Business & Tech

Pete King Dishes on Cows, Conflicts and Family on New Season of 'Farm Kings'

Known for taking off his shirt on air, Pete King shares what viewers can expect to see this season on the Middlesex Township-based reality show.

Pete King promises viewers will see a whole new side of the Farm Kings this season, and not just because they plan to take their shirts off more often.

“We’re a little more used to filming now,” he said. “We’re not running around like crazy like were last year.”

The second season of Farm Kings premiered at 9 p.m. last Thursday on Great American Country. The popular reality show follows the Kings, the Butler County-based family who operate the 200-acre Freedom Farms in Middlesex Township.

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The family also operates the Freedom Farms market on Route 8 and Boldy’s Homemade Goodies, which the Kings bought in October 2009 and renovated. Their latest business is the Freedom Farms Café & Carry-Out in New Kensington.

Besides Pete King, the show features his eight brothers—Joe, Daniel, Pete, Luke, Sam, John, Paul, Timothy and Ben—and one sister Elizabeth, along with their mother, Lisa.

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Filmed over the winter months, the new season finds the family preparing to expand their farm into meat production, adding cows and pigs to their property for the first time.

The Kings also are venturing into the Community Supported Agriculture program. Commonly known as CSA, the popular cooperative is a way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer.

“That’s something we’ve always wanted to get our hands into,” King said.

With the new endeavors, King promises this season will include more drama—and more comedy.

“You’re going to be laughing,” he said. “There’s a different personality for all of us—a couple of hotheads too.”

And yes, King admits he might be one of them.

What remains unchanged is the family’s commitment to each other, and to producing, and selling fresh, local foods.

“We all have the same goal in mind,” King said. “Growing healthy foods, healthy land, makes healthy people.”

The Kings, who grew up in the farming business, (Their dad, who is divorced from their mom, runs the Joseph P. King Farm Market) shot to prominence in the Pittsburgh area after posing shirtless for the cover of Edible Allegheny magazine in 2011.

Stage 3 Productions came calling soon after and GAC later bought the pilot program.

The fact that the well-muscled brothers often take their shirts off on the show hasn’t hurt their ratings either—and their female fans aren’t shy about expressing their opinions on it.

“Love watching the family working together,” wrote one commenter on the Patch site. “Love when the boys take their shirts off, good gosh.”

With one season already under his belt, King said he enjoys it when people greet him after recognizing him from the show. While it’s happening more and more often these days, King can’t pay too much attention to it.

After all, he still spends most of his time on the farm—and there’s work to be done.

“I don’t venture out too far, too often,” he said. 

'Farm Kings' airs on 147 on Comcast, Channel 165 on DISH Network and Channel 326 on DIRECTV. For those with Armstrong Cable, GAC is channel 484.

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