This Is Carolina: Grand Strand farm teaches life skills to last a lifetime

LORIS, S.C. (WMBF) - Old MacDonald has nothing on the Rabons who live and work on their farm that’s quietly tucked away from the growing city of Loris.

“It’s definitely a labor of love,” said Jimmy Rabon.

Jimmy and Miracle Rabon have spent the last nine years carefully cultivating fresh fruits and vegetables at Home Sweet Farm, where they cater to ‘you-pick,’ retail and wholesale produce.

“We have you-pick tomatoes, you-pick strawberries. We’re fixing to put in an acre of you-pick blueberries and blackberries,” said Jimmy.

Farming is a year-round family affair for the Rabons’. While mom and dad are staking six thousand tomato plants, their two young daughters are testing the tasty treats.

“They eat their weight in strawberries. They love to play in the dirt and experience things like we did growing up,” said Miracle.

Learning firsthand where your food comes from is a rare opportunity that Miracle believes every family should have.

“Kids are gaining life skills. Even adults are gaining life skills out here and doing things they may have never experienced,” she said.

We joined the family on a cool Saturday morning to help dig up fields of red potatoes, before Jimmy walked us through how to drive a tractor, a very vital piece of equipment.

The Rabons hammered home that farming is not for the faint of heart. It’s always a gamble when planting and they said some years are more difficult than others, whether it’s a drought or a pesky bug.

“There’s always a pest that’s going to attack what you’re doing. We just do the best we can,” said Jimmy.

Not only are they working hard to provide food and valuable lessons, but they’re also working to get the county to certify their fourth-generational farm as a century farm because it’s been around well over 100 years.

“It means a legacy. Something that we can leave behind for our girls to enjoy. Something that they’ll treasure and hopefully won’t develop one day,” said Miracle.

For now, they have 10 acres of produce growing in the dirt where some will be picked and the rest will be sold in their quaint farm store that’s on property and now open for the season.

“We have fruits and vegetables that we sell in there as well as jams and jellies. Salsa and pickles and we’ll have ice cream open soon,” said Miracle.

“It’s a hard life. You’re not going to get rich at it by no means. You’ve got to really enjoy it, really love it to keep continuing this because there are a lot of struggles, but I mean you just keep going,” said Jimmy.

The Rabons hope to keep going and expanding because, for them, farming is not just a job but it’s a way of life.

“We want to one day have events out here and have the public out here as much as possible to share what we love with them,” said Miracle.

Click here to visit the Home Sweet Farm Facebook page. If you have good news to share, email goodnews@wmbfnews.com or message Loren on Facebook.

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