The Community, Connections & Commerce Podcast, presented by OUE & St. Clairsville Chamber - Community and Connections Season 2 Episode 4 with Ebberts Farm

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

Welcome back to Community and Connections. I'm your host, Drake Watson, joined this time by Sam, and we have two great guests with us this morning. Jerry and Lova, Everett, we thank you guys immensely for being here and can't wait to talk to you guys a lot about Everett's Farm and the things that you guys have going on over in Belmont County. How are you guys doing? Oh, very good. Thank you. So the first thing I guess I'll get into is there's a lot. There's a historical marker on National Road, on 40, right down from the farm that celebrates a hundred years of Everett's farm. You talk to us a little bit about that and how special that is.

Well, my grandparents and great-uncle and aunt moved out into the St. Clairisville area in 1919 and established the farm, and each family lived in the same farmhouse right there that's still part of the operation, and each raised nine children. And we're the third generation. My father and mother took it over in the 60s, and we've kept it going for over 100 years now. Wow. That's impressive. Any challenges as far as keeping things moving and, I guess, continuing the legacy, so to speak?

Well, a lot has changed in our area as far as the farmland and everything, but the market still stays on the original property. the roads have been a real blessing as far as the interstate highways coming through and putting us in a little better position with our market. But obviously it took a lot of farmland and progress and development has changed the area. And you guys, I think, are in a fortunate position where the highway, as opposed to solely bypassing you guys, as opposed to a traveler taking 40, when they go by on the interstate, they still see your big sign and it's visible from the highway. So a lot of those places might not be visible and might get lost kind of whenever somebody's trying to bypass the town area.

You guys have the opportunity to kind of have that big sign. And every time I drive by and, you know, 70 and 470 kind of combine right there, you can see Ebert's Farm from a good distance. Oh, yes, we're right between two interchanges, so it's great. Well, and I want to get into a little bit as well of how you guys started out in this and kind of taking it back. You guys are both graduated from OUE, correct? Yes. That is correct. What was your guys as majors?

We went on to Ohio State to major in agriculture, agricultural production and agricultural economics was what I did. Right. We started out, OUE, we loved it, we still do. We got such support out there. We wish they would have had an ag program, and we would always have been there. But, yeah, we both loved the ground. We loved agriculture. We loved working with our hands.

And so it was just a natural for us to be involved in agriculture. We also had connections back here, and we wanted to come back. There was never a second guess about when you finally graduate. you do something where you're going to live and we came back and we're thankful very thankful we love these connections back here we love the people and being in the market I hear so many wonderful stories incredible stories of people and a lot of people that have moved out the area they're coming back to raise their families back here we talk to a lot of people and a lot of them share your view on staying in the area and it was never a question for them.

And if they did leave, then they came back because of a lot of different things that made really the entire Ohio Valley great. If you could speak to some of those things, you guys mentioned it wasn't ever any consideration for you guys to leave long time. But what are some of the things, aside from the farm, which is a great attraction in itself, what are some of the other things that you guys? deemed to be attractive about the area that can really do a good job of keeping people here and maybe bringing people back as well well the scenery itself i love the hills i just love the the beauty the trees um and the people themselves are very basic people hardworking people most people here are not arrogant and just meeting people in the market and we have found that the people And maybe because Jerry and I, when we grew up, we had enough, but there was not an abundance.

You were not poor, but you weren't wealthy either. And we appreciate, and we find with the market. News Radio 1170, WWVA. I'm sorry. Keep going. Okay. We find it the people that have the least are the most appreciative. And again, we love the area for the people.

