Love can be found in some unexpected places.
Just ask Wisconsin native Grace Girard — she joined FOX’s reality dating show, Farmer Wants A Wife, in hopes of finding a rural romance.
On the show, four farmers from across the country are set up with a crop of single women from big cities to show them life on the farm. The ultimate goal is to find their future spouse.
Girard is one of those single ladies trying to lasso the heart of farmer Brandon Rogers on season two of the show. She’s a 25-year-old communications specialist from Caledonia, a village in Racine County.
Rogers, who’s 29 years old, is a potato and barley farmer in Center, Colorado, and lives on his 1,000-acre farm, according to FOX.
In a news release, Rogers is deemed as the most remote farmer of the four looking for love, ”living in a small, one-stop-light town surrounded by his farmland.”
To get an inside look at the show, Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez talks with Girard about her decision to join the show and what her journey to find love has been like.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
How did you end up on the show?
I've basically spent most of my life in Wisconsin, and I’ve tried the dating scene in Milwaukee, but I feel like it just wasn't working out for me. I'm definitely someone who likes to be approached at the bar, and I feel like, a lot of times, that just wasn't happening. My family knew this and my aunt who’s really into reality TV texted me one day and was like, “I think you should apply for Farmer Wants a Wife! I just finished season one, and they're looking for cast members for season two.” I said, “Sure, why not?” So I filled out my application and I just kept getting pushed through the steps in the process and ended up on the show.
What made you think dating a farmer might be for you?
I've grown up in Wisconsin and around farms, but I've never actually set foot on one. So I thought it would be a new experience to get a chance to live on a farm and see if that's something that I would be into. Also, I just figured that farmers are really hardworking people and that's something that's really attractive to me. I like someone who is willing to put the time in to invest in themselves and then it's basically like a massive business that they run, so that was attractive to me. I just thought that might be something that aligns with my values, so I figured dating a farmer might work out.
How is each lady on the show matched with a farmer?
When I was moving along in the process, as far as interviews and applications go, they eventually ended up sending me seven total farmers to look at. So we got a minute and a half video of the farmers and it described where they were living and their interests. We also got little glimpses of an interview that the farmers had on their end. So we got to get to know a little bit of their personalities.
From there, we ranked each farmer from one to seven. Then, to my understanding, on the back end, FOX put us up with a matchmaker. Each farmer got to rank a bunch of girls on their end and then we were all kind of just matched based on personalities and interests. They did a really good job about making sure that everyone was matched in the right way.
What was it about farmer Brandon’s profile that caught your eye?
Farmer Brandon just seemed really down to earth. He seemed very genuine in his video. He had this adorable moment where somebody asked him, “Have you dated a lot in the past? What's your previous dating history look like?” And he said, “Oh, that's tough,” and he took off his little cowboy hat and asked for a moment of silence for his dating life. So I just thought that was so funny — I really liked the self-deprecating humor, I feel like that aligns with my humor. Then, being out in Colorado, I thought that would be an absolutely stunning place to go and live and see if I liked it out there. I felt it was just a lot of things that aligned with what I was looking for in a guy.
Was there ever a point where you felt worried if the farming life was for you?
When we landed in Denver — it's like a four-hour drive to where he lives from Denver. So we had a lot of time in the car, just to take a moment to ourselves and when we started driving through the mountains, everything was stunning.
Once we got to the farm, he really lives in the middle of nowhere, so it was definitely a little bit of a culture shock for me. I have no background in this, but agriculture is a really big part of Wisconsin, so I wanted to learn as much as I could while I was out there. I really had to approach it with as much of an open mind as possible, but there were definitely some moments where I was a little bit nervous about how much work goes into it. It's like full 10-hour days sometimes, plus that, and I felt like you couldn’t really escape it because he was living right there on the farm, so that was kind of nerve-racking for me. But I feel like outside of that, I felt like I was just there to put 100% of my effort into it and have a good time while I was doing so.
I came to realize how big of a part agriculture plays in our everyday life here in Wisconsin and throughout the United States. That wasn't something that I ever had an understanding of, so that’s something I took away from this experience. I feel like after I started to learn about it, I just took a big appreciation for that back to Wisconsin, which has been really nice. I feel like I've learned a lot about farming — it was a crazy experience to get to witness that firsthand.
What’s your advice for anyone out there looking for love?
I feel like the entire time that I was involved in the filming of this, I really wanted to be my genuine self, and I think that really worked out for me. I'm excited for you guys to see the rest of my journey throughout the show. Hopefully, you see that part of me reflected and how I was myself the whole time. And I think that's the advice that I have for people trying to date nowadays. I feel like you just really have to be yourself and fall in love with yourself first — be self-confident and learn what makes you tick. Just try and put yourself out there as much as you possibly can, because I think that's the best way that you're going to get what you want out of a partner and continue to fall in love with yourself.
According to FOX, Farmer Wants a Wife is “the most successful dating show in the world, airing in 32 countries and resulting in 201 marriages and 514 children … and counting.”
You can continue to follow Girard’s journey on ‘Farmer Wants a Wife,’ which airs at 8 p.m. CT on Thursdays on FOX.
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