If you asked Wendy Yeager what makes a successful farmer, she would answer, “optimism.” As the proprietor and sole operator of her 970-acre cotton farm and the mother of two young daughters, Wendy knows a lot about optimism and hard work. “We’re never promised anything,” she says, “when we put that seed in the ground.”

We traveled to Orrville, Alabama to spend a day with Wendy and her family on their farm, Bell Place Farms, to learn what it really takes to be a woman cotton farmer during harvest season, especially when you’re a working mother with a full schedule.

While we were on the farm with Wendy, she taught us a lot about how cotton goes from a small seed to lush fields of fluffy fiber. What we learned is that there aren’t any secrets, tricks, or shortcuts to a successful harvest season. What you need is hard work, good weather, and a lot of faith.

We also learned that only about 5% of cotton growers in the United States are women, so Wendy had a lot to say about what it means to be a woman in a male-dominated industry, and what it took to be taken seriously by her peers. Watch the video below to hear Wendy’s story in her own words, and to get to know the American farmers who pour their hearts and souls into growing The Fabric of Our Lives™.