And again, it's nice when you see people saying, I'm moving back. I don't like the traffic. I don't like the culture. I don't like the crime. And they're coming back. And we like that a lot. Oh, and that's what really got us together was that was the one thing that we shared was that we ultimately wanted to come back and live in this area,

even though we went on to school in Columbus. and we had jobs in northern Ohio and Minnesota. Every move we made was getting us closer to home, and within about 10 years out of graduating from college, we were back home, raising our family. That's good to hear. We've obviously spoken to a lot of people, and we try to ask them about the area and things like that,

what we just spoke about. And you guys included, nobody has failed to mention, the people in the area as a reason as to why they come back and continue to stay here. Right. Talk to me a little bit about the event center at the farm. Okay, that's kind of a new venture. Jerry and I actually thought about 10 years ago, you know, we're getting older and we need to slow down. And another couple came to us and said, what are you going to do when you retire?

And they suggested, you know, this would be a great place to have an event center. and we just view it as a happy place. People get married. They can have graduation parties, retirement parties, and again, it's working with the people. We enjoy that very, very much. My high school prom just two, three years ago was out there, and I couldn't have thought of a better place to have it than right there at the event center. So you guys say you do everything from graduation to weddings and things like that.

kind of task is it or do you guys kind of leave it out of your hands what's that look like in terms of managing all of that well we don't get into managing that ourselves we defer to somebody else have a you know have a good partner that does all that and it's kind of energy it's kind of our entertainment we're the we're the landscapers and the janitors and the parking lot attendants and the couple that we work with do just a beautiful job yeah of everything from decorating to DJing to getting everything coordinated. So we've kind of got the easy part. But as Lova says, it's such a nice community outreach. And we get to see so many people, meet new people. People maybe we haven't seen for 50 years that are in here for a wedding. Lova's class reunion was

there last year. Fifty years, that's hard to believe. But again, just good times. It's a nice nice social gathering place and our son's having his 20th year class reunion um next month again it's just the people and seeing people yeah and we just like it's it's a happy time for people and that's exciting for us yeah kind of the way you talk kind of makes it sound here's this building and you guys just kind of get to sit back and watch what somebody does with it um and and it's all good things from from what I hear out at the event center. So talk to us a little bit about, you know, maybe if somebody hasn't been to the farm or the event center

or even down that way, they drive up and they get out of their car, what's it like for them? Where do they go first on, let's say, an average Tuesday, maybe 2 o'clock in the afternoon? What are they going to see? Where are they going to go first? Where are you trying to get them to go first?

You know, where maybe should they spend their money? What's that look like? It seems like our main draw is sweet corn. We're basic on our own sweet corn. We've developed a good line of varieties. We pick it fresh every day. We just try to do the best we can on the sweet corn. And tomatoes also.

We pride ourselves on having a good assortment of good fresh local produce. We don't grow fruit anymore. We have some orchards that we depend upon. in Ohio that they provide that for us, but that's the main draw. And yeah, it's the sweet corn table. I mean, when people come in, they go to the pile of sweet corn and the sweet corn table, and most everybody leaves with sweet corn. But Lova does a good job with a lot of other locally produced jams and jellies

and products like that that they keep people coming back. And we have a good line of customers. I mean, it's just always amazing to me every year that we don't make a lot of hullabaloo with opening up. But we put a date out there, and it's like everybody's there. Waiting in line, I am just always so impressed with that. I guess that's what 100 plus years will do is everybody just kind of knows that they can go to Everett's at that time. Are you guys kind of, excuse me, in the weeds a little bit to, maybe talk to a customer and have you noticed anybody that has come in and they're not from around

here but they're passing through and they make a stop has that ever come up oh we have a lot of people that see the sign from interstate and they stop it's always interested in talking to them they may ask for something that's not grown in this area and with what we do i'm usually at the counter. I view it a lot as educating people. People hear things on the news and they'll ask about it and I'll be able to say, well, this is not practical. Or someone will say, well, how do you handle tomatoes? How do you can this? And again, to me, it's a lot of education. And in return, I get a, I learn a lot of things too. It's like I learned things I'd never heard of. And people are incredible with their stories and things so it's very practical and pumpkin season i'm always amazed how many people are coming through

