My brother Tyson shared a few words about a certain fixture of our farm recently, and it was too good not to share:
“Manufactured in 1937, it’s weathered storms, sun, and seasons. It doesn’t run as fast as it used to, but it’s never let us down. Five generations of Roberts have leaned on it—learning, working, growing beside it. The parts may be worn, the frame may creak, but it seldom stops working. It’s a symbol of tradition, resilience, and strength…
…and the Trexler potato cutting machine has been around a long time as well.”
All jokes aside, Dad (Dix Roberts) and this machine are a classic pair. While the Trexler cutter is a 1950s-era model, it was built with the same grit and reliability as the man operating it. These machines were designed by a Pennsylvania potato farmer who wanted something simple and rugged—and decades later, it’s still the gold standard for us.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been prepping our seed for the season. We start with whole seed potatoes and use the rotating knives of the Trexler to ensure every piece has the “eyes” it needs to sprout. It’s a bridge between generations, and it’s how we’ve prepped our crop for as long as I can remember.
The 500lb Sprint
Cutting 500lbs of seed is a major milestone in our planting season. With the whole crew moving, we make quick work of it.
Into the Dirt
Once the cutting is finished, it’s time to get them in the ground. Watching the planter move through the same fields our family has worked for generations never gets old. Here is a look at the planter hitting the soil from a few years ago.
Harvest: The Reward
All those hours spent with the Trexler and those long days in the field lead to one thing: harvest. There’s nothing quite like the feeling when the digger brings up that fresh crop in the fall. It’s a full circle, starting with that 1950s machine and ending right here in the dirt. We can’t wait to share the fruits of our labor with you this season!
No matter how you say it, tomatoes are a favorite of ours on the farm. Each year, my dad – Dix Roberts, plants all of our tomato and pepper plants in his sunroom in Penrose, Utah. This year he started about 1,500 plants!
Once they are up a few inches, they are transported to the farm in Layton and put in the greenhouse. After a few weeks when their roots are established, we replant them into 6-inch pots. We try to give the repotted tomato plants at least 6 weeks in the greenhouse before moving them outside. The warm and humid environment helps the plants become established and allows the roots to grow, ensuring a strong, healthy plant that is ready to go into the garden as soon as the threat of frost has passed.
The tomato plants love the warm environment and will typically grow 18–20 inches in just a few short weeks.
One of the things we look forward to most each summer is the first caprese salad made with fresh tomatoes and basil. To go along with our tomato crop, we also grow sweet basil plants so folks can plant them side-by-side in their own gardens.
Every spring as the nights warm up, we bring these starts out to our produce stand in Layton. Whether you are planting a full garden plot or just growing a few containers on a deck or balcony, starting with strong, greenhouse-established plants gives you a great head start on growing delicious food for your family!
I remember growing up on the farm and being fed a healthy dose of meat and potatoes. Mom always made things from scratch and her breads were no exception. Back then I remember her grinding wheat and dried field corn in a magic mill stone grinder to make whole wheat flour and corn meal. On Saturday afternoons, the farmhouse would be filled with the unmistakable aroma of fresh bread baking in the oven. Us children couldn’t wait to get a slice of piping hot bread straight from the oven slathered with butter and topped with honey.
On occasion, Mom would make cornbread from the fresh-ground cornmeal, that too would be served with a big slice of butter and drizzled with honey.
When I got my first smoker, I wanted to find a recipe for cornbread that I could cook in a cast iron pan, so I started searching and testing different recipes. After several attempts (some good, some not-so-good) I found a recipe that closely resembled my memories of Mom’s cornbread.
The first few times I tried the recipe I used store-bought cornmeal and then I had an epiphany, why not grind our farm-fresh popcorn kernels to make the cornmeal? I had previously ground wheat using both our Vitamix and Blendtec blenders so I tried the same thing with popcorn. The blender did a pretty good job but left some undesirable large chunks of popcorn, so I ran the cornmeal through a fine-mesh strainer and voilà, the perfect cornmeal was born.
This golden sweet cornbread has become a house favorite and is usually paired with our favorite beef stew. This is so simple to make and includes ingredients you should already have on hand. Here is the recipe, I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal (from Roberts Family Farms popcorn, or store-bought)
⅔ cup white sugar
3 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
⅓ cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius). Lightly grease a 9-inch round cake pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: milk, vegetable oil, and egg.
