5 Acre Farm History

Rodney Spencer Kroemer was brought up in Milo, Maine, a small town in the very center of the state, on a 2,000-acre Potato farm. Growing up on a working farm taught Rod how to take into stride all of nature’s abundance. Rod managed to drag his partner Jim back to Southern Maine every summer for a great vacation, which always included a visit to farms and gardens along the way. One such garden, first visited back in 1985, was Valente Gardens, in North Berwick, Maine. It was owned and operated by a wonderful couple, Ron and Cindy Valente. Over the next 14 years, the two couples became good garden friends and had grown to care for one another.

Unfortunately, in January of 2001, Ron had lung cancer- and was gone by mid-July. His wife, Cindy tried for two full seasons but between the loss and having to do everything on her own, lead to her deciding to close Valente Gardens. Rod and Jim had five acres of land they were living on of incredible Illinois soil, most of which was not properly being utilized.

An agreement was struck. Over the late part of summer 2004, Cindy and her son, Jesse, dug up the farm, plant by plant, and packed it into shipping cartons – and 169 boxes later, all that remained of Valente Gardens had been imported to the mid-west. This is what happens when you leave “green minded” people together. The fruition of which was: 5-Acre Farm Daylilies.