Apples, pumpkins and a purpose

BEAVER CREEK, MN (KELO) — On the edge of Beaver Creek, Minnesota, is a family farm, a pumpkin patch and a soon-to-be apple cidery with a story. Sean Mcfarland studied specialty crops in college. That’s also how he met his eventual wife, Marcella.

“We just kind of connected over our interests and travel, our interest in being outdoors, having access to nature,” Marcella Prokop said.

Mcfarland grew up with a passion for farming.

“I knew I was going to move to my family’s acreage here in Beaver Creek, Minnesota. My grandma asked me if I would replant the old apple orchard, which was a little half-acre orchard,” Mcfarland said.

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What he didn’t know was his plans were about to change. In 2014, Mcfarland was sentenced to five years in federal prison, and served three, for growing marijuana.

“I have Crohn’s disease, which is a disease that I’ve found benefits greatly from medical marijuana,” Mcfarland said. “It was illegal in South Dakota, so I moved to California to grow medical marijuana for myself and use my farming skills to grow medical marijuana for others. And it turns out that no matter what state that you’re in that it’s legal, it’s still federally illegal.”

His sentence didn’t take away his desire to continue his family’s orchard and farming legacy once he got out.

“When I was in prison, the future was scary. But I’ve always been a big dreamer, and I’ve always had a lot of belief in the future,” Mcfarland said.

So, while in prison, he wrote a letter to the first farmer contact he had.

“He started writing letters back to me and we wrote letters for years while I was in prison. And he put together an apple order for me so that I’d have trees ready when I got out of prison and moved here,” Mcfarland said.

The support Mcfarland received didn’t stop there. He also had help gathering extra land to grow his apples.

“Eventually, I came across a neighbor who really helped me out, the Hartz family. They helped me get land to plant my apple orchard on that I had planned three years prior without land,” Mcfarland said.  

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Now, seven years later, his dream and more is a reality. Mcfarland and his wife opened Blackshire Farms shortly after he was released.

“I’ve got several orchards; I’ve got a greenhouse that I’m raising up new trees to plant every year. Every year I plant new apple trees. We’ve got a pumpkin patch. We recently bought this defunct golf course in Beaver Creek, Minnesota, that really needed a new life and we’re giving it that,” Mcfarland said.

There’s even more growth to Mcfarland’s story beyond what’s being planted in the fields. It includes a new beginning as a farmer, but also as a husband and a dad.

“[Marcella] was a big help both to me while I was in prison and getting out of prison and getting this whole thing started up. I definitely couldn’t have done any of this without my wife. We got married on the farm the summer that I got out and the very next year had our first and only boy,” Mcfarland said.

The family is planting a new start and carving an example for others.

“We moved our pumpkin patch out here and started farming pumpkins out here and planting apples on the hillside. We’re converting the old clubhouse into our cidery,” Mcfarland said.

“If you can have some of the patience to see the season change or to see your vegetables or your fruits ripen, that is kind of a metaphor for life, and I think we’ve experienced that with our relationship and with the work that we’re doing,” Prokop said.

Mcfarland said he hopes to open his apple cidery sometime next year. It’s located in Beaver Creek, Minnesota, about 20 miles east of Sioux Falls.