Farmer Stands

When I am at the market many people ask me where our farm is, either straightforwardly, or a little sneakily. I always tell them, "We are in the Redland, near Homestead." If they push a little further I have to say, "We are not generally open to the public. Are you on our mailing list? We have a few events when we welcome people to come visit the farm."

If people were dropping in all the time, we would not be a working farm. Like one day last week. A mother and daughter arrived to pick up chicken feed, and Jane took them around the place. Then a neighbor came by to drop some stuff off and ended up discussing his elaborate philosophy of how the world will be saved: everyone would grow food. Then, later, a guy came to pick up tomato starts for his wife and said, "so what is this place? What do you do here?" So I took about 15 minutes to tell him about the place. You can't help but oblige these curious people . . . it is the right thing to do.

We are not set up for hospitality here, which is a little sad. On my future dream farm, I would like people to be able to come, wander, see, and even relax. Perhaps I would dedicate a certain time to giving tours, and refuse to be hospitable and talkative outside of that designated hour. I would want a stand where things would be ready for sale. I got this idea from "The Straw Igloo Garden" in Powell WY, where there is a garden right behind the stand which is open 24 hours a day on the honor system. I like this, though I can see how that could be extremely unprofitable because of thieves and people just being downright confused and messy.

But, this system only works for small operations in a location people are willing to come to. At Bee Heaven Farm, we are actually working for money, and to have things ready to sell all the time, in the amounts that would pay, in the the quality condition we demand . . . this would be impossible. Unless people are willing to pull things right out of the dirt, we cannot store things for a long time. With just one walk-in cooler, there is not enough space to display and store all the things in the quantity we would need to sell to make it worth our while. This must be why there are grocers. We sell at three farmer's markets, which is really pushing what we are capable of, and people push for us to be at others . . . no, there are not enough Bee Heaven Farm workers to be in so many different places. For everybody to have good food like what is found at the farmer's market, there would simply have to be more small farmers.

No farms, no food. Go plant a garden. Maybe our neighbor is right: growing food is the most important thing to do.