Biggest Little Farm

Back in 2018 or 2019 my family and I had a rare moment of being able to rent a movie from Redbox. Living 50 miles outside of town, we didn’t often get to town two days in a row with the ability to rent and return a movie.

We picked a movie called “The Biggest Little Farm.” From the short description we figured it was going to be a comedy of a couple of city slickers who got in over their heads and their story about learning how farm life works. We were wrong, but it was a wonderful movie, a documentary and well done too.

Instead, it is the story of some city dwellers who decide to move out to a plot of land, but this piece of land needs some help. The movie is the story of rebuilding the land using biodiversity, organic and regenerative farming practices.

This was my first exposure to this type of farming. I chalked it up to California and small farms. This is something that couldn’t scale. Wrong, again. I have since learned and seen examples outside of California, of how this can scale and why it should. It is slowly grabbing hold, the big need is education. Education of everyone who is involved in agriculture. If you eat, you’re involved.

Watch the movie. I will warn you that younger children might need a bit of guidance watching this and some adults need warning. There is animal death in this. I don’t remember anything graphic but it is definitely talked about. You know your family best so make an educated decision either by checking it out yourself or using a source like imdb to check it out. Animal death is part of eating, even if you’re a vegetarian or vegan, animals die for our food, bottom line.

A prairie field in eastern Colorado. The native plants and some none natives are growing everywhere as they should be. Cattle were run seasonally in this field. Keeping it mowed, aerated and fertilized.

Apricot Lane Farms is the name of the farm. They are still in business and have a website, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Check them out.

There are a lot of places online to learn more about this farm and the stewards of it. Below are some links. I have seen the movie, obviously, but I haven’t listened to the podcast for example.

Educate yourself and support the people who are cultivating the food you love.

Happy making!