Hitchins — Rick and Regina Wells made a decision seven years ago that Rick would give up a safe "public job" and return to his family's farm to work the land for a living and be with his family every day.

His brother, Clifford, and his wife, Heather, had made the same commitment a few years earlier and seemed better for it. Clifford was home with his family every day rather than just the weekend visits from the same excavation work. There were baseball games in the evenings and hunting frogs for the champion jumper at the Carter County Fair.

"We also didn't want the farm to go away," said Rick, taking a break from washing tomatoes on a hot summer day in August. "It's hard work, but we like it here."

While his brother raised tobacco, planted more than 6,000 strawberry plants and raised vegetables for sale to a local supermarket, Rick and Regina decided to sell directly to the public from a roadside stand between the Twin Bridges along Ky. 773 near Hitchins.

Customers attracted to the taste of locally grown fresh food grew quickly and the traffic forced them to operate the stand from 7 a.m. to well after dark most days.

They also partnered with Paul Stephens, a retired CSX worker, for sales at the regional Farmers' Markets.

Stephens said the partnership formed with mostly an immediate respect for hard work and was cemented with a handshake. The Wells would grow most of the crop and Stephens would spend most of his time selling at the markets in three counties.

"We just did it," Stephens said. "We just decided there were people around here that loved fresh food and we decided to work together. I couldn't find better people."

Knowing that corn would probably be the highest seller late in the summer, they also decided to try tomatoes that would ripen earlier.

In the spring, they planted 4,300 tomato plants and installed a slow-drip irrigation line under a layer of straw to balance out the drought. They also put in eggplant, peppers, squash and cantaloupe.

They followed Clifford's and Heather's rule against spraying chemicals on anything their own grandchildren would eat, so they over-planted to make up for the expected loss to common blight.

What they got was enough work to keep a dozen people busy for most of the summer. The tomato plants yielded over 11 tons and local customers lined up to buy by the case.

On most summer days, Regina would run the business and keep track of seven grandsons who ran just to burn energy, while Rick made runs between the fields and the stand.

The statistic they remember the most includes the night they picked 62 five-gallon buckets to keep up with demand. Another number is the 2,800 pounds picked in one weekend.

"Just wait until we pick corn and pumpkins and melons," said Rick during a brief break from stocking the shed and thinking about the weeks ahead. "We might have a thousand pumpkins."

And they did. Trying to beat the heat early one morning, Rick and Regina drove out in their four-wheel drive pickup and harvested several hundred. "We don't even want to know how many we picked," said Regina. "But Rick did find one snake this morning and that slowed us down."

On most days during the summer, Regina would open the sales shed and keep track of up to seven grandchildren while Rick would commute between the fields and the business.

For most of the summer Rick and Regina washed their tomatoes by hand, starting at 5 in the morning each day to get enough ready to stock the sales shed. At the peak of the heat in August, Rick made a trip into Amish country in Ohio and found a used mechanical vegetable washer. The work got a little better.

Most of the corn came from Paul Steven's field in Greenup County - 800 dozen ears per acre of Ambrosia that never lasted more than an hour at any of the farmers' markets.

The season will end this year with mums, a popular late-bloomer that attracts those decorating for the holidays. After a short break in early winter, they'll start seeding in the small greenhouses near their home for the next year's crops.

JOHN FLAVELL can be reached at jflavell@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2659.