Agriculture


In continuing with where I’ve been, I grew up on a dairy farm. My Dad taught school and farmed for 18 years. After we sold the dairy cows, we switched to raising beef cattle, which we still do today. I live in my great-grandfather’s farm house which was built around 1878 on the 150 acre family farm. I enjoy shooting agriculture; I guess it’s in my blood.


For about 15 years, I worked on contract for a large agrichemical company. I crawled through corn fields in the midwest, walked through wheat in the Dakotas, picked cotton and waded through rice fields in the South. Also had the opportunity to ride and operate some really big equipment.



(Photographs copyright 2010 by Dan Routh)

Apple Butter at Goat Lady Dairy


My son Tristan and I were invited over to Goat Lady Dairy by our neighbors Steve and Lee Tate on Sunday for their annual CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) picnic. Steve and Lee set up and made a pot of apple butter, an old family tradition of theirs, assisted by the members of the CSA. We took our cider mill with us and made a few gallons of apple cider for the picnic. It was an enjoyable afternoon; food, music, great company and a little work.









(Photographs copyright 2010 by Dan Routh)

The Old Plow

(Photograph copyright 2010 by Dan Routh)

The world is is a constant state of change, but some things remain the same on our farm in Grays Chapel, North Carolina. My Grandfather’s plow still sits under a tree near his barn where he last unhooked it from his Super M Farmall sometime before 1960.