the interstate maybe going east and they'll just load their car up with pumpkins and say you've got a nice selection um they're a third to cost of what they are in new jersey sure and uh people that are that are traveling through i always kind of get a kick out of that i know if i'm going to if i'm to travel to go to a to a farm market uh anytime in october that's what i'm getting is pumpkins and uh and i've stopped at ever it's a time or two to get them as well um how much extra i guess commerce does that bring during the the fall season you guys selling pumpkins uh a lot of different things that we do sell uh that time of year it seems like we have everything because we still have sweet corn and tomatoes and fruit and then we get into pumpkins we probably

have more of a selection that time of year than any other time of year. But pumpkins kind of take the place of sweet corn as far as the major draw. Of course you've got a generational thing. I mean, the older generation, which we are now, may not be as much into the pumpkins and they're into the produce, but get a lot of young families. And that's always fun because they come out with the kids and we have seen, well, we're probably on our third generation of people that grandparents came out as kids and they brought their kids out. Now they're bringing their grandkids out. We've got a how tall this fall background that you can measure everybody's growth. And we've seen so many pictures of people over the years that, yeah, I've got my picture in front of that. Here's

what I look like when I was 15 or 12 or whenever. A lot of good memories and a lot of students in college, you know, around this area or actually moved away, come back and they'll get their classmates and they'll line up and get pictures. It's just a good memory. They're trying to duplicate, and it's fun, fun watching them and hearing their stories.

That's good to hear. It's good to hear that the generational impact that's had. And I think that also speaks to 100 years of the farm, 106 or whatever it is now. Right. I'm going to speak from ignorance a little bit now. Okay.

Have you guys noticed, because I'm no expert on, anything that you guys would be experts on, but have you guys noticed, particularly we'll talk about the fall season, is it warmer on most when you guys are putting pumpkins out? Do you notice it to be warmer than it has been, say, 20 years ago? Oh, I don't know. I guess we haven't paid a whole lot of attention to that. It doesn't seem like there's been a lot of change. I remember when we used to make cider years ago,

some of the preschool classes would try to line up their field trip really early in the season, late September, because it would still be warmer. And us having some of the coldest days in late September, and by the end of October, it was nicer weather. Every season is different. Of course, we live by the weather. I mean, everything we do from here to the end of the season is weather-related. And there's a lot of ups and downs.

But, yeah, I really can't say. We've had some really nice weekends. In the fall, we like nice weekends because if it's a cold, rainy weekend, you just don't get people out. When it's a nice sunny weekend, you know, that's decorating time. Drake, I just want to ask a quick question to them. you know we um we have seen the the world change throughout the generations and one thing that we do with this podcast is we bring in a lot of entrepreneurs and business folks that that work the traditional nine to five we'll say the lifestyle is a of a of a farmer i would venture to say is

beginning to become a lost art unfortunately we we see family farms becoming less and less the profit margins you know there's a whole discussion that we go into about that but that lost art of working with your hands canning like she mentioned um are you seeing that on on your side of things also well it seems like it's more of a i don't know it was a lifestyle for us i mean our our parents i mean my mom had hundreds and hundreds of mason jars and She filled with everything, and that was a big part of our life. Now, it's almost more like a hobby thing. People, at least where we're at, a lot of people that have their own gardens,

there's a lot of people that do a lot of canning. We still sell a lot of tomatoes for canning. People like to make their own salsa, spaghetti sauce, different things like that. But it certainly isn't like it used to be. I mean, we used to sell so many volumes of, like, bushels of apples that people did up, and now everything is smaller containers. So much of what we sell in the summertime, it seems like, or maybe convenience foods. I mean, sweet corn, you know, you can make a meal in a few minutes, and, you know, your fresh, fresh product.

And that is different. then today's generation doesn't preserve as much as they used to. When you mentioned the lifestyle, for a lot of folks, they don't understand the lifestyle of being a farmer, whether we're talking livestock or we're talking fruits and vegetables, all that, you know, that side of, excuse me, of farming. Explain that lifestyle for folks. How you are, you know, there's never a day off. Is it sun up to sundown?

