![]() I bought me a used mower and a baler, paid $175 for it. He said, ‘You can cut it for hay,’” Fogle recalled. I’ve been planting (row crops) since I was knee-high to a duck.’ He talked me into planting some coastal Bermuda. If you want me to plant Bermuda, you just turn around and go back. ![]() He said in the 1960s, “the county agent came out here and the first thing he said was, ‘I want you to plant some Bermuda.’ … I told him straight. Over the years, he has purchased vast amounts of land, sometimes paying as little as $10 an acre, then selling it for $200 or more an acre.įogle branched out into hay and timber. Today, Carolina Fresh farms more than 3,000 acres between its main operation in Neeses and a smaller farm in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, where the company for the past six or seven years has been growing cool-season grass that won’t grow in this area. After returning from the war in the late 1940s, Fogle began farming cotton, corn and soybeans, starting out with less than 100 acres. We are honored to feature him this year,” said Cathy Hughes, publisher.įarming operations began in the late 1940s. ![]() He represents a generation that we admire and he represents the epitome of a hard-working family man who has given back to his community. We think Tony Fogle is the perfect choice for the 2014 T&D Person of the Year. OVERLORD RAISING HELL LAWN MOWER FREEFogle was one of 22 World War II veterans invited on the Operation Overlord 70 tour by Columbia travel agent Jeanne Palyok, who organized the trip as a tribute to veterans.Īs one of America’s “Greatest Generation” who risked his life to keep the world free and a businessman, civic leader and generous benefactor who has positively impacted Orangeburg County, Fogle is being recognized as The Times and Democrat’s Person of the Year for 2014. Known affectionately by family and friends as “Papa Tony,” the elder Fogle was part of the 90th Infantry Division, nicknamed “Tough ‘Ombres.” His division landed on Utah Beach and fought its way through Normandy, eventually fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. “He told me when we were in France he missed his bulldozer,” Andy said, chuckling. However, competition was fierce in the mushroom business and the Fogle family found themselves “hunting sales.” Although Carolina Fresh Farms still sells 13,000 to 14,000 pounds of mushrooms to the South Carolina State Fair each year for their fried mushroom concession, sod production is the farm’s main focus today.Īndy, who accompanied Fogle to Normandy in June 2014 for the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of France, said his grandfather loves his bulldozer. As a result of the declining market for hay and more and more producers getting out of the cattle business, Carolina Fresh Farms began using the hay to grow mushrooms. Eventually, however, producers started growing their own hay to feed to their cattle. In the late 1970s, the family began modernizing their hay business by adding a pellet mill, which turned hay into pellets. Fogle plant “some coastal Bermuda to cut for hay.” It wasn’t long before he had amassed more than 1,500 acres of coastal hay. Over the years, he purchased vast amounts of land and in the 1960s was approached by a county agent who requested that Mr. “Tony” Fogle, with less than 100 acres, began farming cotton, corn and soybeans. Returning from the war in the late 1940s, John A. Carolina Fresh Farms began as a row crop family farm. ![]()
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