|
Henderson, Minnesota | Guess it's too late for Chad H
SWF, likes long walks in the back 40
CHAO XIONG, Star Tribune
Stephanie Olson's father was leery when she told him she wanted to drive two hours to meet a man she'd met online. So she eased his concern by showing him a photo not of the suitor, but of his most prized possession -- an apple-red tractor that sparkled from meticulous care.
"The first thing my dad said was, 'It has nice rubber on it,'" said Olson, 26, of Fosston, Minn. "And from there, it was OK. I knew it was a nice tractor and well taken care of, so that would make a good impression on my dad."
It was one strategy Olson, a grain and alfalfa farmer, learned to employ in overcoming the unique challenges farmers face in the quest for love. Her first step was joining the dating website www.farmersonly.com, that unites singles with mates who can bend their game of romance around the annual cycle of planting and harvesting.
Olson met the man with the red tractor about three years ago. She had dad's blessing to trek to Fargo solo, but had one more card up her sleeve for her Romeo, Dan Klapprodt, a 28-year-old corn and soybean farmer from Toronto, S.D. (Fargo was a convenient, albeit unfamiliar, halfway point.)
"I told him I was bringing my dad with me," Olson recalled with a chuckle. "He said, 'OK, that's fine.' I had no intention of doing that; I just wanted to see what he would say."
Julie Marquardt, 27, met her Howard Lake, Minn., farmer husband, Dave, on the site.
"They're coming from a farming background, and to generalize, I know they're not going to be a bunch of freaks," said Marquardt, who grew up on a Michigan hog farm but was teaching second grade in a North Carolina city when she met Dave. "To me, the agricultural community, what always impressed me was their word. What they say is as good as their signature on a piece of paper."
Ohio ad agency owner Jerry Miller founded the site in 2005 after a friend who raised alpacas in South Carolina vented about the challenges of dating. Farmers often live in sparsely populated areas where they know or are related to other residents, their work load severely limits free time and non-farmers don't understand their time constraints. Young farmers like Olson and Klapprodt say there is a dearth of young singles in rural America.
"There are five or 10 sites for every category of person," said Miller. "Every race. Every religion. There's one for geeks. There's one for truck drivers."
But there was zilch for the men and women who put food on the world's tables.
Miller couldn't believe it. He launched the no-frills site by initially doling out free memberships. It somehow hit the radar screen of a writer at Newsweek and quickly exploded after appearing in the national magazine. The site charges a modest fee and now boasts about 80,000 people from all 50 states and Canada who are farmers or who love the lifestyle.
"FarmersOnly is really unique in terms of the audience they serve," said Joe Tracy, publisher of Online Dating Magazine, which provides news and consumer reviews on some of the 2,000 dating sites that operate at any given time. "I do know that they turn a profit, and that they are successful."
Olson, who owns her own farm and helps on her father's, joined after dating city boys who didn't get her lifestyle. Naturally, she created her profile in the fall when work slowed. Her first date was with a "dud" of a dude at a cattle sale.
Her profile name, caseihgirl, was a bold pledge of allegiance to Case IH, the "underdog" company that manufactures red tractors. A deep rivalry splits red tractor lovers from green tractor lovers, she explained.
Klapprodt, he of the red tractor picture, took notice. They went to dinner and a movie in Fargo. Soon, they were visiting each other's farms. (Klapprodt owns 80 acres and farms about 700 total, including his father's land.) But after a year, the very thing that brought them together tore them apart. Neither wanted to abandon their farm or their fathers' farms. List that among the unique difficulties farmers face in finding romantic bliss.
"You get set up, and you just can't pick it up and take it with you," Klapprodt said. "It's tough."
Marquardt's story unfurled in a bit more fairy tale fashion. She and Dave routinely flew six hours round-trip to visit each other. He proposed, and they were married last year. Free of the ties that come with land ownership, she relocated to Minnesota, where she substitute teaches and helps on the farm.
As for Olson and Klapprodt, they remain friends and are still on the site. Klapprodt once drove six hours to meet a girl in Missouri. Olson romanced a Wisconsin dairy farmer, but his work was too time-intensive.
Said Olson: "I tend to go for grain farmers."
Chao Xiong • 612-673-4391
| |
|
caseihgirl- Mpls Star Tribune article
