Bland spots 1st cotton blossom in Chowan

Summertime and the livin’ is easy. Fish are jumpin’, and the cotton is high.” — “Summertime,” a song by George Gershwin for his 1935 opera “Porgy and Bess”

A sure sign that summer has arrived is the explosion of millions of Chowan County cotton blossoms in June. The race to site the first blossom of 2024 came down to the wire this year, with honors prematurely going to one farmer, only to be snatched just before press time by another.

Wyatt Bland, who operates a farm centered on Poplar Neck Road outside Edenton, ended up taking the honors when the Chowan County Cooperative Extension office called to inform the Herald that they had a phone message dated June 27 citing the first cotton blossom of the season.

Bland found the blossom in his field off North Broad Street in Edenton, near the Colony Tire headquarters.

The first caller to the Chowan Herald’s office was Corey Tarkington, who lives in Perquimans County but farms land in Chowan. He said the first blossom on the more than 1,000-acre farm he works with his wife, Abby Coke Tarkington, was found in Chowan County.

In addition to his work as a farmer, Tarkington works as a full-time diesel mechanic at John Deer in Edenton.