FIMBY

Watched a great movie this weekend that I wholeheartedly recommend seeing. The Real Dirt on Farmer John is a documentary about a family farm turned CSA farm, but it is so much more than that. It's a story about a man and his love for his land. His family's past, his own struggles and triumphs as he tries to make a go of small scale farming in modern America. His mother's love and the alternate cruelty and mistrust of a rural community. And then ultimately finding community where you least expect it.

Chicken at Willow Pond Farm

The really unique thing about this movie was all the 8 mm home movie footage taken by Farmer John's mother when he was a child. This was a significant part of the story and watching it gives the viewer a nostalgic picture of what "the good old days" were like. Obviously, it wasn't all as rosy as the footage, as you find out in the movie, but watching it left me longing to grow up on the family farm in the 50's. Funny, just the kind of upbringing my mom had. And which I never gave much thought to growing up a town girl (and happy to be one).

Good movie. Made my heart ache a little to watch the decline of a community and its farms but gave me warm fuzzies about the increasing popularity of CSA farms.