farm
SURVIVOR , FARM EDITION
The Kuehm family ’ s farm dates back to 1894
WRITTENBYPHILIP DEVENCENTIS PHOTOGRAPHYBYKEVIN R . WEXLER
PHOTO CREDIT
The only working farm in Wayne owes much of its modern-day prosperity to the need for asingle tool . When the Kuehm boys , Scot and Todd , and their father , George , needed an ice auger to bore holes through the frozen surface of afishing lake 50-some-odd winters ago , their budget would not allow it . So the matriarch of the family stepped in the following summer with an idea to scrape together enough money to pay for the gas-powered tool : She persuaded her husband to let her sell vegetables at apicnic table on the side of the road .
It started with bunches of radishes and heads of lettuce , Irene Kuehm , now 84 , remembers , and there was no refrigerator , no scale and no cash register . “ Within two weeks ,” she says , “ I hired acouple of girls to help .”
The family bought anew ice auger , and that picnic table ? Today , the business at945 Black Oak Ridge Road , known asFarms View Roadstand , is sprawled over a3,200-square-foot market and anattached greenhouse . During the peak growing season , the farm sells more than 65 types of fruits and vegetables — produce that is picked daily — directly tocustom- ers . In the fall , there are hayrides to the pumpkin patch and , in the weeks leading up to Christmas , rows and rows of trees , wreaths and grave blankets . The farm also has abarnyard , where customers can see chickens , goats and miniature donkeys .
“ We ’ re still growing ,” says Todd Kuehm , 58 , amember of the fourth generation to run the
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