By Julie Tomascik

What are two ingredients essential for agriculture? Soil and love. Yep, love. And not just on Valentine’s Day.

Farmers and ranchers share a love for their trade, whether it’s tending to their crops or raising livestock. It’s just as important as the soil.

And it’s the love that grows the food on your table and mine. During good times and bad. Droughts and floods. Pests, diseases and the ever-changing markets, which aren’t looking good for farmers right now.

Love weathers all of those storms and more. But it’s also joy. Farm and ranch families spend time together doing what they do best—farming and ranching.

Each type of agriculture—conventional, organic, grass-fed or grain-fed—needs love, devotion and attention to detail. That’s where Cupid’s arrow hit its mark. It found farmers and ranchers, who are patient, caring and willing to work long hours.

Cupid’s aim rings true, and not just on Valentine’s Day. Because farmers and ranchers display love from sunrise to sunset every day as they toil in the sun, tend the soil and nurture their crops and grasslands.

And the sweets we all love to indulge in today? Well, the sugar, milk and other ingredients get their start on farms and ranches, too.

It’s a day to celebrate love all around.

From all of us at Texas Table Top, Happy Valentine’s Day!