Essentials: The Honor System Farm Stand
"I was recently driving near Bean Blossom, Indiana..."
Some people can spot wildlife from moving vehicles. I have an eye for the simple but important signs of roadside honor system farm stands. These stands are often simple wooden structures, with maybe just an overhang to protect the items for sale. You might see a coffee can or a small box for payment, and signs taped down with handwritten prices and a note to please make the check out to so-and-so.
Inherent in this exchange of goods is a sense of trust and understanding: You will only take what you pay for, and the farmer who picked the blueberries, or the person who put up those jars of pickles or collected the eggs, is grateful for your purchase but simply has other things to do. The investment of your time and money is small, but the payoff is usually substantial.
I was recently driving near Bean Blossom, Indiana, when I followed a series of small signs down gravel roads to an electric yellow hand-built shed on the edge of Nature’s Sweet Farm. Inside, I was delighted to find shelves filled with local honey, maple syrup and jam, put up by Delbert and Sabrina Dunning. I selected about forty dollars worth of local goods, wrote down my purchases on the ledger, and stuffed my crumpled bills into the homemade wooden lockbox. My sweet bounty made the trek back to Chicago, where I shared the homemade goods with friends and family, who were delighted to hear about the little yellow shed and the spontaneous way I discovered it. —Bonnie Tawse
Bonnie Tawse is a writer and educator committed to exploring the connections between food, community, culture and the environment. She is the author of The Belt Cookie Table Cookbook and lives in Chicago with her husband and two sons.
Kevin Necessary is a freelance illustrator and editorial cartoonist. He is currently the editorial cartoonist for The Cincinnati Enquirer. His cartoons are syndicated by GoComics, and his cartoons have been published in a variety of publications such as The Week and Politico. A Cincinnati native, Kevin will fight to the death defending Cincinnati chili. He lives with his wife, Julie, and three cats, Huckleberry, Grayson, and Bonnie.