November 14, 2007 4:46 PM
- Text
Harvest Of Kindness
(CBS)
In some pockets of America, compassion never goes out of season. Cayuga, Indiana -- to the rest of us, one more kernel of America's corn country -- is one of those places.
One of their own, a fourth-generation family farmer named Darrin Hartman, wasn't feeling well. For one thing, he was having trouble swallowing. He was also losing a lot of weight. Hartman shrugged it off. Between his corn and bean fields, and his family, he had other things to tend to.
In July, after he had lost 45 pounds, doctors discovered Darrin had cancer. They found an inoperable mass behind his stomach that was only getting bigger. Suddenly his family's life was focused on the fields, but on his regimen of chemo and radiation. The crops would have to wait.
But for farmers, work doesn't pile up at the office for whenever they can get to it. There's only one pay day a year, at the end of harvest. In the back of the Hartman's' minds, they squeezed in some worry about how they were going to make it financially if this year's crop went unharvested.
Cayuga's a small town. And in a small town, word travels fast. By the time Darrin came home from the hospital, his farming community already had a plan. His fellow farmers would leave their own fields to harvest Darrin's crops for him.
More than fifty farmers organized themselves. It was all volunteer, all word-of-mouth. Some of them went to high school with Darrin. Some just know him as another farmer in the community. Others were complete strangers. They just agreed on a date, and then showed up in the Hartman's fields with their combines and trucks. Methodically they harvested all 650 acres in a day. Nine million ears of corn, taken to be stored at the nearby dry mill down the road. They used their equipment, and burned their diesel gas. It didn't cost the Hartman's a dime. And it probably saved their family farm.
Even healthy, Hartman would need six weeks to harvest all his fields himself. The volunteers finished the job in a day and a half.
Remember, these volunteers didn't show up on some lazy Saturday morning. This is their most important time of the year. They left their own fields and harvests, at crunch time, to help the Hartmans. They knew full well if their combine broke down working the Hartman's land, or the rains came the next day, their own harvests could be at risk. And still they came.
The Hartmans were overwhelmed. Sure, farmers often help each other. But not on this scale. And at such a critical time for everyone involved. Darrin's wife, Monica, was blown away. She said, "Sometimes you see each other on the road. Your tractor might pass theirs and you wave. But just for them to come and give us their time and their day using their equipment, it's incredible."
Darrin Hartman admits he never would have asked for the help. Just to accept the offer meant he had to "swallow my pride." He also said to watch other farmers harvesting his land was painful. But he admits, the experience was "totally totally overwhelming. It was unreal to see all these people here."
Only in a true pinch do you learn who you can really count on. Ask the Hartmans. In their moment of need, they discovered their community was a solid as the ground they farm.
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