Back home again Henry Duetschendorf Sr. grew up on the family farm in Oklahoma before becoming an Air Force pilot. Although his son Henry Jr.—
you know him better as John Denver—never took up farming, he sang of it fondly, as in his 1974 hit “Back Home Again.” “Matthew” celebrates an uncle he worked with on the family farm one summer, and “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” comes from the point of view of a man who thinks “life on the farm is kinda laid back.”
Heart of green Though the tractor itself doesn’t appear in country musician Joe Diffie’s 1993 hit “John Deere Green,” the color does, in the form of a message of love painted on the town’s water tower. The couple in the song went
on to settle on a farm and raise “sweet corn, kids and tomatoes.” (Sadly, Diffie died in March, a victim of COVID-19.)
Herbie’s hungry Jazz titan Herbie Hancock, son of a meat inspector, turned out a number of hits in the ’60s with culinary themes, among them “Cantaloupe Island,” “Yams” and “Watermelon Man.” Yep, California grows all three—each year, our farmers harvest about 30,000 acres of cantaloupes, 21,000 acres of sweet potatoes (often referred to as yams, although technically different) and 12,500 acres of watermelons, all of which are sure to jazz up your menu.
www.californiabountiful.com 45
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