Minnesota bachelor farmer buys a sprayer and hits the high note of this life

By Betsy Freese, Successful Farming Magazine

No farm equipment buying decision has meant more to Gary Overgaard than the purchase of his Hardi sprayer.  Made in Denmark, the sprayer came with a promotional hook: Buy this and the dealer will throw in a free trip to Denmark.  Overgaard, a bachelor farmer from Magnolia, Minnesota, loves to travel, so he was sold.

On the plane he introduced himself to the attractive woman sitting next to him.  She was Emily Lodine, a mezzo soprano headed for an opera audition in London.  “She said she was an opera singer and I said, “This is going to be a long, boring flight,” remembers Overgaard.

“That made her mad.  Turns out it wasn’t a long boring flight.

Let’ see the farm

By the end of the plane ride, “I knew I liked him a lot,” says Lodine.  She called his farm and left a message to see him again.  Soon she was on her way to Minnesota to visit Overgaard’s hog and crop farm.

Overgaard, a practical joker, had told her his farmhouse needed a bit of work.  Lodine, who was raised in a Chicago suburb, knew “less than nothing about farming,” she admits.   “I had seen bacon in the store.  “That’s it.”

First, Overgaard drove her to an old abandoned farmhouse complete with broken-out windows and a No Trespassing sign.  “I told you it needs a little work,” he said.

“I was trying so hard to be nice,” says Lodine.  “But I was happy to find out he was joking.”

Next, he asked if she would like a ride on the honey wagon.  “I thought that sounded like fun,” says Lodine.

Didn’t driver her away

Luckily for Overgaard, he didn’t drive her away.  In 1996, they married in Luverne, Minnesota.  Their carriage ride from the church to the VFW hall was on the Hardi sprayer.  Lodine’s opera friends came from far and wide and had a great time visiting the farm.

Two lives changed, but the couple has survived the transition.   Lodine still travels worldwide as an opera singer.  In fact, she made her debut at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall last fall.  But when she is home, she “cooks with jello and cream of mushroom soup like everyone else.”

She fed the pigs once.  “They were biting me, so I sang to them.  But it didn’t do any good,” says Lodine.  Overgaard laughs.  “I’ll let her keep singing opera so I can keep farming.

Overgaard, who thought opera meant Grand Ole until he met Lodine, now enjoys hearing his wife perform.  She, in turn, appreciates his life.

“I had no idea how complicated, scientific and stressful farming was,” says Lodine.  “You have to be so smart and have such luck to survive.  But all the same, it is a wonderful life, and I would never go back.

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