You walk the colorful beautiful booths of your local farmers market and see the bright veggies and flowers, sometimes mushrooms, sometimes grass fed beef or free range chicken eggs. It’s all cheery and glamorous displayed for you in this venue. But how much farming have most of us really done? How much do we really understand the work and grind involved with this ultimately slick display presented to us at a farmers market or on the shelves of our grocery stores?

I spent the last 3 years working on small farms across the west and want to give you a little slice of understanding. Farming looks beautiful. These people get to have their hands in the soil and to use their bodies out in the sun. We see pictures of glamorous people holding up giant carrots with smiles or holding chickens in full feather under each arm. But there’s a lot that we don’t show you. We don’t show you the insect infestation that demolished a part of our crop because growing organically can be tough. We don’t tell you about our knees and backs that ache from hours of weeding or harvesting. We don’t bring up the piles of poop we have to scoop or the stinky slop that sits in our compost piles. Most farms are a mess of projects here and there, some slipping down to the bottom of a priority list and spending a few years without attention. Every day is hard work. Some days it’s shoveling gravel to even out the floor of our cleaning shed, others it’s cutting down the vicious blackberry brambles tearing the sides of your greenhouse and our arms.

Some farms do it, and do it well. I’ve worked and visited farms that I would trust to eat their food any day of the week. Some of these include Garden Ripe outside Salem, Oregon, a treasure, with beautiful produce and a crew with good vibes and Farmer Bill as a strong supporting force. Then there’s the beautiful feel of the greenhouses and Peony fields on Homer Hilltop Farm in Homer, Alaska run by Carey, a motivated and friendly farmer pushing forward with her dreams like the best of us. I’d eat her greens any day and so should most of Homer! Or there’s the goat dairy here in Boulder, Colorado. Mountain Flower Goat Dairy is a shining example of a well-run, clean, and trustworthy local farm. You can visit it yourself and get a full understanding of the work that is put in by Taber and her staff that keep it functioning like a top.

But for the slew of well run, clean farms with good vibes there are others with more hidden secrets. Farming is hard. Most small farms are well intentioned. But it’s easy to get in over your head and I’ve seen my share of small farms that make me shake mine. From a lack of cleanliness and order, to bad management which leads to negative vibes, and while it’s a reality on many farms, sick and dying animals, and insect infested crops. This is what I want you to think about.

I’ve seen farms that have sick animals and will still sell them to you. I have seen dead animals mulched into the compost piles. I’ve seen human manure sitting in the open beside the compost that will be going on your veggies. I’ve seen leaves full of aphids thrown into buckets going out for sale. I’ve seen chemicals used when they shouldn’t be. I’ve seen filthy cleaning areas and techniques. And I’ve seen fighting and arguing that really take the love out of the growth of your food. So how do you know that your local farm isn’t slipping up? Not everyone is cut out to be a farmer. Are the people that are producing your food?

How can you find out?

Take a tour. You should tour any local farm that you can. If you can’t, ask them why. All local farms should give tours so that their community knows they can be trusted. While there, ask questions. Better yet, volunteer on a local farm. Then you’ll see how the team works together, how much dysfunction there might be and if the way they treat and grow your food is to your standards. Giving your time to a local farm is something we should all do to gain a better understanding of what it really takes to produce enough food for us all.

So PLEASE, go visit your local farm.

If you are going to buy from them make sure you know them. Make sure you trust that your meat was healthy and happy. Make sure that your crops are processed in a clean space or that the crew that works together on providing you with your sustenance is working together and happy. Don’t expect it to be the cleanest situation in the world but if there are buckets of blood with swarms of flies, rotting carcasses behind a shed, or a room full of chemicals on your organic farm, run for the hills (I’ve seen all 3). Don’t just believe your labels. I have a friend that worked as a USDA pesticide inspector and just because your food is organic doesn’t mean it’s not sprayed with “organic” chemicals. Ask your local farmers if they are chemical free. Many small farmers are but won’t pay the costs for the certifications.

When it all comes together, I just want you to recognize that your food isn’t always what it seems. You may think you are choosing a better option by supporting a small local farm but do your homework. I recently picked up some chickens to add to my backyard flock and am appalled at my experience. As I’ve said, I’ve worked on quite a few small farms and homestead on my own.

So when I followed a Craigslist ad to an old farmhouse badly in need of paint. Dogs ran out in the yard barking. And that was the cue for a young woman to come out and greet me. Out of the trunk of her car she pulls two old produce boxes closed up. Within them I can just see the messy feathers of 4 chickens. “They are missing some feathers because they just went through a molt,” she tells me. And I trust her, she’s a local small farmer, why shouldn’t I. I don’t check inside the boxes and put them in my car while small talking about the 7 farms her family runs in Colorado’s Front Range.

I drive home curious about the silence of the birds I’ve just purchased. At home I bring the boxes to my quarantine area and open them to release the birds. But they just sit there. I know my birds would have burst from the box and these don’t move. I pour them out of the box instead and finally see the poor shape they are in. Over the next 2 weeks I feed the birds, give them water, provide them with space to peck around and yet these birds are sick. They fall asleep standing up, cough, don’t know how to dig in the soil, hide and huddle in the corners. Now 2 weeks later, 3 of those chickens have passed away. The farms response, “all of our birds are healthy. Nothing is wrong with them. It must be your fault.” I’ve never lost a chicken to anything but predators. Take a look at my chickens next to theirs…

(My chickens)

(Theirs, notice the feathers and the pale drooping comb)

And these farms feed you eggs and meat from sick animals!
Who do you trust? Please make sure you know the conditions at your local farm. Not everyone is cut out to be a farmer.