Farmer creates wheat field art to celebrate 20-year anniversary with wife
By Abby Wray
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PRATT, Kansas (KAKE) — A Pratt farmer wanted to show his wife just how much he loved her, and now, when you fly high in the sky above his field, you can see the half-mile wide and mile long token of his affection.
“It’s all the little things that make you happy, it’s when the wheat comes out of the ground, it’s when a baby calf is born,” explained Jesse Blasi, a Pratt wheat farmer who’s been married for 20 years.
And the only thing that he loves more than farming is his wife and family.
He met his wife Sarah while they were both attending college at K-State, and they first met at a bar.
“As we were both driving home, we saw each other at a stoplight,” said Jesse.
And they say it was love at first stoplight.
So for their 20th wedding anniversary, he wanted to use his farming expertise to create a work of agricultural art to symbolize his love. Sarah finally got the big reveal and surprise last week when she saw it from a small aircraft.
She said the whole experience was so special and she admired his patience and inefficiency in creating art, and not just crops.
He had written their names, Jesse and Sarah, in his field alongside the words 20 years.
Jesse with his farming equipment that made this happen Jesse with his farming equipment that made this happen
“I knew it would make her smile. That was kinda the whole goal was to get the little grin out of her that I like,” explained Jesse.
“That’s Jesse Blasi love, that’s farmer love right there,” said Sarah Blasi.
He was actually inspired by another now-famous Pratt farmer.
“Lee Wilson planted a field of sunflowers for his wife [two years ago] and I thought maybe that’s a good idea and so I’ve always wanted to do this pattern thing and I’m like I could do that for Sarah,” he said. “Twenty years is coming up.”
He used advanced farming technology to do multi-varietal prescription planting, even using a John Deere Air Seeder to plant two varieties of wheat in order to write his message in the field. This project showed off not just his love for his wife but also their shared love of agriculture.
“There’s actually two different varieties of the white color, it’s a blend of two and like I said, this is just a red chaff wheat,” explained Jesse.
Jesse began the planning process all the way back in October, creating this labor of love with more than 65 million red wheat seeds- that’s roughly half a semi truck full of wheat seeds.
He said it was hard to keep the secret through bad weather and countless calls from other local farmers, who all saw his artwork long before Sarah had the chance.
The pair says they’re blessed to be in love all these years later, but it’s the family they’ve created together that they truly appreciate. They share two daughters, Reagan, who’s 14 years old, and Avery, who’s 12 years old.
“Even though I’m the farmer, she grows the best crop, like we have two girls, Reagan and Avery and they’re our best crop,” said Jesse.
Anyone should be able to see the wheat work of art until August or October of this year- but Jesse says it looks best from between 4-6,000 feet in the air. And don’t worry, the wheat won’t go to waste, it’ll get harvested in fall alongside the rest of the Blasi’s crops.
“Farmers are more apt to do like acts of service to show their love. Just him doing something like this shows- it’s just extra, it’s just a little bit extra!” exclaimed Sarah.
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