What's a Jimmy Acres??
"Jimmy,” in one way, acts as a tribute to Chris, Anna, and Jake’s grandfather, Jim. After growing up on a farm in Iowa, Jim eventually made his way to NC, where he worked as an environmental engineer. Although he was not a farmer by profession, Jim always loved plants, tinkering around in the garden, going on botany walks, and talking about the weather. Since he never would have wanted anything named after him (think modest midwestern Norwegian farmer from Lake Woebegon, for all you NPR nerds), we couldn’t name the farm directly after him.
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Jim used to drive around in a ‘96 GMC Jimmy. Eventually, The Jimmy was passed down and became Jake’s first car and close friend. This car not only shares a name with our grandfather, but, according to Jake, The Jimmy and Jim also share the core values that lie at the heart of our farm.
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John Wayne
Jim
The Jimmy
In Jake's own words,
“Just like the grandpa/car that Jimmy Acres is named after, the farm strives to represent innovation, sustainability, reliability, and most importantly, heart, courage, truth, and a midwestern tendency to never stray from the topic of weather in a conversation. Our goal for the farm is to go beyond simple self-sustenance and to create a surplus of goods from little more than what the land provides. As we move forward, we strive to live up to the standards set by both Jim Thegrandpa and Jimmy Thecar:
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Just as the Jimmy produced its own oil and windshield wiper fluid from trash dropped on the floorboard (or we can only assume this is what happened because I never checked any of the fluids)—we strive to produce our own mulches, animal feed, and natural fertilizers and composts from agricultural waste.
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Jim loved to eat grape nuts—we grow perennial plants, such as grapes and nuts, which require minimal tilling of the land, allowing moisture and nutrients to remain fixed in our soils.
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Jimmy liked to run off battery power even when it had the option to run on gas (i.e. I'd frequently run out of gas)—even though we have tractors and mowers that use diesel and gas, we like to take advantage of alternative options to get work done on the farm.
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Jim was a bald man—well, if you’ve seen any of us Tommerdahl guys recently, I think you’d agree that we can just keep up the good work on this goal.
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And finally, the name "Jimmy Acres" has a ring to it, but at the same time doesn't role off the tongue so naturally that one can forget it easily. The name will stick with you like dead leaves on the Jimmy's grill in mid-July, or like the waxy chocolate that coats your teeth after eating those dollar store donuts Jim used to love to buy for us.”