Well, we were up this morning at 6.30 checking cattle because we also have cattle on our farm, pasture ground that we can't use for anything else. And I'll probably work till 9.30 tonight and go to bed and sleep real well and get up tomorrow morning and do the same thing. I always think about in the summertime, we pick our sweet corn, whether it's rain or shine, whether it's pouring down rain or it's hot like it is outside. and I always got a kick out of coming in and maybe I hadn't changed my clothes yet and I'm in the market and people were asking, did you pick this corn this morning

and I'm soaking wet? I've still got mud on my jeans and it's like, no, I just went out and rolled around in the mud to look like this. Yes, we did pick it. We are on a schedule. We have good, dedicated helpers that don't mind going out

and doing that. But the work is there, to do no matter what the conditions are like you can't put it off till tomorrow when you're milking cows it's like I don't feel like it today I just won't milk the cows no it's not that I mean in produce it's grown every day I couldn't believe how the corn has developed from last night when we saw it to this morning because our first corn is is showing tassel and last night you couldn't hardly see any tassel and that's just overnight so you're working with a growing product that you've got to keep maintained and healthy and picked on time and brought in and

you work on its schedule. I mean, you don't make your own schedule. I mean, it's, you're on the farm schedule. Well, I'm going to go back in the archives a little bit here. Moking cows every eight hours. Is that correct? They have to be milked? Eight to ten hours? Well, twice a day twice a day now some people now are milking three times a day if they are really trying to you know get their production up of course today now we've got robotic farms that even in our county we have you know cows that are milk you know robotically and sometimes their milks maybe maybe they go up whenever they feel like they want to be milked and they may be milk six times a day they've gotten smarter then yes

But it's still, it needs done. I mean, it's, it's not anything you put off. You don't take off Sundays. You don't. Christmas morning, it doesn't matter. Christmas Eve, it doesn't matter. Thanksgiving. The work, the work just is there.

The work's still there. And the work's always done first. I mean, you know, your free time is after all the work's done. Yeah. Well, kind of on the note that Sam was talking about, kind of the lost art, that brings me to a question I had in mind. if you guys had to convince somebody to get their produce from you guys as opposed to one of the big box three really big stores down the hill at the plaza big box stores what what's your pitch to

kind of convincing somebody to not only shop local but shop fresh produce from from a local farm well we can tell you the day we planted the seed that the type of seed it was when it came up when it got knee high when we harvested it and we harvested every day that we're open and go to your grocery go to your box stores and say when was this corn planted what kind of corn is it when was it how long was it on the truck act's exactly right now you could say we have a personal a personal relationship with our produce right we've been there we've been with it from the beginning i mean it's kind of kind of like from you know the birthing process if you want to say it that way to when it was harvested and put on the table to sell. Until it's yours, it's been

ours and we've been with it from the beginning. And I tell people we know what we put in the ground, what we put on it. And I wouldn't feed, if I won't feed, what I want to say, what we raise, we would feed to our children. That's how calm that we on when we talk to people about our produce. When you guys, this is a question just out of sheer curiosity, if you could touch on the almanac just a little bit as somebody who's always been fascinated by that and kind of how, you know, what I typically do, the only time I think about the almanac is when I'm like, okay, when are we going to get the first snow this year?

When is it supposed to come? What kind of role, if any, does that play in the planning that you guys do as far as when you're when you're starting to plant things and when you're harvesting and everything else with the seasonal patterns, I guess. I guess we don't really pay much attention to the almond. We find it entertaining and sometimes it's right on, but basically with us it's the calendar. I mean, we go by the calendar a lot, soil temperature, soil conditions. This time of year, whenever you get a nice day, you're out there doing everything you can.

And the almanac's good. My grandma used to watch the tides and, you know, the moon. And I know a lot of people, they plant their gardens and they do a lot of things based on, you know, the moon and the almanac and different things. I guess we don't have that luxury. And like with our sweet corn and things, I mean, we're planting every five to seven days once it starts coming up. Because we will have corn for two and a half, three months. But it's, we have a planting every week. I mean, right now, we're still planting corn.

