As record cold weather threatened South Florida crops, Barney Rutzke and son Barney Rutzke Jr. spent Wednesday evening at Railroad Nursery checking their irrigation pumps.
And while predictions of a deep freeze might have alarmed some growers, these two lifetime farmers exhibited a Zen-like calm and healthy skepticism.
''It doesn't matter what the weatherman says. They might say it's going to be 31 degrees tonight, and it'll end up 61,'' said the elder Rutzke, with a confidence only a hundred years of farming experience can bring.
Their contribution to South Florida agriculture was recognized when the Dade County Farm Bureau honored the Rutzkes as the 2008 Farm Family of the Year, saluting them for a century of farming in South Miami-Dade.
The honor was a real eye-opener for Barney Jr., whose great- grandfather, Von Herman Rutzke, began farming in Homestead in 1907.
''I really started thinking about it a lot since we got that award,'' he said, ``Before that, it just seemed like normal life, but it's pretty neat how we've been doing it so long.''
But even the biggest tree begins as a seed, and the Rutzkes history in Florida began when Von Herman, a German immigrant, and his son Fritz came to Homestead from Utah after Von Herman lost his wife and two of their children in an accident.
