Growing Popcorn

In addition to opening their farm up to students and families during the month of October, Weathers Family Farm of Yuma is also growing popcorn in addition to corn, hay, cattle and agritourism. Nikki Weathers shares more details about this year's crop.

Weathers: "Yea, we have corn and then we are picking popcorn right as we speak. The popcorn has been great. It has been a little wetter than we thought which means the quality is a little better it hasn't dried down and died yet — which is great. Our crop is phenomenal this year. We had early rain this spring which helped us to get going and get out of the ground and shoot big and strong stalks. It is dried a lot now but that is okay it is near the end and healthy enough it will finish just fine."

Timing wise, the popcorn is ready for harvest the same time as the corn though there are additional steps needed for harvest.

Weathers: "With popcorn, it come through the combine just the same as corn. We just change the plates which means the size that comes into the combine is a little bit smaller so we don't pick up as much trash. We make it for those tiny little kernels."

She adds that the combine and grain carts must be very clean prior to harvesting the pop corn.

Weathers: "We package and do sell our popcorn now that you can buy on our website. We just made our own label for the popcorn and are just getting going and getting packaged."

If you want to learn more about their operation or order some of their popcorn, go to weathersfamilyfarms.net.