I mean, whenever that last planting comes out of the ground, we're putting the next planting in. So it's more a timing thing than anything for us. And you guys have your kind of your own system down that you know what to do and when to do it. We do, and we have a certain rotation we follow on our fields for disease control purposes and insect control purposes. I mean, we have a rotation. We keep records so that we know we can look back and see what was in specific fields. And we have over 100 fields 20 years ago. And like with pumpkins and things that are disease sensitive,

we try to keep out of the same soil for four to six years before we go back into it with certain crops. So there's a lot of management that way. Well, I guess one of the last things we'll want to touch on is, and we try to talk about this with everybody that comes on as community impact and the impact that you guys feel that you play in the community the things that you've heard and certain feedback that you've gotten and what you hope to do with the with the farm and how you hope to impact the community well we're just thankful to be a part of the community we're thankful for our customers i'm amazed at what we learn and we hear and we just want to make this community

Belmont County, this whole area, the best area it can possibly be, and we're just thankful to be a part of what we do. And when our boys were growing up, I always said, now, don't say anything negative about anybody because chances are they're either related or they know who they are. And that's a good policy for all of us. Just be positive and be grateful. I think anybody who's grown up in this area has heard that in some shape or form a time or two. Not the truth. And we're very much homebodies. I mean, when we graduated from high school and went on to start college, I mean, it just made such perfect sense to go to Ohio University. It was the branch back then because we just liked our community.

We felt very stable in our environment. We had good family support. And it was so much community. And the professors, you know, that were out there, they wanted you to succeed. exceed. You were not a number. You know, you were an individual and a high university, the Eastern has done so much for this area, and we're so appreciative. Yeah, I think you guys said it excellently. Sam, you have anything else to add? Well, I was just going to say, when I go up there in the fall, especially, because I live not far from you guys, so I pass all the time. But I've always

thought in the fall it's the perfect setting for a scene for a hallmark fall festival movie please tell me somebody else has watched a hallmark movie because i think it would just be perfect between the scarecrow cutouts for the kids and you know all the different things it's gone from what you what you guys have created has gone from your traditional family farm to an entrepreneurship where it has become a family tradition for people here in the Ohio Valley. And, you know, that's not easy to start, let alone maintain as long as you have. So I think it needs to be highlighted in a Hallmark Harvest movie. That's my thing.

You guys aren't busy. You got the time. Let's add that to the list. That sounds like a wonderful idea. It is really neat in the fall when we have a wedding reception going on and they're taking photos and they go up into the pumpkin patch and take pictures and the kids all get there early so the kids can run around and get things.

And it's kind of like you're providing some entertainment for kids that are dressed up that really, you know, maybe they're not big into wedding receptions anyway. Well, and there's also a lot of kids that will never have any other way of having that type of experience to go out and pick their own pumpkin

and to get their hands dirty and to experience and see, you know, the work that goes into being a farmer. They don't have those opportunities in their day-to-day life. So even to spend an hour or two playing around in a pumpkin patch, you know, those memories will stick with them and hopefully build some appreciation for the farmers of our country. Well, we are always humbled when people say thank you for what you do. Because I guess when you've always done it, you don't think a whole lot about it, but they thank us for doing it because I know what we are doing as a lost art. We're about the last round to be actually taking it from, you know, planting to harvest and retail and everything. And we enjoy doing it.

And like Lova says, we enjoy the people. We have a fantastic customer base. They're like family. And I think that's what keeps us going. just feeling that we were bringing something to the community. Yeah, I think you guys have brought in a lot to the community and done very well with the farm and the farm market and the event center and everything else.

And we certainly wish you guys the best of luck and hope the coming days are as prosperous as the last hundred-some year. We thank you guys for your work that you do, obviously, and also for your time this morning. You've been very generous with your time, and we appreciate you guys coming on. Again, this is Jerry and Lova Ebert's Farm Market and the Market Event Center.

For Sam, I'm Drake Watson. This has been Community and Connections. Thank you for listening.