This evening I attended a screening of the movie The Real Dirt on Farmer John prior to its June 22 opening in New York.  A panel discussion with the distributors of the movie, a local chef, food author and professor of nutrition followed.  Frankly, their discussion was a little less inspired than the movie so forgive me while I focus on the star of this show.

Find the movie and go see it!  Plain and simple.  I'm not using any two thumbs up nonsense.  This movie is not Hollywood nonsense.  This movie is real, it's now and it's about us.  Forget about Harry Potter, forget about Brad, Matt, this n' that.  John Peterson is precious-- a rare find.  Go see him and his film.  I cried, the gal in front of me cried, the guy behind me pretended he wasn't crying.  These are not tears of pure sorrow...they are tears of shame, hope and a little sorrow. But they're pure tears and you need to experience them too.  I know, this all sounds the other side of nuts...but I'm not.

Farmer John (Peterson) is a fourth generation, well educated and dedicated Illinois farmer who looses his family farm at a time when many farmers were having to sell off land and equipment to payoff mounting debt.  In John Peterson's case it amounted to $500,000.  The story shows his agonizing decision to sell off everything but 22 acres, his pain afterwards, his attempts to farm the remaining 22 acres, his subsequent failure and then final success at the urging of a Chicago couple he didn't even know and initially tried not to get to know.  It chronicles his unusual relationships (for a mid-westerner) with friends, classmates, family members and tortured relationships with narrow-minded neighbors.  It shows his amazing creativity, freedom and open-mindedness.

I don't want to give away anymore, but do want to share the film so I have included two trailers below.  The first is a more typical trailer.  A second trailer with a scene including Lesley Littlefield helps to further depict Farmer John's creativity and soul.  The logo above was designed for his new business and re-established farm Angelic Organics.  Click here to go to his web site which offers information about his farm and the film.  Enjoy!

The Real Dirt on Farmer John (NOTE: Your computer may need speakers for this to be audible)

I used to bee by Lesley Littlefield