Once well combined, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. Don’t overmix!
Pour the batter into your greased cake pan and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Tips:
For an extra sweet cornbread, drizzle the hot cornbread with honey and let it soak in.
This cornmeal is delicious served warm or at room temperature. Enjoy it for breakfast, a sweet afternoon snack, or even as a dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
What is the purpose of a farm? Is it just for raising crops and animals? In the early 1970’s, the Roberts Family farmed about 250 acres in and around Layton. Our farm was homesteaded in the 1860’s by Levi Roberts. He originally built a log cabin on the banks of the Kay’s Creek near the border of Layton and Kaysville. In 1977, Welden Roberts – great grandson of Levi donated the cabin to the Pioneer Trail State Park (Later renamed to This Is the Place Heritage Park). The cabin was loaded on a trailer and moved to the park located in the mouth of Emigration Canyon. The historic cabin has been fully restored and furnished and is now on display at the park.
Brothers Deven and Tyson make the 6th generation of Roberts’s to till the soil on the family farm. For many years the farm was a typical farm of the area, with beef cattle, dairy cattle, horses, pigs, and alfalfa being among the farm enterprises. The Roberts Farm of today consists of various row crops grown and sold at local farmers markets. These crops include popcorn, sweet corn, potatoes, garlic and onions, various grain crops, and movie productions. That’s right, movie productions. Our farm has been the set of 4 feature films, ranging from a cute little family film to a horror movie complete with a murder in the barn. There have also been several episodes of Touched by an Angel filmed on the farm, as well as a few commercials. In addition, the LDS church filmed a small clip of the life of President Gordon B. Hinckley on the farm. The grandchildren thought it was neat to see their grandpa’s farm being portrayed as Pres Hinkley’s childhood home.
The first major network TV production was the first time Touched by an Angel came to the farm. The episode was called “In the name of God,” and starred John Schneider and Dick Van Patten. That first episode was the beginning of a friendship between the matron of the family – Mary Roberts and two of the stars of the show, Roma Downey and Della Reese. Whenever a new episode started, the first thing Della would say as she came to the farm was “Where’s my Mary?”
The first movie to be filmed on our farm was produced by Feature Films for Families called “Split Infinity.” Not only was this the first production on the farm, it also paved the way for many other film projects by restoring the barn and making it more suitable for movie productions. Dix Roberts, father of Deven and Tyson had a cameo in the film driving an antique tractor in the background. In the storyline of Split Infinity, the main character falls from a loft in the barn.
Since our barn never had a loft, one was built for the set. The new loft provided a makeshift bedroom for the main character in another feature film entitled Breaking Free. Breaking Free was a feel-good movie about a troubled teen who loved horses. The Roberts farm was transformed into a mountain summer camp for blind children. We were all amazed how the production crew was able to make it appear like our barn was up in the mountains next to a lake. Breaking free was another favorite production of mine because family members Ruth and Michelle were able to be extras in one of the scenes, or as they call it in show biz, background. The next big movie to use the farm was Halloween 6, this was by far the worst experience we had with any film production. They were on the set for 2 days, one day of prep and one day of actual filming. After bringing several loads of pumpkins and corn stalks, they filmed a scene where a truck crashes into a fence followed by the driver running to the barn where she is murdered. When they finished the filming, they simply walked away leaving the mess for us to deal with. Needless to say, we were very upset.
After the Halloween fiasco we were treated with another episode of Touched by an Angel entitled “Birthmarks,” this time featuring Kathy Lee Gifford. This was especially fun for the family because we were able to spend a few hours visiting with Kathy Lee and her husband Frank.
The latest film to be produced on the farm was Baptists at our Barbeque. This time our entire family was able to be extras for the filming.
More recently, the Aquabats Super Show filmed an episode at the farm called “Bad Apple” (Season 2, episode 3) and brought in a very special guest star Mark Mothersbaugh, former lead singer from the band Devo.
As a new growing season is upon us and we have this year’s garlic and onion crops planted, we have many jobs and responsibilities on the farm to keep us busy, and we are looking forward to loosing ourselves in the work of producing a good crop, that is until we get another knock on our door from a location scout looking for that perfect setting for a production.
