Mendocino County is rich in small farms, but our farmers are struggling in the economic climate of our rural community. I sat down with Blaire Auclair, co-owner and operator of Folk Life Farm, a diversified farm in Covelo growing produce, herbs, and animals with no till, regenerative and biodynamic practices, to learn more about her reality of being a small farmer. I asked Blaire about her ability to earn a living wage, described by World Report as $44,100 for a single person in California in 2024.
Blaire AuClair:
"That's crazy to hear that. I definitely do not earn that and that puts more perspective into how challenging things are right now, how we're definitely struggling trying to make it, as we all are aware, our county has undergone significant economic changes over the past 5 years.
Jenn Procacci:
"Do you feel as though the shifting landscape financially our county has affected your ability to earn an income as a small farmer?"
Blaire AuClair:
"Definitely, I would say for sure specifically in our small town where we are, there's definitely less people attending the farmers' market and just in general, I would say it seems that the economy is down."
Jenn Procacci:
"So what strategies do you employ to creatively increase your income as a small farmer and reach more consumers? I know that you are implementing a self-served vegetable refrigerator here in Covelo. Would you like to talk about that?"
Blaire AuClair:
"Well, that's the plan. It's in the works. We're hoping for next year in our little cafe, in the grounds of the Best Small Library in America. We are hopefully going to be putting a refrigerator for kind of self-serve farm stands and our farm where it is is a bit off the beaten path in Covelo, we figured having a more centralized location where people could pick up produce would be helpful."
Jenn Procacci:
"So you have described some technological platforms such as Facebook that you use to connect with other farmers and advertise your goods that you have available to consumers. Are there other technologies that you use or maybe ones that don't even exist that you've imagined using to help you with your farming practices, such as soil testing or apps that would help you track fertility or anything along those lines?"
Blaire AuClair:
"Yeah, there's a number of apps actually that I just downloaded that I'm hopefully gonna be using next year for timing how long it takes to seed lettuce, plant lettuce, cultivate lettuce, weed lettuce, harvest lettuce, packaged lettuce, and send it to my kind of really being able to break down for each crop what it takes to grow it and bring it to market to have a better understanding of what crops contribute, what crops are making us money and what crops we're losing money on. And there's other apps to, you know, help communicate with crews better, to do lists are all online and are able to be viewed and accessed more easily. The one thing that I hadn't mentioned yet that's really awesome in our county is the Mendo Lake Food Hub, and they have an online platform where we're able to list once to twice a week, depending on what we have available and then anyone in the county can go onto their website and purchase local food. That's been a really amazing thing for our farm this year, being able to, because we're so spread out, being able to harvest a bunch of produce, have it consolidated in one place, not having to do a market."
Jenn Procacci:
"It seems like there are a number of technologies that you utilize and that you're looking to utilize further in the future. And I'm wondering how that feels to you, you know, I've been to your farm, I know you're in this super remote place you employ some very ancient practices in your farming, a lot of biodynamic practices. Do you wish that technology was something that you didn't have to use at all, or do you not even think about it and you're just embracing what is available for you?"
Blaire AuClair:
"I definitely have a love-hate relationship with technology. I mean, in an ideal world, I definitely would never touch a computer if I had the choice. And that's just, it's not a choice, unfortunately, especially as a small business owner. In the end, technology can make things easier. A lot of times it's the initial setup that takes a really long time, that's tedious, that is really hard to do, but then there's a lot of programs out there that once you get things set up really well, the maintenance and the weekly inputs end up being a lot easier and more beneficial than challenging."
Jenn Procacci:
"So what encourages you to continue as a farmer in this challenging economic climate, and would you say that the reality of owning and operating a small farm is different than what you had imagined it would be?"
Blaire AuClair:
"Oh my gosh, it's such a good question. I mean, I asked myself that all the time, like, what am I doing? How am I doing this, but only in the sense that like it's so difficult and it's so hard to make it and there's so many challenges I often say like you have to love problems to love farming because there's just always endless amount of problems, but I just, I can't imagine doing anything else. Like I just couldn't, I don't think I physically, mentally.. I hope I never have to make that decision that I can't farm.