MIAMI TWP. - This time of year, barely a day goes by when somebody doesn't ask Jerry Shaw when he's going to sell the farm that's been in his family nearly two centuries.

"I still make a living out of it - the whole family does," says Shaw, 77. "And I'm too old to get another job. So why would I sell it?

"It's home, too," Shaw says. "I was born and raised here. Why would I sell it?"

Shaw says his is the last working family farm in Clermont County's Miami Township. "It'll still be a farm 20 years from now," he says. "If I'm alive then."

Ultimately, the fate of the 199-year-old farm is up to the next generation.

Shaw has four children: Vicki, Nancy, Michael and Jeffrey. He notes that his two sons and three of four grandsons are farmers. They are among about 15 members of the extended family who lend a hand at Shaw Farms.

All have been busy lately tending crops at the homestead on Ohio 131 in anticipation of opening their landmark produce market Friday. It will be open for business daily through October.

Those with a taste for fresh produce head to Shaw Farms for sweet corn, tomatoes, melons, beans, squash, cucumbers and other vegetables and fruits. The family rolls out the pumpkins in October for a monthlong fall festival that includes weekend hay rides.

Jerry Shaw always drives one of the tractors hauling a hay wagon full of suburban kids and their parents across his 168 acres, about 50 of which are in neighboring Stonelick Township. While they seem to appreciate getting a glimpse of life on the farm, "somebody always asks, 'When are you going to sell it?'

"What would you do with the money?" Shaw replies. "They tell me they would invest it. What could be a better investment than land?"

Jean Wiessinger Shaw, 74, a native of Sidney in Shelby County, came to Cincinnati to study nursing. She met Jerry on a blind date, and they married in 1952. Jean describes herself as a city girl who became a farm girl.

She has sketched out the family tree in a neat hand. The land has never been farmed by anyone but the Shaws, she says.

Jerry Shaw's ancestors began turning the soil in Miami Township in 1807. His great-great-great grandparents, Thomas and Martha Shaw, pioneered this Clermont community that year, after emigrating from Bucks County, Pa.

Back in 1851, his great-great grandfather, James B. Shaw, was one of the builders and directors of the Milford, Edenton and Woodville Turnpike - now Ohio 131.

Today, some of the 39,200 other residents of the township - the second-most populous in Clermont County - live in places with names such as Harvest Ridge or Whitegate Farm.

"They aren't farms," Jerry Shaw says, "they're subdivisions. Most of them came from a farm, but everybody sold their farm."

Jean Shaw and her husband have no idea what kind of money their land would fetch, she says. It's a moot point.

The earth is as ingrained in Jerry Shaw as the sunshine that has browned and wrinkled his skin over decades of field work.

Also in no need of tanning beds are sons Michael Shaw, 49, of Blanchester, and Jeffrey Shaw, 45, of Fayetteville. Daughters Vicki Shaw Smith, 52, of Owensville, and Nancy Shaw Carrier, 50, who has a Miami Township home next door to her parents, also have the glow of country living.

While the Miami Township homestead is where the market is located, the family farms and brings in produce from a combined 1,800 acres in Clermont, Brown and Clinton counties.

They work about 640 acres on five farms they own, and they lease the rest.

About 9,000 tomato plants that Shaw Farms has in the ground are tended by three of Jerry Shaw's grandsons: Tyler, 21; Ryan, 19; and Dakota, 18. The other member of the seventh generation of Shaws in Ohio, grandson, Christopher, 22, is a University of Cincinnati computer science student who designed the Shaw Farms' Web site.

All four grandsons have operated their own roadside produce stands in Clermont and Hamilton counties. This September, Dakota and Ryan begin studies in agricultural production at Southern State Community College in Hillsboro.

"We'll improve our business skills," says Dakota Shaw, "learn about accounting and technology."

A lot of farm equipment these days is computerized, says Ryan Shaw.

The young men have been farming since they were about 5, the same age Jerry Shaw began doing chores. "I had a little wagon, and I carried the coal in" to heat the farmhouse, he says.

He graduated to plowing fields with mules and horses. Now, he rides a John Deere tractor and drives a pickup truck to do chores seven days a week.

Shaw still rises before the sun, at 4:30 or 5 a.m. He climbs into his pickup and drives across the grass on the backside of his property.

"I come back here every morning to enjoy the peace and quiet and see what's going on," he says as he surveys the fields.

"It's nice through here," Shaw says. "I've got three lakes where I fish" with the grandkids.

"Why would I sell it?"

E-mail bbrunsman@enquirer.com

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