Evans remembered as family man, entrepreneur

RIO GRANDE, Ohio (AP) — Bob Evans, the southeastern Ohio farmer who started the restaurant chain that bears his name, was remembered at a funeral service Tuesday as a good-humored family man, conservationist and entrepreneur who built a corporation that employed tens of thousands.

Evans died Thursday at the Cleveland Clinic of complications from pneumonia. He was 89.

At his funeral service, his son, John Robert Bobby Evans, called his father “a man of the soil” and said he was passionate about 4-H and other farm-related programs.

“He was wildly enthusiastic about keeping the farmer on the farm,” he said. “We know that today, my father is saddled up and riding fences in the big sky. We celebrate his life and his legacy as a father and as a man of the land and the soil.”

The late Evans had complained that he could not get good sausage for the restaurant he started after World War II in Gallipolis. Starting with $1,000, a couple of hogs, black pepper, sage and secret ingredients, he made his own, relying on the hog’s best parts. He sold it at restaurants and mom-and-pop stores and out of the back of his pickup truck.

It marked the beginning of what is now a restaurant chain with sales of $1.6 billion in the fiscal year ended April 28 and 590 restaurants in 18 states. The company, now based in Columbus, also operates 108 Mimi’s Cafe casual restaurants in 19 states, mostly in the West. Its sausage and other products are sold in grocery stores.

The funeral service at Lyne Center started with a military salute by Gallia County veteran service organizations, included a “Cowboys Don’t Cry” musical tribute composed by grandson Anthony Donskov and closed with a rendition of “Happy Trails.”

Friend Randy Reed called Evans funny, generous, warm and kind. “I wonder if Bob and (wife) Jewell ever realized what they were starting when they started that little restaurant,” he said.
Evans is survived by his wife and five of his six children.


Early arrival of Ohio fungus threatens cucumber crops

HOMERVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s cucumber farmers could find themselves in a pickle over the latest outbreak of a potentially devastating fungus.

At least a half-dozen Medina County farms have been found to have plants with downy mildew, said Sally Miller, plant pathologist with the Ohio State University extension center in Wooster.

The fuzzy, gray fungus, which also has been detected in northern Ohio’s Ashland and Erie counties, can take just a week to wipe out an entire crop, Miller said.

“It’s nothing to be trifled with. It will clean your clock if you don’t put down fungicide,” said Gerald Holmes, plant pathologist at North Carolina State University.

But cucumber growers may be hesitant about spraying for downy mildew because that must be done repeatedly, which can be costly, and because many farmers would prefer not to treat their plants with chemicals, said Joe Cornely, spokesman for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation.

Cucumbers are at most risk from the fungus, though it also threatens other vine-grown crops including zucchini, melons, pumpkins and squash. Downy mildew isn’t a concern for consumers, because it kills the plant before the vegetables are ready for picking.

It usually doesn’t show up in the fields until late summer, long after the harvest, but last year it also arrived early and destroyed half the state’s cucumber crop, said Ron Becker, pest expert with OSU extension in Wayne County.

This year, a series of thunderstorms may have provided favorable conditions for downy mildew in the affected areas, according to an OSU extension website alerting farmers about the outbreak.


Fire kills more than 600 pigs

DOUGHERTY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities continued to investigate the cause of a fire that killed more than 600 pigs at a northern Iowa farm.

Firefighters from five departments responded to a report of a fire in a hayloft of the barn at the Paul and Jean Staudt farm near Dougherty June 23. Officials said 600 piglets and 60 sows were killed in the fire.

Worst Tenn. drought on record

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The combination of a late freeze and the worst drought on record is affecting livestock and wild animals across the state and could prompt the governor to ask for emergency farm relief for the second time this year.

Farmers will receive federal assistance for the loss of crops from the late freeze in April. Now, the dearth of rain is hurting other crops as well as livestock, which are facing feed shortages.

“Livestock producers have begun feeding hay and using alternate watering sources much earlier than usual,” according to Gov. Phil Bredesen’s office, and hayfields and pastures are mostly in poor to fair condition.

“It’s going to be a difficult year for many people,” said University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture spokeswoman Patricia Clark McDaniels.

“The extension agents in the counties are very busy helping farmers deal with this; the economists are working to help project what losses might be, as well as how state or federal programs can help farmers recoup through disaster declarations,” she said.
The drought and freeze are also affecting wild animals, which are having to travel to search for food and water.

This brings them in contact with humans more often. That means deer in the roads and mice in homes.

In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, surveys scheduled for later this year should show how the wildlife there is handling the conditions.

So far, park officials have not seen any serious problems, National Park Service spokeswoman Nancy Gray said, but that could change if the drought continues. With vegetation scarce, some of the park’s big animals, like black bears, could suffer.

Farmer, 79, dies after accident

DUBLIN, Pa. (AP) — A farmer who hosted hayrides and pumpkin picking at his farm died after a tractor accident, his son said.

Karl Hellerick, 79, had worked outside in the heat before the 4:30 p.m. accident on June 26, said eldest son Bruce Hellerick. He was taken to Abington Memorial Hospital, and was talking easily before he went into surgery. However, his blood pressure dropped and he died from the injuries, his son said.

Hellerick’s 30-acre farm is well-known in Plumsteadville for events, including a fall festival with mazes, pedal cars and hayrides.
“He was the real deal,” said Bruce Hellerick. “He was there every morning and always trying to do things better.”

He did not immediately know how his father’s death would affect the future of the 30-acre farm.

According to Police Chief Duane Hasenauer, Hellerick told responders he had been planting a field when he got off the tractor and apparently hit the wrong lever. He suffered a head injury, Hasenauer said.