Returning to his farming roots: Meet Wolfton’s Joe L. Houston

Joe L. Houston could use that Bible verse as a testimony as he proudly looks out over the land his father once farmed. 

It is the same land on which he is now raising pigs and cows, along with a garden whose bountiful harvest he enjoys sharing with others.

The 70-year-old has farmed since he was 16 under the tutelage of his late father, Joseph Houston, and quickly learned the laws of the land. 

Tending crops and raising pigs as a food source were just part of the work he did on his family farm. Alongside his father, Houston planted vegetables to sell for extra money, but they also became dinner staples.

The principles of family and faith followed him after he retired from CMC Steel South Carolina in Cayce in 2020. He is now firmly implanted back in the fields he grew up in.

This time he’s not just raising pigs, but cows. He is also preparing to re-cultivate his garden, where he grows everything from butter beans, peas, okra and sweet potatoes to peanuts, tomatoes, cucumbers and collard greens. Cabbage, watermelon and cantaloupe are also among the items Houston enjoys growing in his garden.

“That’s my job now — raising cows and hogs and my garden. It’s just something that I’m used to doing. I’m an outside person, and I like doing things. This is what keeps me busy,” Houston said.

He said he understands the value of hard work because tending to more than 20 pigs and his livestock, which includes three cows and a pair of 2-month-old calves, is not easy.

“I have two heifers and a bull. The black calf is a female, and the gray one is a male. When I raise him up to maybe about 800 pounds, I’ll take him to the market and sell him. I’ll keep the black female calf and let her get to a size where she’ll breed for another calf. That’s how you increase your herd. I would like to have me at least two more females to have calves,” Houston said.

He also sells his hogs, but acknowledges that it is not a money-making proposition.

“It’s kind of slow. It’s not a big money maker, but I’m not doing it really for the money. It’s just a hobby and something that I like doing,” Houston said.

He can spend hours at a time building the hogs’ pens himself. Houston feeds them everything from oats and barley to wheat and rye.

Houston said keeping the pens off the ground is crucial, especially when it rains.

“When it rains a whole lot, their pens get all wet. I build them myself. They aren’t the best-looking pens, but you’ve got to keep them in there. It serves the purpose. It’s not all about the looks, it’s what they need,” he said.

Houston continued, “I hadn’t sold any of the cows yet. This is my first time raising cows. With a cow, it takes a longer time for them to have calves than it does for hogs to give birth. Hogs have pigs in three months and 21 days, but for a cow it takes a whole nine months and some weeks to have a calf.”

Houston said he has seen the price of feed and other staples increase over his time as a farmer.

“It’s kind of expensive. I’ll say it costs me about $200 a month or better just for the cows and the hogs. It’s a little more sometimes because my tractor has to have fuel. That costs, you know, and feed, too,” he said.

Looking out over his 4-1/2 acres of land, Houston continued, “When I first started out, I was paying like $15 per 100 pounds of feed. Now it costs me $25 per 100 pounds for my hogs. For the cows, a bale of hay is about $40 every two weeks.”

“The cost is pretty good. On average I try to break even on it. It don’t always work out like that, but it’s just something I enjoy doing. I don’t worry about the money because it’s just something I like to do. With my garden and stuff, I sell a little peas, butter beans, okra, or whatever I have, but … I believe I give more away than I sell,” he said, smiling.

While he has sweet peas already in the ground, Houston is waiting until after Good Friday to begin planting his garden in full force.

“That’s when I’ll start putting everything else in the ground, when the cold weather is gone. You don’t want to put nothing in the ground then. Seeds cost too much to lose like that,” he said.

His family, including his wife’s siblings, looks forward to harvest time when they can share in the bounty of Houston’s garden.

He and his loving wife, Mary, will celebrate their 52nd wedding anniversary on July 1 and have two children, Tara and Jarreau, and one 12-year-old grandson, Kayin. 

“If you’re looking for him during the spring and early summer, look no further than his garden or the hog pen, where you’ll often find him and Kayin assisting,” Tara said.

Mary said, “I told him he had to have something to do after retirement because he’s a person that can’t sit down. He had to find something to keep him busy, and this is what he came up with.”

Houston credits his late father-in-law, R.J. Harley, for teaching him many lessons. 

“I had two men in my life – my daddy and my daddy-in-law. They taught me a whole lot. They depended on me,” he said. 

Houston said having his grandson out in the fields with him reminds him of the time he spent with his own father there. Working them has now become a generational affair.

“I try to instill in him what my daddy gave to me and taught me how to do. He likes it. He’ll grab a bucket in a minute and try to feed those hogs and stuff. I always say my family’s got my back. If I need a little helping hand, they’re not gonna turn me down. They’re gonna help me out,” said Houston, whose is affectionately known as “Papa Joe.”

He has already taught his grandson how to drive a green utility task vehicle which Houston said “saves me a lot of steps.” The UTV is also equipped with a radio on which Houston plays his favorite music.

His farm equipment includes not just his tractor, but his planters, a bush hog, cultivators, a disc harrow and a middle buster, which is a time-saving tool he uses for digging up his sweet potatoes.

Houston’s third oldest brother, Thomas, used to farm on his land in Georgia, but Houston’s the only one of his siblings who continues to farm at home. He said he enjoys tending to a much smaller area of his family’s 30-acre farm.

Standing in the middle of his farm at 164 Redberry Road, Houston said, “Before all these woods grew up around, we used to plant all that. We had it further back over in the woods over there. After we planted all these pines and stuff, we just kept this part here open to farm. Nobody was doing it but me. So I didn’t need all those 30 acres,” he said.

Houston recalled his late mother, Maggie Lee Robinson Houston, being a housewife, but that she also worked hard in raising him and his siblings. He said his father farmed all his life, though, and passed on a strong work ethic to him. 

“He used to farm, he used to cut logs. We used to plant cotton, corn. I picked cotton in my time. We used to cut logs through the week when I was out of school or whatever, and then on Saturday we’d go and break corn.

“These people got those big machines now that do that, but back then we didn’t have no machine. We had a big barn we’d put it in. That’s how it was,” Houston said.

“It was hard work. We sharecropped, too,” he said.

As he looks forward to spring, he anticipates planting his butter beans and peas, just to name a couple of things.

“In the fall of the year, it’s mostly cabbage and collards. After that, that’s it until spring comes back around again,” Houston said.

An active member of Jerusalem Baptist Church in North, Houston relies on his not just his family, but his faith to sustain his small farming operation which he plans to continue “as long as I can put one foot before the other one.”

Tara said, “He stands out for a lifetime of hard work and dedication. He finds solace and strength in his Christian beliefs. His faith not only serves as a guiding force in his personal life, but also inspires his generosity toward others.”