South Dakota Farmers’ Love Stories
Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s that wonderful time of year when everyone’s celebrating love. Farmers are no different, and some of them have some great stories about how they ended up meeting each other and starting a life on the farm. We talked to two couples from South Dakota with unique stories about how international meetings and online surprises brought them together.
Sari and Matt
How did Sari end up in rural Ethan, South Dakota, so far from where she was raised in a bustling Indonesian metropolitan area? It all started in December of 2014 when she met South Dakota farmer Matt in her home city of Jakarta.
Matt was attending a soybean marketing trade mission, and struck up a conversation with Sari while he was in the country. The two exchanged contact information and kept in touch regularly via Skype after Matt returned home.
After over a year of getting to know each other and falling in love across the world, Sari made the move to South Dakota in June of 2016. A month later, Matt and Sari were married and the city girl began her new life on the farm.
She’s embraced all the new experiences that come along with U.S. agriculture. From chasing cows to raising vegetables and driving a combine, Sari loves her new life with Matt.
You can find out more about their family farm and how they’re planning for the future here.
Morgan and Jason
When it comes to online dating, there are sites for just about everyone. If you’re looking for someone who’s a fan of the rural way of life, farmersonly.com is the one to visit. Still, Morgan never truly expected to find love when a friend suggested she check it out as a student at Purdue University in 2008.
She decided to sign up for a free trial and struck up a conversation with a guy named Jason. Soon, she and Jason went from exchanging emails and texts to long phone calls. Then, in the summer of 2008, Morgan drove from Indiana to Colman, South Dakota for their first official date.
But, that adventure didn’t go quite as planned. After a flat tire, while driving through Minnesota, Morgan’s 12-hour trip turned into a much longer ordeal. By the time she arrived to meet Jason, they only had a few minutes together before joining his extended family at their annual summer barbecue on the farm.
Within an hour of meeting Jason in person for the first time, Morgan was introduced to his entire family. Getting to know his family so soon only helped Morgan realize just how much she liked Jason and his life in South Dakota.
Soon, Morgan transferred to South Dakota State University to be closer to Jason, and a year after their first in-person meeting, they married and began their life together on their farm.
Today, Morgan continues to love her life on their family farm raising her two kids with Jason. She blogs about her experiences with motherhood and farm life at Stories of a First-Generation Farm Wife. Morgan was also featured in a recent episode of Across the Table where she shared all about her life on the farm.
If you want to find out more about what farmers like Morgan and Sari love about farming, check out our Valentine’s blog from 2016.
