Variety Fit for a Queen (or two)

Pumpkins ready to be harvested after a great growing season in Illinois.

When you sit down with your family during Thanksgiving to eat pumpkin pie, the Vance family will probably be talking about the pumpkins that went into it.

To this Central Illinois family, farming isn’t an occupation, it’s a lifestyle.

A farmer’s daughter, Kelsey Vance is 21 years old. She and her sister Jessi are both former Miss Tazewell County 4-H Queens and are currently in college, majoring in agriculture. On top of going to class, they also help run the combine, auger wagon, planter, or snow plow, depending on the season.

Kelsey & Jessi, both county 4-H queens, with their proud parents.

Kelsey’s dad, Rick, is on the county FSA (Farm Services Agency) board, is a member of the Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Corn Growers Association, and Illinois Soybean Association. (He also plows snow for all the local churches.) He heads up a  3,500 acre family operation growing pumpkins, green beans, popcorn, soybeans, sweet corn, seed corn, peas,, field corn (yes, that’s 3 types of corn – one to munch, one to crunch and one for livestock).

Both of Kelsey’s grandfathers and several uncles are farmers. And she also works with her mom to do all of the office work for the farm.

So it should come as no surprise that farming is the main topic at every family gathering.

Harvest time for pumpkins must move quickly.

Having so many hands on deck is a good thing, because growing pumpkins (and all that other food) is hard work. Not much has changed in the equipment used to harvest pumpkins over the last twenty-five years. It takes the entire family to run the farm, and without everyone’s cooperation, things do not run properly.

Did You Know?

Pumpkins are almost always raised on family farms similar to the Vance’s, and not on corporate farms. Weather plays a major role in the pumpkin yields – all the rain last year lead to a pumpkin shortage in the stores.  In order to produce pumpkins, the ground must be approved. Unlike other crops, only a certain amount of acres can be planted with pumpkins.

Consider This…

Beyond farming, Rick Vance enjoys hunting, riding his motorcycle and working on his pick-up.

Because the Vance family farms in ground that has areas of sandy soil, they have twenty-six extensive irrigation systems to make sure their crops are getting enough water, which comes from an aquifer in the ground. To protect food safety, they use stringent soil testing for residue chemicals. “We are extremely careful as to what and how chemicals are applied to our farms,” says Rick Vance. “We would never put anything on our pumpkins that we wouldn’t feed our own families.”

Once again, it all comes back to family.

“My daughters have a strong passion for agriculture,” reflects Rick. “In the future, I hope to someday pass the farm on to them.”

Sounds like an opportunity fit for a queen. (Or two.)

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