The Realities of Generational Farming, Part 1: Beth Hendon

This episode of Table Talk and Tumbleweeds features Beth Hendon, a local farmer, Wheatland United Church of Christ member, and UCC member in discernment. Beth shares her family’s deep roots on the Wheatland Flats since the late 1880s, including ditch digging for early irrigation, homesteading, and involvement in founding Wheatland businesses, as well as her father’s role in adopting new farming technology like the first center-pivot sprinkler in the area. We explores community responsibility, place-based identity and “neo-Indigeneity,” resentment toward idealized or commodified versions of ranching, and Beth’s decision to leave for Las Vegas to find anonymity before returning for the support and community she valued as a parent.

Table Talk and Tumbleweeds is hosted by Rev. Dr. Lisa Stenmark and Rev. Joshua Bruns, pastors serving in Wheatland, Wyoming, and is a ministry of Wheatland UCC and Covenant Lutheran Church. Made possible by an "In the Mud" grant from the United Church of Christ.