What Makes Honey Haven Farm so Special?
Is it the soil, the love, or the people? Maybe it's all three.
There are unexpected experiences I discover along our adventure that enliven my spirit and give me hope for humanity.
I don’t know how we find them.
Serendipity.
Providence.
Luck.
Whatever you want to call it, I’m grateful for each and every moment when these things happen, because they are special memories that cannot be manufactured by AI, nor orchestrated in advance. These are the types of stories that last a lifetime.
. . . 🌽 . . .
Honey Haven Farm grows the best sweet corn in all of Ohio. Possibly the world.
I don’t know that for certain because during my recent visit, there was no corn because it’s spring, but I read the reviews and met the owners who claim it is, and honestly it doesn’t matter because it was the people that impressed me!
A seventh-generation farm located in the countryside of Ashland, Ohio, it is owned by John Boyer, known in the community as Farmer John. It was passed on to him by his father, a WWII Veteran who flew C-47s for the airborne divisions, and the place where both men were born and raised.
Farmer John is as real as it comes.
This rugged man came riding up to us on a used four-wheeler as we checked into this Harvest Host spot for the night, while proudly displaying his OSU Buckeye pride and an obvious hard work ethic. We introduced ourselves, and within minutes, you could tell that Farmer John was a down-to-earth storyteller who could touch your soul.
We heard about the history of his farm, his youngest daughter taking over the family business, and how much he loved his work and community. We learned about their sweet corn and why it’s special, as well as their years of business ventures. He even gifted us a pint of pumpkin soft serve ice cream made on the farm.
Like a trusted family member, we were welcomed in and given free rein to explore.
His youngest daughter, Lauren, currently runs the farm and has expanded their business into the garden industry by offering plants, flowers, and herbs, while also raising a flock of 80 sheep. Filled with her own stories, she’s a confident and highly knowledgeable woman who exudes a strong work ethic and passion, just like her father.
John and Lauren are doing something right.
Most of their sales come from word-of-mouth marketing, with a little help from Facebook. The local garden business is growing rapidly, and customers from all over the world keep coming to enjoy the sweet corn and pumpkin patch, which reminds me of a special story I’d like to share.
Farmer John told me about a man he met last year. He noticed the guy had a picture on the wall of himself and his mother standing on John’s front porch. When asked about it, the man told John it had been taken when they visited the pumpkin patch, and that it was the last photo of his mother before she passed.
John looked around some more and noticed several additional photos of the man with family members, taken in the same spot. The man told John that he and his family had been visiting Honey Haven Farm since he was a child, and that they loved it so much that it had become a tradition.
Farmer John was floored. He never knew his farm had done something so special.
As we talked more, similar stories emerged about other families - grandparents, adults, children, grandchilren - coming out to his farm to pick pumpkins, play in the corn maze, and listen to music at the festival while eating homemade ice cream, year after year.
Generations of lives being touched by the farm!
I told John it’s interesting how so many city slickers will scratch and claw their way to the top in order to be rock stars with the dream of leaving an incredible legacy, yet one would never assume a simple country boy raised on an obscure rural farm in Ohio, milking cows and planting pumpkins, could ever reach the hearts of so many people.
To me, that is an impressive legacy, and he is a rockstar!
John’s eyes got a little teary, but I could also see a little twinkle in his eye, much like Santa Claus, and it was then that I knew this man had that kind of special magic.
Eventually we said our goodbyes and we parted ways.
I won’t forget the experience.
. . . 👨🌾 . . .
The stories that were shared were priceless to me. John and Lauren are great people with a great heart. And our stay was wonderful and quiet. We’d certainly go back.
We found Honey Haven Farms through our Harvest Host app1, and this is just one great lifetime experience made possible by this platform.
If you ever get to Ashland, Ohio, please be sure to go and visit the farm. Support what they do because they are hardworking Americans who care for their community and their customers. You don’t often find that anymore these days.
Maybe you’ll even discover the best sweet corn in the world!
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