When it comes to environmentally conscious documentaries, “The Biggest Little Farm” stands out from others for its heart-touching and compelling concept. From its early screenings in 2018 to the present day, the documentary directed by John Chester and starring his wife Molly and their Apricot Lane Farms’ staff, keeps its audiences all around the world in awe for addressing the topic of sustainability of farming and its environmental implications.
John and Molly’s goal of farming while not disturbing nature wasn’t always easy, but their relentless attitude has kept them focused and inspired all along. However, now that it’s been years since the documentary premiered, it’s fair to wonder how John and Molly’s farm is doing these days, and whether their sustainability goals were ever achieved.
Keep with us to know more about “The Biggest Little Farm”, John and Molly Chester, what they did before dedicating themselves to farming, and a lot more!
What Is Going On With The Farm Now?
The Apricot Lane Farms rose to fame for being the subject of John Chester’s awarded documentary “The Biggest Little Farm”. The farm is located in Moorpark, California, some 50 miles away from Los Angeles, where John and his wife Molly lived before they dropped everything to live their sustainability dream in early 2010.
Now that several years have passed since “The Biggest Little Farm” was released in theaters in 2019, it’s a joy to see that not only is the business doing well, but also that John and Molly achieved their goal of spreading their harmonious farming philosophy. These days, Apricot Lane Farms’ Instagram is followed by over 200,000 people, and is visited by many others, to the point that farming tours for visitors are organized often.
That said, “The Biggest Little Farm” is not a finished project but an ongoing one. As its 2022 sequel special “The Return” made it clear, John and Molly still fight every day to keep the farm running while being loyal to their mission. According to John, they’re still learning how to adapt to the conditions of their land, and find solutions to their environmental concerns. Undoubtedly, those are some of the most important reasons people were so impressed by the documentary and the work they did in the first place.
Media Reception
While “The Biggest Little Farm” began filming in the early 2010s, it wasn’t ready for screening until 2018, when it debuted at Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival. It was later screened at important film festivals such as the Toronto International, Doc NYC, and Sundance among others. It was also screened at the Ocean City Film Festival in Maryland, where it was warmly welcomed by audiences for being John Chester’s childhood hometown.
The documentary inevitably caught the hearts of audiences wherever it was screened and distributed. The dedication to creating the documentary eventually paid off, as “The Biggest Little Farm” was awarded at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, American Film Institute Fest, and Boulder Film Festival, among others. It was also shortlisted at the Academy Awards in 2020.
Regarding the documentary reception, John told Ocean City’s news site that he was ‘proud’ of the reception the film got, and remarked how long it took him to bring the project to reality. His description of the documentary as ‘inspiring’ is supported by The Los Angeles Times and Variety, with the latter affirming that it was ‘fresh air for the soul’.
What Did John and Molly Do Before?
Everything started with a ‘promise to a dog and a dream’, as the Apricot Lane Farms’ website states. Sometime in the 2000s first decade, John and Molly Chester lived in an apartment in California alongside their dog, but their pet’s barking got to their homeowner’s nerves, resulting in them challenging the marriage by making them choose between their apartment or their dog.
The obvious choice for the Chesters was sticking to their beloved canine, thus they decided to move away from Los Angeles to Moorpark, but there’s more to their story before they got to that point. The Chesters’ move was years in the making, and was prompted by Molly’s professional needs. Her job as a chef let her figure out that the nutritional value of the food she prepared was inherently related to the condition and overall health of the farm where the ingredients grew.
At that time, John was focused on his awarded career as a movie director, having released several films such as “Euphoria”, “Lost in Woonsocket” and “Rock Prophecies” in the 2000s. However, as Molly increasingly struggled to find healthily-grown ingredients, and the apartment fiasco happened, the couple decided to buy a farm with some third party’s financial help, and make their sustainable dream come true, though it took them several years to get there.
What’s In The Future For John?
“The Biggest Little Farm” is not only a documentary about seeking sustainable ways of growing food, but about creating harmony between farming and the environment, something that John and Molly Chester were told was ‘impossible’ and ‘crazy’, as he affirmed in an interview with the New York Times.
To turn their dream into reality, John and Molly were helped by Alan York, a Biodynamic expert who advised the couple about everything they needed to do to grow food from the soul on their farm, especially considering the tough and lifeless condition of the soil in the Chesters’ then newly-acquired land. Sadly, Alan passed away in 2014, but Molly and John continued their mission, eventually managing to turn their once soulless land into a place where food grows and animals live in peace.
Regarding the current conditions of Apricot Lane Farms, the place keeps itself in business thanks to the local food market in Moorpark, as John told the website Bon Appetit in 2019. Much to the chagrin of those who tried to lower John and Molly’s expectations about their ability to provide food on a global level, that was never their goal anyway. Instead, the couple has kept their sights on staying local and inside their community.
That’s also one of the reasons they’ve taken part in food markets, and also helped their neighbouring farms when things were tough. It’s a no-brainer that “The Biggest Little Farm” caught so many people’s hearts, as it expresses well their passionate mission.
