Erica Louder

This blog was named “Farming outside Eden” for a couple different reasons. The first is a nod to the place our farm calls home. We are located a little way outside of the town of Eden, Idaho. Unlike its biblical namesake, Eden, Idaho it is not overflowing in lush greenery or spontaneous fruit trees.

One of my earliest memories was listening to Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. I was in the backseat of a pickup truck, forehead pressed against the cold glass and listening to stories of alien abductions, Bigfoot sightings and government conspiracy theories.

When I was 13, my dad bought a farm. It was a little over 100 acres and was mainly watered with the use of handlines and flood irrigation.

Although there is still a month left of summer, fall seems just around the corner. I know it is the county fair that makes me feel that way. As a kid, the county fair marked the end of summer and the start of a new school year.

Blue Lakes Country Club is a classy place. With its Snake River Canyon location, no jeans and collared shirts dress code, and its “only golf with a member” rule, it caters to the upper echelons of Magic Valley society. Yet, despite all its pretentions to Long Island sophistication, it’s located in the bread basket of Idaho farming country.

One of my favorite sports movies of all time is Field of Dreams. The iconic Kevin Costner stars as Ray Kinsella, a young Iowa farmer who plows up a cornfield and builds a baseball diamond. The words of his deceased father whispered to him have nearly become movie lore, “If you build it, he will come.”