Farm Dreams: A harvest of hearts at Stanwood family’s farm

Published 6:01 pm Saturday, September 27, 2008

A dozen children, mostly under 4 feet tall, line up and wrap their little hands around one end of the thick rope. Faces are shiny and smiles are bright. Never mind the rain.

Eyes turn huge when the biggest kid of all, Tristan Klesick, lifts his bullhorn and tells them they will have a tug of war against the big farm boys.

Miraculously, the little gang of rope-pullers wins.

In another part of the Klesicks’ farm field, rows of lettuce, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers and green beans are dotted with people, some beneath colorful umbrellas, picking the freshest veggies they’ll ever eat.

After parking in a pasture mowed short just for this day, visitors walk down a grassy road past a long row of tractors to a makeshift village of white canopies providing covered entertainment, food and exhibits for kids and oldsters alike.

A few little boys and a girl have climbed onto high tractor seats and positioned themselves behind steering wheels. Levers, knobs and shifters hold the youngsters spellbound by a farm dream that never really goes away in some.

Others, too little to climb onto a big tractor, are plowing a patch of earth nearby on toy tractors and antique cultivators. Tristan says there are a lot of children out there who don’t know, yet, that they’re farmers.

“Coming here tends to plant a seed in their heart,” he says.

The Klesicks and a lot of volunteers, good friends who’ve been preparing for this Harvest Jubilee for weeks, are scattered over several acres, helping the visitors.

The older Klesick boys are helping with demonstrations at a century-old threshing machine and gristmill. Andrew is helping friends John and Peter Lama with an old-time blacksmith demonstration.

Alaina helps kids make things with play dough in a pioneer kitchen, then runs them through a hay maze, where they try to find the hidden white mice.

Always on the lookout for kids who might be left out, Alaina helps one little girl find a spot on the rope for the tug of war.

“Alaina has good vision,” Tristan says. “She sees a need and goes to it.”

It is easy to see that the little ones like Alaina. They head straight to her when they want a hug.

Watching and listening to Tristan on his bullhorn as people gather around to see the century-old threshing machine in action, you realize that he does all this farm stuff for them.

It’s that way with his beautiful organic produce, too. The farmer is selling food, but he is serving something far greater. Most of the people who’ve come to this farm seem to know that.