Getting Your Hands Dirty: How Frederick County Is Falling Back in Love with Its Farmers

Love Your Farmer POD
A Community Reconnects with Its Roots

Something powerful is growing in Frederick County — and it has nothing to do with the weather.

On a recent episode of The Valley Today, host Janet Michael gathers three of the region’s most passionate agricultural advocates for a conversation that was equal parts inspiring and eye-opening. Sam Armel, founder of Frederick County Homesteaders, joins Jaclyn Mommen of Laurel Grove Wine Farm and Patti’s Place, and Kristin Tesdall of Five Roots Farm to talk about a brand-new community initiative: Love Your Farmer Week, June 14–20. Click here to listen.

The event invites volunteers of all ages and abilities to roll up their sleeves and work alongside local farmers — and the timing, the women agree, couldn’t be more critical.

What Love Your Farmer Week Actually Looks Like

Rather than simply asking the community to shop local, Frederick County Homesteaders is asking people to show up.

“We thought, what could we do to really celebrate agriculture?” Sam explains during the podcast. “You can’t complain when a farm goes for sale if you’re not supporting the farmer.”

Through two simple Google forms — one for farms, one for volunteers — the organization makes it easy for families, church groups, 4H chapters, FFA members, homeschool co-ops, and civic organizations to sign up for time slots throughout the week. Organizers have even broken down participation by age range and mobility level, ensuring that everyone, regardless of physical ability, can find a meaningful way to contribute.

Currently, five farms have signed up to participate. Volunteer spots are still open, and farms can register through June 5th at frederickcountyhomesteaders.com.

A Day in the Life — It’s Not What You Think

One of the most compelling moments in the episode comes when Janet asks Jaclyn to describe a typical day on the farm. Her answer stops you in your tracks.

“Yesterday morning, I went to the farm market, harvested scapes, worked on the schedule, went to the vineyard, pruned vines for about five hours,” Jaclyn recounts. “Then after I put my kids to bed, I went to the vineyard and put down organic calcium biological from 9:30 to 1:30 in the morning. Then we woke up at 6:00 AM to go to field day.”

Meanwhile, over at Five Roots Farm, Kristin Tesdall describes a morning that began before dawn when she thought a lamb had escaped — only to discover it was simply “screaming for no reason.” The day before, sheep had gotten out, requiring an early-morning roundup before the rest of the workday even began.

These stories aren’t complaints. They’re simply Thursday.

The Hidden Toll of Farming Nobody Talks About

Beyond the physical demands, the conversation turns to the financial and emotional weight that farmers quietly carry. Late frosts this spring devastated vineyards, peach orchards, and apple orchards across the valley. And yet, as Sam points out, many people assume farmers are protected by crop insurance — a misconception that Janet herself once shared.

“I unknowingly said, ‘Don’t you have crop insurance?'” Janet admits during the episode. “And then he explained to me how that works. It is not like car insurance.”

Furthermore, the numbers paint a sobering picture. The average American farmer is between 58 and 64 years old. Farmland is transferring at a rapid rate. New farmers are not entering the industry fast enough to replace those who are leaving. As Sam puts it plainly, “There’s more of a shot for us to fail than there is for us to succeed.”

From Fleeces to Forested Paths: What Volunteers Will Actually Do

So what does volunteering actually look like during Love Your Farmer Week? Each participating farm brings something different to the table.

At Five Roots Farm, Kristin will lead volunteers through the process of skirting raw wool fleeces — the first step in transforming freshly shorn wool into yarn. It’s hands-on, educational, and open to kids and adults alike. “I hope that people will see the work that goes into some of these products,” Kristin says. “You don’t have to have a big commercial operation. You can do something smaller and still feed your community.”

Over at Patti’s Place, Jaclyn is focused on practical projects that have long been pushed to the back burner: mulching trails, weeding garden beds, and building paths through a forested area so children can explore safely. “If you have an army of people and six wheelbarrows,” she laughs, “that’s actually really quick work.”

Both women emphasize that volunteers won’t just be helping — they’ll be learning. And crucially, if they return to visit the farms later in the season, they’ll get to witness the direct results of their own labor.

Regenerative Farming and the Return to Common Sense

The conversation also ventures into the philosophy behind modern small-farm success. Jaclyn, who farms regeneratively at Laurel Grove Wine Farm, pushes back against the idea that regenerative agriculture is somehow new or trendy.

“People have been growing grapes and making wine for thousands of years before there were any chemicals to do it,” she says. “They just forgot how to do it because they stopped doing it.” She traces the loss of generational farming knowledge back just two generations — a remarkably short window of time in which centuries of wisdom nearly disappeared entirely.

That’s precisely why initiatives like Patti’s Place exist: to normalize the kind of hands-on, knowledge-sharing culture that once passed naturally from grandparent to grandchild.

A Call to Action for the Whole Valley

Ultimately, the episode is a call to action — not just for Love Your Farmer Week, but for a deeper, more sustained commitment to local agriculture.

“We live in a breadbasket community,” Sam reminds listeners. “We have so much more, and we take it for granted.”

The good news? It doesn’t take much to make a difference. Sign up to volunteer for a single afternoon. Visit a farm stand. Buy the peaches, even if they didn’t come from the orchard you usually frequent. Follow these farmers on social media. Show up.

As Sam says, “Instead of being fearful, let’s get solutions-driven.”

How to Get Involved

Want to hear the full conversation?

THE VALLEY TODAY with Janet Michael — A decade of conversations.

New podcast episodes drop weekdays at 11 AM. Catch the show on The River 95.3 and Fox Sports 1450 AM weekdays just after noon.

Subscribe and listen at thevalleytodaypodcast.com — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoy the show, please take a moment to leave a rating or review — it helps more listeners find us.

Connect with us: Facebook — facebook.com/ValleyTodayFanPage Instagram — instagram.com/thevalleytoday