History of the farm

This land originally belonged to the Choctaw Nation, and has had several owners including members of the Choctaw tribe and others, including my Uncle Tom Ferguson. My grandfather, Nute Ingle, purchased the land in 1941 and he and his family moved into the old home at the end of the hill next to Long Creek. My mom and dad were married in 1944 while dad was still in the army and moved into the other old house on the property (where our home is located now) after the war. The old house was torn down about 1948 and another house was built there which my nephew Hank moved up the road and is remodeling.

While growing up, dad farmed and raised cattle on this property. We grew cotton, corn, soy beans, sorghum cane and vegetables. Dad would make sorghum molasses from the cane and also processed sorghum molasses for our neighbors. Wish we still had the old copper pan! Dad was helped by numerous uncles and relatives to cook this off. Us boys had the job of feeding the cane into the press to squeeze out the juice for cooking molasses. We also butchered our own meat in the late fall and winter.

For recreation, there was always fishing, hunting and playing baseball with family and friends. The 4th of July was always a fishing day. NO WORK on that day! 

Dad passed away in 1960 when I was 15 and times were difficult. We grew most of what we ate and had very little money even for necessities. In spite of this, we were happy and made the best with what we had.

When I retired in February, 2007, my wife and I made preparations to move here. We were trying to find something to keep us busy in our retirement, and someone suggested a pick your own berry farm. We thought that was a good idea and ran with it. It took a lot of work to make the garden productive and plant berries, which are now doing great.

We really love living here where I grew up reliving good times and making more fond memories of our home place.