John and Molly Chester on their farm, and bad dog.
The Biggest Little Farm
Film review by Marlene Ardoin
This film is about a couple, John Chester and his wife Molly, who are idealistic environmental filmmakers, who decide to put their money where their mouths are.
As the film opens, they are newly married living in a rental home with an unruly dog, who is responsible for forcing them to make a change.
They film their journey of going from renters to the owners of their own farm, Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, California.
Their dream is to have an organic farm that produces all their own organic food, as well as extra to sell to others in their community.
The farm they purchase has dead soil and a dry reservoir, when they arrive.
And, they have zero experience in farming, let alone raising animals.
At the very beginning, their unruly dog is calling all the shots.
But, they are very determined idealists.
They decide to bring in experienced help, who turns out to have similar grandiose, idealistic leanings.
Their mentor’s favorite quote is “no time to do things right, but plenty of time to do things over.”
Watching this film is like watching a caterpillar transform into a gorgeous butterfly.
They do have enormous problems to overcome, which is what makes this film so fascinating.
They slowly, over a ten year period, proceed to develop a designer farm based on the philosophy of the interdependent diversity of nature.
For example, at one point they have an infestation of garden snails, which can mean death to organic produce.
They discovered that if they let their ducks loose on the problem, the problem would be history.
Another example, coyotes were picking off their free range chickens one to ten at a time.
Because this is an organic farm, we are shocked to see them struggle with the idea of shooting the coyotes.
Two Great Pyrenees puppies for the farm.
First, they get two Great Pyrenees puppies to guard their sheep.
Then, they assign one of the dogs to the chickens, end of problem.
The coyotes could now properly concentrate on the gopher problem.
And at this point, they discover that they needed more coyotes.
During the ten year farming period, the bees came back, the drought happened, the fires happened, and the floods happened in California.
But, the diversity setup of their farm handled each environmental event with ease.
John and Molly mature before the viewers eyes.
Character, strength and wisdom are developed with each and every problem.
The final reward is the birth of their own son.
And, the viewer gets to decide if small organic farming is the solution to the world’s food problems.
I would recommend seeing this film, just because their farm is “so damn pretty.”
The prettiest, biggest, little farm.
The biggest Little Farm Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Biggest_Little_Farm
The Biggest Little Farm Official Trailer | Released April 5, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QHbYqz2ln8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nbU6Z5n6JI
Q&A for THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM with John & Molly Chester 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuVhi1BnRg8
John, Molly and their son on their farm.
6/25/2019 # The Biggest Little Farm