When you pull up to Rothiemay Farms in Norton, it looks as if it’s been plucked from a storybook with it’s rolling hills and bright red barns.
But its when you walk into the barn and meet the Mitham family, that the farm really comes to life.
“I love to show my farm off. I’ve had people show up from Uganda to take a look at the far. I could talk for hours about farming,” laughed Jesse Mitham, a second generation farmer.
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Every Father’s Day the family opens their pastures and barn doors to hundreds of families eager to learn about life on the farm.
A donation to the MS Society gets you through the doors. The matriarch of the family has lived with the disease for more than 25 years.
But she doesn’t let it slow her down.
“A raised garden, I go out and I work and water that I weed it I jump off my walker and I get on my knees and I weed it. You gotta have a purpose in life,” explains Sarah Mitham.
She’s a true inspiration to those who love her.
“Every day you face challenges you always face challenges on everything you do and when I see those challenges my mother faces, such a battle she takes there’s no challenge too big I can’t conquer because of my mothers attitude towards Multiple Sclerosis,” said Jesse Mitham.
That attitude has helped the family raise $19,000 for the MS Society last year alone, all while teaching youngsters about agriculture.
“A lot of kids don’t even know where their meat comes from they don’t know where their eggs come from,” says Sarah Mitham.
The farm welcomes school groups every year. They tour the milking facilities and chicken barn all while learning where their food comes from, and how it ends up at the grocery store.