6 Farmers Share Harvest Memories

My best harvest memory happened one night on Halloween. I had just gotten home from picking corn when there was a knock on my door. It was not your usual trick or treaters, but my friend, Tom, with four girls dressed in costumes. Since I didn’t have any candy, I invited them in for a drink. The one dressed as a scarecrow, Suzie, made quite an impression. Not only was Suzie cute, but she left real straw from her costume all over my house.

Later when I asked Suzie out, she said she was really busy as she worked two jobs and wasn’t sure of her schedule. I replied, “You surely are free Thanksgiving night.” She was and so we went to see the Indiana Jones movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” that night.

Not many people have their future wife show up on their doorstep! Suzie and I have now been married 39 years and have two children and three grandchildren.

- Randy DeSutter - Woodhull, IL

One of my favorite harvest memories is from high school, when I was picking corn with my dad in an older John Deere 7700 combine. It was fairly new back then, but it didn’t have air conditioning or a buddy seat, so I sat on the armrest with the door wide open, getting covered in dust while we harvested corn yielding about 130 bushels per acre.

I remember my dad telling me, “Pay attention here. It’s never going to get any better than this.”

I laugh about that now because, 50 years later, we’re growing corn that yields nearly twice as much. I’ll never forget sitting on that armrest while my dad pointed out just how good that crop was. It’s probably my favorite harvest memory.

- Bill Christ - Metamora, IL

Gophers left plenty of bare spots in my soybean fields, so I marked them with flags and decided to plant pumpkins and gourds to cover the ground and keep weeds from moving in.

I thought it would be a fun project for my grandkids, too, and it turned out to be much more popular than I expected! Before long, I was hauling truckloads of pumpkins and gourds to give away to the community. It became a neighborhood tradition that I continued for five years.

Although I haven’t planted pumpkins and gourds in the past few years, people in the community still ask about them! What started as a simple way to fill bare spots in my fields turned into a fun tradition that brought a little extra joy to the neighborhood.

- Lou Lamoreux - Lanark, IL

Harvest was never dull with my father-in-law and my uncle-in-law around. They had their own way of doing things, and it kept you on your toes (and sometimes drove you a little crazy). They were always pulling pranks on each other out in the field, waiting for the other one to look away so they could get him good.

Then there were the moments you just couldn’t make up. Like the time someone forgot to shut the grain door, and you’d pull in to dump the next load only to find the two of them standing there holding it closed by hand, because neither one could let go long enough to go shut things down.

Now that they’re both gone, harvest feels different. I miss the chaos, but more than that, I miss them: all the knowledge they carried, and the way they’d just show up and do the work, every single year, no questions asked.

- Sarah Hastings - Sidney, IL

They say to never plan for a fall wedding if you’re marrying a farmer. We ignored that advice and doubled down by also having two of our four children as fall babies! In fact, only one of our four children was born in the “off-season” (if such a thing exists) of the dead of winter. Baby #3 was born on Sept 29th and baby #4 came on Oct 2nd.

While there is never an ideal time for a new baby, each one is a blessing and it’s an even bigger blessing being able to see them excited about harvest starting and spending time with dad or papa in the cab and knowing those nights usually involve mom saying yes to a lot more chips and snacks!

- Megan Dwyer - Coal Valley, IL