Farm and Food File columnist reflects on sweet farm life

Writer and grown-up farm boy Alan Guebert began writing his syndicated column The Farm and Food File in 1993 as a way to provide readers with hard-hitting news on current views on agriculture. These timely, carefully researched columns now appear in 70 papers across the United States.

But, as Guebert says in a recent phone interview, 'you do that 20 to 30 weeks in a row, you need a break.' So that first year he wrote one column about the Great Flood of 1993 and its impact — physically and mentally — on his parents and their 720-acre farm.

This personal reflection struck a chord with readers, and he received 50 handwritten letters. Quite a response considering his column only appeared in seven small papers at the time.

These reflective columns, named the Indian Farm columns after his family farm, began appearing a few times each year and were so popular that Guebert's daughter, editor Mary Grace Foxwell, worked with him to collect them into a book: 'The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey: Memories from the Farm of My Youth,' which they will read from on Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. at NewBo City Market, 1100 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids.

While Guebert's traditional column provides 'a less agricultural look at agricultural issues,' the Indian Farm columns 'gave me a chance to look back, to use those journalistic skills — the observation, the hearing and the sound — and just go back there. I don't want to get too sentimental or even maudlin, but I like going back there.'

And who could blame him? Guebert grew up on a large working farm in southern Illinois that boasted 100 dairy cows, 100 acres of alfalfa, and hundreds of acres of corn, soybeans and wheat. Which meant plenty of work — and adventure — for a young boy growing up in the 1960s.

'Mom had an arrangement with a local orchard owner that we would go and pick up 'drops' (peaches that had fallen off the tree) for a dollar a bushel. That meant you got up at five in the morning, you piled in the station wagon, and you got five or six bushel baskets, and you went under the peach trees and you picked up the peaches that had fallen on the ground and weren't worth anything. That's what you took home and canned.

'And then that day you canned 100 quarts of peaches. And we complained and moaned bitterly about that hard, hot work — until we opened a jar of those peaches in February. And then it was July again.

'So while I try to relate the sweat and the work that went into that — the equity — I want to make sure people understand the sweetness and the joy and the pleasure that was the result.'

Guebert passed his farm ethics on to his two children, but growing up his daughter Gracie, who edited this book, had a hard time understanding how her father had such fond memories of such hard work.

'I really hadn't experienced that personally. My parents prioritized my education and said you don't have to work that hard at the age of 14 if you don't want to. My dad was already driving a tractor by the age of 12.

'But as I grew older and started working ... I do take pleasure in work. You do feel purposeful when you complete something you poured your heart into. I thought that was interesting that that lesson was instilled in them at a very young age.'

And while some readers may relate to the columns because of a shared farming background, Guebert's stories connect with readers of all geographic backgrounds because they feature something that unites all of us: food.

'I would venture a guess that more than half of anyone's memories about anything involve either a great meal or a bad meal,' Guebert explains. 'Food is just as important as almost any other aspect of anybody's life. It's a connective tissue to memory, and people, and good times.'

The more Guebert and Foxwell discuss the book with the public, the more they have noticed that people are beginning to take a real interest in understanding food.

'Not just farming,' Guebert says. 'But food.'

'One of the questions you always get about organic food is: Why is good food so expensive? Well, the answer is pretty simple from where I stand and from where I grew up — it takes a lot of hard work and sweat to grow food. These columns show you ... the hard work — and dedication — that's involved.'

The shift to organic farming is a big change, but that, too, is a natural part of farming, Guebert says.

'There's one thing we know for certain in American agriculture: it will change ... In four generations we went from a 1-horsepower animal to 350-horsepower tractors. What will it be like in four generations from today? Or even one generation? I don't know but the one thing I do know: it will be different.'

But no matter what practices or tools are used in farming in the future, the ethics instilled by farming may well remain the same.

'I'm enough of a German protestant to know you that by the sweat of your brow, you earn your living. And if you work hard, you will be rewarded.'

'They try to say the great reward is the reward beyond. I'd just as soon take mine right now — in peaches.'

Book talk and reading

What: Reading and discussion 'The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey'

When: 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday

Where: NewBo City Market, 1100 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids

Cost: Free