Elvira Di’Brigit, author of Why We Farm; Farmers’ Stories of Growing Our Food and Sustaining Their Business, talks with Rob about a day at the California farm she established with her husband and three children.  Figs, cucumbers, tomatoes, apples and pears are in season.  They also manage walnuts and olives.  Elvira is a writer and educator who has gotten to know small Capay Valley farms like family.  We talk about permaculture at Spread Wing Farm, organic farming at Full Belly Farm, organic livestock at Skylark Farm, and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) at River Dog Farm.

We discovered that it is all about relationships between the farmer and the customers.  Farmers are like ambassadors between the plant world, the animal world, and customers. These are vital connections.  There’s nothing like eating corn from a local farm. An intern that worked at Full Belly Farm went on to have a small organic farm in Iowa.  His farm is providing the fresh organic food for the dinner tables of the neighboring big farms. Food from small farms cultivates relationships and brings people together.