’s
Today’s Farm SUMMER 2022
Sustainability for over a century
Olives, ice cream and carrot-raisin salad are Perkins family traditions BY JANE TURPIN MOORE
being named Nobles County’s Outstanding Conservationists in 2016. The Globe “I guess our contribution WORTHINGTON — The Perkins family totally to the legacy of the farm was the conservation of its digs their roots. main resource: the soil,” And why not? Those said Jerry, 82. roots are deep and “We’ve been committed strong, extending back well over a century on the to protecting the air and water and improving same 160 Elk Township and maintaining the soil acres a scant five miles resource for a long time.” north of Worthington. Newly designated in And more than 40 years of agricultural conservation 2022 as a Minnesota Century Farm, the Perkins practices culminated in family plot has technically Jerry and Terry Perkins, along with their daughter been a part of their Julie Perkins Lopez, heritage for considerably
longer than 100 years. The first known owner, George Backer, was born in Hesse, Germany, and purchased the land from the Sioux City-St. Paul Railroad in March of 1888 for the then-princely sum of $10 an acre. George’s brother, Rudolf, inherited the property when George passed in 1899, but due to a series of unfortunate events — mainly attributed to a lack of modern transportation and technology — it wasn’t until 1911 that Rudolf and his wife Katie
Berlet Backer (Jerry’s second- great-aunt) were recorded as being in official possession of the farm. “It took some trips between Nobles County and Chatsworth, Ill., to straighten it all out because they didn’t have the right documentation,” said Jerry. In 1922, Katie Berlet Backer’s niece, Amelia, and her husband Gilbert Perkins assumed the farm’s ownership. Wallace, the son of Amelia and Gilbert, was Jerry’s father.
PERKINS: Page 4
ABOVE: An aerial view of the Perkins farm today. MAIN: Ari Lopez Miller (the bride) and her brother Ben IDU ULJKW DUH WKH ĆIWK JHQHUDWLRQ RI WKH 3HUNLQV IDPLO\ WR have lived and worked on the Perkins family farm north of Worthington. From left, Jerry and Terry Perkins, Ari Lopez Miller and Logan Miller, Julie Perkins Lopez and Jorge Lopez, and Ben Lopez at Ari and Logan’s April 30 wedding. Special to The Globe