“The Biggest Little Farm” Farmlore Films, not your usual 92 mins of “entertainment”

The Biggest Little Farm Directed by John Chester

A young couple get married and embrace their future. They start by taking on a black dog a bit like a sheepdog though he has mesmerizingly and cheeky blue eyes, from a dog rescue home. His noisy barking whenever Chester and Molly go out gets them a threatening notice of eviction and then …as if by magic – well we are not told how they raised the finance – Chester and Molly and the dog leave to start a huge farm in California.

Released on 12 April 2019 in the US this film has apparently grossed $48m so far. There is a myriad of huggable and googly farm animals in the story and even the menacing Coyote is cuddleable. The pig renamed from Ugly Betty to Emma gives the couple and their workforce seventeen piglets and nearly dies in the process but continues to give more litters and is still in evidence at the close of the story. Now the farm known as Apricot Lane Farms, Moorpark in California, is open to the public, giving walking tours to visitors and children ten years or over. The film covers the first eight years – yes eight years of running the farm. We are shown that the farm when originally bought was barren including broken bee hives and soil too hard to dig. We are also shown film footage of appalling weather conditions including hurricanes and very bad droughts, not to mention forest fires. These are all conditions that the people in the US have to face.

There are sheep, chickens and ducks, and highland cattle also on the farm. The Coyotes keep coming and killing the birds and we are shown the devastating duties the farm staff have of trying to deal with piles of birds which have been attacked and killed by the coyotes.

When trying to grow the fruit the poor farmers find the birds and insects biting into their fruit making it unsellable, and at this point one wonders why the fruit is not farmed under wired netting and of course sprayed with a professional spray which would protect the fruit from insects. It all becomes somewhat technical but farming is given a high rating of tirelessly frustrating episodes where absolutely nothing is easy or can be taken for granted and the wonders of wildlife is brought to us with close circuit cameras depicting insects and birds up to their own daily toils which sometimes conflict with the farmers needs, and includes introducing worms into composts and other episodes which are very farm related like helping animals give birth.

The dead birds is a big feature in the film but apparently the eggs are so popular that there is a waiting list from keen customers!

Director is John Chester, with John Chester and Molly Chester and Matthew Pilachowski. The “immense complexity of nature” which includes the weather conditions abide. Look out for the gorgeous new baby boy who grows up on the farm and the sad demise of one of the staff through cancer.

ENJOY.

Penny Nair Price