A New Generation puts the Sexy Back in Working the Land.

Hipster Farmer: Will a new generation step up to take the baton and get their fingers dirty? It’s the life, even if it’s on an urban rooftop or with a backyard chicken coop:

There’s been plenty of media hype, of late, about young folks returning to work farms—small farms—to grow organic, and sell the fruits of their toil at local farmers’ markets.

Interestingly, however, it’s an online mag (Grist, of course) that gets to the heart of this question, and beneath the hype—and it appears that it’s the generally thoroughly-researched NY Times that went into this story with a preconceived notion. It’s a good read, if only to find more about how to make the transition from PBR and clean Carhartts to lots, and lots of water, and dirty Carhartts.

In any case, the Times article seems to get something right: young folks are finding the sexy in getting away from urban life—speedy, hyper, unhealthy—and back to a life that’s beautiful, peaceful, and chock-ful of hearty, humbling work.

If my local farmers’ market is any indication—where dozens of young men and women work the stands—the sexy is back, and just in time.