Welcome to the Farm Corner

Joe F. Combs was well known in east Texas for many years as a columnist for the Beaumont Enterprise. Combs’ rural roots and farming background gave him a real love for local places and the natural world, and his column “Farm Corner” was a favorite among several generations of readers.

In 1963, Combs’ columns were collected in a book, Farm Corner: A Collection of Little Essays on Nature. Combs was a friend of my great grandfather and my grandmother. I keep a worn copy of Farm Corner on my desk. As the title suggests, Combs’ writing embodied the simple and unpretentious claim that just about every place in this country has a connection to farming and the farming way of life.

Borrego, of course, is no exception.

With this nod to Combs then, I plan to use our Ellis Farms ad to do a series of very short articles about farming. I’d like to call this “Borrego Farm Corner.”

Combs was often sentimental about farming. You get a taste of that in lines like this: “In the stillness and crisp air of the countryside the sounds of home life over on the hill at the neighbor's farm were easily heard.” I, on the other hand, don’t feel sentimental about farming at all. I simply believe that family farming and soundly managed agricultural production are vitally important to America and that we are all connected to farming in one way or another.

So please look for “Borrego Farm Corner” in upcoming issues of the Sun.