America's Heartland -Episode 113

Episode 113
	Two brothers and their families are running sheep on their vast 50-thousand acre Wyoming spread much as their grandparents did at the turn of the century. Near the tiny town of Elk River, Minnesota lies the perfectly preserved mid-1800s farm of Oliver H. Kelley, founder of the National Grange. Rainier cherries are among the sweetest in the land. Paul Ryan discovers why the delicate fruit have been a passion for three generations of orchardists in Washington’s Yakima Valley, and how they’re using new high-tech means to both grow them and sell them. Pat McConahay visits two small apple orchards in Maine that hit on separate ways to cope with a collapse in apple prices a decade ago. Jason Shoultz ends the program with a story about a patient farmer and his decidedly odd herd.

Bachelor Sheep Ranch
Don and Pete Meike (pronounced mikey) will tell you that time slows when they’re on the trail. These bachelor brothers have been running sheep into Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains all their lives. A ritual and a responsibility started by their grandparents way back in 1901.

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The Grange
The world of American farmers, circa 1850. As they powered the economic engine that opened a continent, they were all but despised by the nation they fed. In the new halls of money and power, the farmer had neither. Enter Oliver H. Kelley, son of a Boston tailor. He built a farm on the Minnesota frontier and that grim world changed forever.

Rainier Cherries
It’s a perfect June day in Grandview, Washington. While most farmers across the heartland are planting, the Olmsteads are picking. Even though the weather’s good, Don Olmstead, Jr. is nervous because raising cherries is risky, to say the least.

Maine-ly Apples
A little band of bakers is busy turning out 32 hundred apple pies a day. But the Kroitzsh (pronounced “Kroich”) family doesn’t mind. These sweet treats have been the salvation for their Valley View Apple orchard in south central Maine for the past 15 years.

Emu Farm
The hawk can be described as majestic. The swan, graceful. The egret, elegant. But the emu…Well, let’s say the best word to describe this winged but flightless creature is prehistoric. "Awkward" or "ugly" just might offend Kansas emu farmer Mike Martin.

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The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, Farm Credit, and the United Soybean Board make presentation of America's Heartland possible.

Additional production and promotion assistance is provided by
The American Soybean Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Cotton Council, U.S. Grains Council,
National Association of Wheat Growers, and the National FFA Organization.