Each year, we invite you to watch your popcorn grow by highlighting what is happening on the farm every month. This year, we thought it would be fun to showcase some of our a-maize-ing partners who help make Free Day Popcorn possible. We couldn’t do what we do without them!
We’ll start out the year by sharing about the guy who inspired it all - Nate's dad - Lonny.
A mechanical engineer by training and a farmer by blood, Lonny spent most of his career working for Reinke Manufacturing - a leader in central pivot irrigation (how we water our popcorn acres) - and farming his family’s land in south central Nebraska.
His great attention to detail and mechanical prowess are showcased in all he does.
Lonny’s been going popcorn since the 1980s, selling to many of the large commercial popcorn processors. He knows how to grow great tasting popcorn. We've learned everything about growing high quality popcorn from him. Tasting the fresh stuff he grew, a kernel of an idea sprouted in Nate - to grow our own popcorn and sell under our own brand name - and Free Day Popcorn was born!
Lonny continues to be an integral part of Free Day's success. He was the first to rent us an acre to test the waters and continues to rent us land today. He's also our engineer-in-residence. Most recently, he and Nate configured our new automated bagging machine which will significantly increase our production capabilities now and in the future.
Lonny harvesting our first crop of popcorn in 2015. It took a whopping 3 minutes to complete. Now, popcorn harvest takes weeks and not seconds.