The Breakfast Farm

The Breakfast Farm

Zeke woke up at the sound of his rooster howling Dixie.

“Time to get the fields ready!”

Yes, you read this right, the rooster was singing Dixie. In this modern age, Zeke had programmed a mechanical rooster to sing Dixie when the weather conditions were just right. This was a once a year happening because it involves a lot of parameters such as air temperature, ground moisture, etc. This was going to be a watershed year since he had a new crop to try.

After a quick shower and throwing on some clothes, Zeke headed up to the restaurant for breakfast.

“Hey Marty.”

“Hey yourself, the usual?”

As Marty poured the coffee, Zeke told Marty that he had everything needed for the new crops. With that information, Marty could then start stocking the equipment needed. The only question was, how long was the growing season? The only way to find out was to get ‘em planted.

Back home, Zeke headed out to his makeshift greenhouse to gather up his seedlings and estimate how much land would have to be put aside. To create what Marty wanted, Zeke had taken some of the ‘runts’ of the last crop and planted them with some miracle-shrink.
Now it was time to see if his theory was correct. One look and a big smile crossed his mug. Yep, these were just the right size!

With that knowledge he jumped on Sara (he always named his tractors Sara), and headed out to the fields. With over two hundred acres it usually took a couple of weeks just to get the plowing done. This part he did himself. Once the land was plowed a couple of the neighboring high school boys could run the harrow. This gave him the extra time needed to get the planters ready to go.

Yes, I know, it sounds like an ordinary farming operation. But until you’ve planted French toast sticks and pancake plants, you’ve not really been farmin’! Oh, thanks for asking by the way. I need to make sure Zeke gets his order in for the linseed and cotton-oil. This is not a usual product used on farms, but to plant the syrup pitcher flowers, the planters need to be well oiled. Let’s face it, maple syrup is downright sticky!

According to the guess-it-all almanac, this was going to be a very wet spring. Zeke followed this book like clockwork because whatever it said, you just knew the opposite would be true. Now last year the durned almanac got themselves one heck of an ego boost. It was actually right! Ok, so it was only for two weeks but for this book, that was a record! But, just to make sure, he went out to the shed to make sure his dryers were operational.

“Looks good Sara. What say you and I head out to the field and start plantin’?”

Zeke put the key in Sara’s ignition and was greeted with; “Let ‘er rip boss.”

During the winter, Zeke used his training in electronics to program a lot of his machinery to ‘talk’. It was his way of personalizing the equipment. All of it was voice activated. By the same token, it was also an alarm system because if Zeke didn’t say hi to the equipment, an alarm would go off and the authorities would be notified.

The weather held, as expected and all the crops were in, except the new one. This one would go into the field closest to the house. This way Zeke could keep a close eye on the progress. He figured the growing time was about the same as it’s big brother, but he wasn’t all that sure.

Summer went pretty much like the almanac said it wouldn’t, but darned if it didn’t get it right for one week! The good news was that the rainy week was at just the right time. All the fields bloomed bright and sassy. The new field was coming along better than expected. It was almost time to harvest. Now the real work started because picking French toast sticks requires a gentle touch and the pancake flowers were even worse. But, Zeke had an ace in the hole. His dad was very mechanically inclined and developed special equipment to do the job. Let’s meet him now.

Zach is Zeke’s dad.

The following is the question and answer narrative between me (the narrator), and Zach.

“Zach, I’ve noticed that everyone in your family has a name that starts with Z, is there a special reason for that?”

“Well, Petunia (the wife), decided to prove that I snore, so she named all the kids z, as in the z’s of a snore. Thankfully we only had the three kids, Zeke and his twin sisters, Zinnia and Zelda.”

“Interesting, to say the least. Zeke was telling me you invented the equipment to harvest those special crops of his.”

“That’s right. When Zeke was just a young ‘un, he threw out some French toast Ma had made and t’warn’t long afore he noticed that something odd had happened. Instead of the animals eating it, it grew those French toast sticks he now plants.”

“Ah, I see. So it was an accident of nature that gave him his start. It also gave you the incentive to start your own company also.”

“Well, wasn’t much choice really, there isn’t a lot of pancake pickers out there.”

“According to Zach, you’ve already got the machinery ready for his newest crop.”

“Yep.”

“Last question. You have a most unusual name for your company.”

“Yes, I named it ‘Platypus Products’. I needed an unusual name because it is an unusual product.”

Well, that was enlightening. There was more to the conversation but mostly personal stuff. We need to get back to the farm because the crops are in and I for one am curious how the new idea panned out. As we return, we find Zeke talking to Marty at the B&B.

“Marty! Get that buffet set up, these came out better than I expected!”

“Why heavens Zeke, These are so light and fluffy. You outdid yourself. I’ll get them on the new buffet Sunday.”

We find ourselves standing in a very long line. Marty is famous for her breakfast spreads and this new buffet idea is really going strong. Zeke’s new crop is almost sold out and it’s only been going for an hour!

“Zeke! I need more of those miniature pancakes! I do hope you planted more than what you brought me.”

“I did, Marty, I did. I have them in the dryer bin and they will be ready by next Sunday.”

Yes, the new crop, the miniature pancakes sold like, well, like hotcakes. Next up we’ll meet Zeke’s sisters and their families. They run the chicken farm. Somebody has to raise egg producers.