a freezing March Saturday and these people are going grocery shopping.
This is the East Liberty Farmers Market, where food is cheaper.
And even in winter when few vegetables are local, the food is fresher too.
But people seem to come here for still another reason they enjoy buying food from small family farmers.
Their satisfaction talking to country people who know about crops and the weather and the cost of grain.
Hi there.
Morning.
How are you doing?
Im fine.
Fine, fine.
What can I do for you?
I don't know?
I don't know, I'm just looking for just about anything.
- Oh come on.
No.
Good.
Where were you the other weekend?
The farmers enjoy bringing the word in from the country.
And at least one of them makes it his mission to keep people tuned in to the life of the farmer.
Dick Koons and his family raise pigs and sheep in the winter, plus flowers and vegetables.
Spring through fall.
Just ask Dick and his daughter Laurie about their pigs one time.
Fran will keep on weighing up the pork chops, by the time they finish talking, you'll be down home again.
Pigs are beautiful, right.
Next to people, and they're the best.
Sometimes theyre even better than people.
Just depends on what you know.
You know, as far as.
Pigs are good to have your friends to be your friend.
Yeah.
A pig, is a fantastic thing to to lift the mortgage, they tell me.
We built a house.
The pig did it for it us, really.
You know, you heard about three little pigs go out and build a house.
Well, our pigs built our home.
But my dad always told me when I was about 8 or 9 years old, he said, you get a hold of an old sows tail, shell drag you into a mud hole, but hang on.
Shell drag you back out.
I like this time of year myself, because it's time of year to kind of take stock of everything.
You've come through the winter and it's beginning to look forward to spring.
Of course, we have all animals being born on the farm, so I think it's really up to them.
But the people kind of lost contact with nature and they don't realize that.
Well, lettuce isn't in season.
They can get it the year round now.
Or beans aren't in season.
They can get it year round.
But they still come to farmer's market because they know that we farmers are still growing it, in season.
And this keeps people in touch.
Yeah.
To Dick Koons.
Keeping in touch means more than just knowing about seasons and crops.
It means having a close knit family like his own.
He believes in his family, and he doesn't hesitate to tell his customers how he feels.
All right.
I have a right.
I wouldn't want any more than I have, but I want what I've got.
And I like what I've got.
My family first.
And, I've got a good family.
I think you've got to have, everybody's got to be on a 1 to 1 basis.
And.
And if you, if I got to hoe corn, she got to hoe corn.
That's true.
Most definitely.
If I got to pick bean.
She got to go pick bean.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I don't like that.
But we do it anyway.
Mother and father went to the farmers market before I did, my uncle and a couple of my brothers went to the same farmers market.
I'm the only one that's farming in our family now, which we came from a bunch of farmers clear back in Somerset County in 1710.
So let's go a long ways back.
My mother and father have made sausage ever since I can remember.
And, I'm just full of family tradition and still making it just the same as it was made by my mother and father and probably their mother and father.
It's kind of a major, but touch of the hand, like my dad always said, you just put enough salt on it, track a rabbit and just enough of pepper to cover up the tracks.
And I try to still season my sausage just the same as they did.
Warm water.
But Dick Koons may be the last one of his family to season the sausage and take it to a farmer's market.
None of his three grown children is a farmer, and he doubts Ron or Laurie will be either.
Financially, I don't think they want to be a farmer today.
I think there's a big drawback to the farmers.
If, they were able to make a living compared to the people who city or town or any other job, we would have no problem.
If Ron and Laurie don't become farmers, what will happen to the traditions from 1710 back in Somerset County?
Well, maybe one of the grandchildren will come back to farming.
That's one of Dick Koons dreams.
Meantime, he probably enjoys the farmers market as much as his customers do.
When the market is bustling at daybreak, it's proof that people still value farmers like him in the nitty gritty know how they've got packed in their company.
Well, you give me a spoonful of ground, and Ill grow you something.
Whether it be a flower or whether it be food.
And I also sell flowers, by the way.
I don't have any this time of year because I field grow all the flowers that I have.
And, I really love wildflowers.
Most people who know me know this, and, if they would sometimes take a walk in the woods, they might see all these wildflowers and think they're nothing but really, we're all like wildflowers.
This is what I am.
I'm trying to tell people this same thing that we should, be a little more careful, be a little more caring.
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