© 2024 NPR Illinois
The Capital's Community & News Service
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
00000179-2419-d250-a579-e41d38650002Issues of food, fuel, and field affecting Illinois.

Farm Kids' Big Life Lesson

Farm dog? Check.

Barn cats? Check.

Muddy work books lined up at the back door? Five checks.

We kick off our fourth season of “My Farm Roots” with the Renyer Family, five farm kids I had the pleasure of meeting last week.

Driving onto the Renyer farm, out in Nemaha County, Kan., I was struck by the many classic examples of a farm family. After being met by the family dog, a very sweet boy named Salty, I watched as the barn cats scattered and I met Leah coming out the back door, where the knee-high work boots were standing guard.

I was greeted by Mary Renyer, the mom, then introduced to her five kids still at home. (The oldest, Kayla, 21, is married and starting a farm of her own.)

Megan, 19, was home from college and told me about driving a semi to Topeka about two dozen times already this summer to “dump corn.” (Translation: taking corn stored on the farm in grain bins to the local elevator to sell.)

Eric, 16, said he was on call 24-7 for his dad this summer – that is, between basketball camps and games.

Leah, 12, was getting stuck with lots of the housework and still hadn’t decided on the name of her new kitten, tucked away in the garage.

Luke, 8, was working on a 4-H project with help from Megan.

We talked about several subjects – I was a little nervous I might not get a enough time, as they had to get to swimming practice at noon. But we covered most things and found a lot in common.

What you’ll hear in the piece posted above is something that my city kid friends don’t understand. It’s about how we get used to the fact, pretty early, that pets often are lost or picked off by prey or are sold off or become something wrapped up in white paper and placed in the freezer. (Yep, happened to me and my calf, Susie. A long time ago, of course.)

This is the first of six “My Farm Roots” our Harvest Public Media reporters are doing this summer. If you are interested in sharing your own story about being a farm kid, click here to submit your tale.

Or visit our previous years’ pieces, click here.

Peggy Lowe joined Harvest Public Media in 2011, returning to the Midwest after 22 years as a journalist in Denver and Southern California. Most recently she was at The Orange County Register, where she was a multimedia producer and writer. In Denver she worked for The Associated Press, The Denver Post and the late, great Rocky Mountain News. She was on the Denver Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of Columbine. Peggy was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan in 2008-09. She is from O'Neill, the Irish Capital of Nebraska, and now lives in Kansas City. Based at KCUR, Peggy is the analyst for The Harvest Network and often reports for Harvest Public Media.
Related Stories