It can be tricky to fit in a family Father’s Day celebration when life is busy on the farm. A couple of farmers from the Upper Midwest talk about how their families celebrate Dad during a hectic schedule. Kate Minten, a dairy farmer from Minnesota, talked about her family’s typical Father’s Day.
“So, my dad is not a sit-down-and-relax kind of person, and our Father’s Day usually revolves around what we call family day, and family day for us isn’t family day; it means family is going to do the chores. It’s on us, so we have a little different connotation with family day. So, on Father’s Day, we’re usually putting some pretty hard work in, you know, in Northern Minnesota, and for us that kind of means getting crops in the ground at that point. So, we’re all boots on the ground, figuring out what needs to be done, where usually I end up milking cows, and that’s not normally where I end up, but you know, just all hands on deck. And at the end of the day, we really like to then get our moment to relax and then grill some food and celebrate him that way.”
Kelly Oudenhoeven, a dairy farmer from Wisconsin, talked about how they typically celebrate Father’s Day.
“It kind of depends on what we’re doing. If we’re in the fields, you know, harvesting or getting crops off, that type of thing, I’ll try to make it a little bit extra special by, you know, making a more special meal. If we’re not, and it’s a nice day out, we’ll sit on the back patio, sometimes with like a cocktail or two, grilling out, just trying to relax, still talking about everything farm, because that’s what we do, but you know, just spending time together. Hopefully it’s a nice day out, and we’re just relaxing and spending time with family.”
No matter how you celebrate, Father’s Day is this Sunday, June 21.