Thomas Adams says he keeps losing the battle to find enough farmland. So, he’s decided to give peas a chance.A chance to flourish in a land where peanuts and cotton are king.A chance to turn a greater profit on fewer acres.A chance to help his children continue farming amid ever-shrinking farmland.Today, he and his parents, Don and Barbara Adams, are growing 900 acres of cotton, 800 acres of peanuts, 20 acres of corn, and raising 185 head of cattle on 300 acres of pasture. But he says his farm’s future may very well rest on a 75-acre pea patch he calls a “vegetable garden.””When land comes up for sale around here, it goes in houses,” said Thomas. “A farmer can’t afford to pay $5,000 or $6,000 an acre to farm it out in cotton and peanuts. What we’re looking at is taking a crop that, if we lose acres to urban sprawl, we can take fewer acres and continue to make a living to maintain the farm.”That crop is the Southern pea — white cream, pinkeyes, zipper, brown crowder — and some green butterbeans. So far, the future looks promising enough that folks around Headland are talking about Adams’ bold, but risky, decision to break from tradition.”All I hear is, ‘Ya’ll got people talking.’ When you think outside the box, it gives people something to talk about,” said Thomas, who along with his wife Farrah, 10-year-old daughter Elizabeth, and 4-year-old son, Emery, are recognized as the Alabama Farmers Federation’s Outstanding Young Farm Family in the Horticulture Division.Last January, the Adamses, along with vegetable garden partner Eric Knight, took the plunge and plopped down $125,000 for a 30-foot by 90-foot shop and enough shelling equipment to turn out 400 bushels a day. It’s a good thing, too, because demand has been so strong that by mid-July they’d sold about 1,500 bushels of peas — all to individual customers who shelled out from $19 to $21 a bushel. They estimate anywhere from 600 to 700 people have filed into their Henry County shop looking for peas that, on average, go from field to freezer or dinner table within three days.”It’s growing by word of mouth,” said Thomas. “If you sell one person a bag of peas or butterbeans and they’re happy with it, they’re going to let somebody else know, and they’re going to come. We try to stress quality. If you have a good product, people will buy it, and they will let other people know you have it.””First-time customers will come in and buy one bag,” said Farrah, “but they hardly get them into the freezer before they’re calling back and saying, ‘Can I get three more bags? Those are the best peas I’ve ever had!'”But while it seemed to be raining customers, the Adamses’ 75 acres of pea fields soon dried up amid one of the worst drought in years. Before long, they found themselves praying for rain and waiting for the next planting and harvest. “Hopefully, next year the weather will be better and we’ll have what the customers want when they come because I don’t like having to tell people, ‘I don’t have anything to sell’ because a lot of times, they won’t be back,” said Thomas. “We were shooting for 100 acres this year, and would’ve had it if the weather had’ve cooperated.”Next year, he’s looking at expanding the vegetable garden to 200 acres, and then double cropping it. Plus, he plans on adding a new vegetable to the mix — English peas.While he’s never grown English peas (nor does he know of anyone else in Alabama who has), Thomas says they can also be shelled with his new equipment. Besides, the November planting/March harvest season will help improve cash flow instead of waiting for June.There’s also hope that one day they’ll be able to add blanching to their operation, opening business to the many restaurants that have expressed an interest in their peas. Right now, however, Farrah says those plans must wait. “When Thomas and Eric start talking about putting in a blancher, it automatically sounds pie-in-the-sky, and I have to be the devil’s advocate,” said Farrah, who works for a hotel management firm in Dothan but also acts as advisor of the vegetable farm’s business affairs. “I’m the one who says, ‘Where are you going to put it? How much is it going to cost? How much of it can you do yourself? How many more bushels or peas are we going to have to deal with to pay for it?’ I’m the one who keeps the whole thing grounded and really puts the dollars to them.”Still, things are going well enough that Thomas remains optimistic even in the face of a drought. “Even with the drought, it looks like we’re going to meet our obligations,” he said. “If we do that, I’m going to consider it a good year. If we have anything left, I’m going to consider it a great year.”On the other hand, he says meeting obligations seems “pretty far-fetched” for the peanut and cotton operation he works with his parents.”With land prices the way they are, you can’t continue to make a living in cotton and peanuts because it requires so much land,” he said. “If the farm bill changes, farmers are not going to be able to pay land rent as they have in the past. People can say, ‘Well, I can put in pine trees.’ But when you do that, that land comes out of production. And if houses come in, you’ve lost that land. We just need something so that we can continue to make a living at if we can’t maintain the size farm that we are now.”That’s why Thomas believes niche crops produced on smaller plots of land may very well be the future of farming. “Acre per acre, it’s more profitable — a lot more. It would take 10 acres of cotton or peanuts to equal one acre of vegetables,” said Thomas. “We can take one acre of vegetables and do what we can do with 10 acres of general row crops. That’s what I mean about urban sprawl. We’re working 2,000 acres, (but) if I could take 200 acres and make the same living that I do on 2,000 acres, which would you rather do?”