Meet The Gibbs Kids: A Real Georgia Family Farm Story Comes To TV

A ‘True American Love Story’ Led To A Small Empire

ABBEVILLE, GA? — The Gibbs family farm is a bit of a surprise in today’s modern agricultural landscape. For starters, it looks like what you’d think a family farm would look like – a little of this, a little of that, a lot of those, some of these. Most modern farms are highly specialized, focusing on just a crop or two.

For another thing, it’s in the middle of nowhere – literally – pretty much like you’ve always thought of family farms as being. In fact, the Gibbs are so remote, GPS doesn’t even agree what the closest town is for their mailing address. Some searches show Abbeville, others turn up Pitts, GA as homebase.

“We’re not sure ourselves,” cracks Brooks Gibbs, mother of three and founder and partner in the farm with husband Eric. “And Amazon never knows where to come.”

Theirs is a good ol’ fashioned romance tale – “a true American love story,” as Eric puts it. They married right out of high school already knowing the path they wanted to take in life. They also knew they wanted their children as involved in the family farm as they were.

Enter the Amazing Gibbs Kids. In a day when screens of some sort dominate most tweens and teens time and air conditioning reigns supreme, it’s always a refreshing surprise to meet kids who understand what hard work means – and are happy about it.

America will get a chance to meet the Gibbs when their story comes to national television on the RFD-TV Network’s popular series Where The Food Comes From.

The Gibbs grow a wide variety of crops and keep a herd of cattle. They also operate two stores, one onsite and Gibbs Farm Produce in nearby Eastman, GA, selling their own products, gifts, knickknacks and the gorgeous flowers Brooks grows.

Their 350 acres of farmland sprawl in lots around the county. As the operation grew, Eric grabbed whatever he could that was suitable for producing the mix he wanted to have. Even in the middle of nowhere, land suitable for farming’s not easy to come by. And as developers and other projects take up more of it, it’s increasingly difficult to keep a farm in a single location. That’s part of the reason GPS has such a hard time sticking a pin in the precise location.

It’s a hot sticky Georgia summer morning as Eric walks through acre after acre of luscious looking green beans. These aren’t destined for the Gibbs stores or local markets – they’ll be harvested today then on the way to Philadelphia, where they’ll start popping up on people’s plates in the Northeast in less than 24 hours.

Up next is a tour through fields of purple hull peas, a Southern favorite. Those won’t get shipped to commercial clients, they’re part of the local product mix.

Also included heavily in the mix are pecans and peanuts, along with another Southern favorite, watermelon. And then there are Brooks’ flowers.

The kids are actively involved in the planting, care, harvest and packaging of all of that. And then come the cows. A herd of 300, with 15-year-old EllaGrace in charge.

“That’s really all her,” Eric says admiringly. “Yes, it’s a lot of responsibility for kids that age, but farmkids have always had to mature early. It’s something that just came real natural to her starting real young.”

EllaGrace is particularly proud of her show calf Eva. She’s busy grooming her even as the WTFCF crew arrives to start filming.

“There’s just something special about cows,” she says, continuing to brush and groom. “I just fell in love with them real young. I just really felt connected to them. And of course, especially Eva.”

LizzyRae, 13, helps out everywhere, but she too is starting to lean toward the cow culture. “I’m not quite as involved as my sister, and when I was little I wasn’t very interested, but they’ve started to grow on me.”

Cotton Davis Gibbs, all of 9-years-old, is no slacker himself. Even during the summer, he’d rather be working on the farm than sitting inside watching cartoons.

“I mean that’s fun, but I’d rather be working,” he says, hefting a watermelon half his weight into a wagon. “Sometimes I turn on the TV while I’m eating my breakfast cereal. But mostly I’m just thinking about this.”

Screens aren’t banned at the Gibbs household. The kids can watch TV or use computers anytime they want. They just don’t want to very much.”

“We don’t really have a lot of time for screens,” says EllaGrace.

The other kids in the county know the trio well. They stand out from their peers in all the best ways. And it’s noted – and commented on.

“They all just say, ‘Here come The Gibbs Kids,’” EllaGrace notes with pride.

They’re as different from their peers as their mom and dad are from suburban office workers. Together, they make for a compelling story that’s unlike any family tale you’ve seen in 50 years.

Says WTFCF producer and host Chip Carter, “The Gibbs remind me of what farm families were like when I was coming up. Of course, most kinds of screens hadn’t even been invented then, and TV only had three channels. So these kids are all the more remarkable now. Fortunately they’re not that rare, though. They’ll seem like it to people who see this show – but we meet amazing farmkids like these everywhere we go.”

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