On June 10, the Alliance for Food and Farming let a farmer takeover our Instagram channel.  And everyone who watched this takeover likely learned something new from Chelsea McClarty Ketelsen and her family from HMC Farms in Kingsburg, California.

HMC Farms grows organic and conventional peaches, plums, nectarines and grapes and Chelsea shared some fun farming facts, washing tips and usage ideas.  But, she didn’t stop there, she involved her family members and even her kids to help us all understand more about farming and healthy eating. We learned how grafting can create a “fruit cocktail” tree, how to determine if fruit is ripe and ready to be picked,  what rootstock works best in sandy soil, what a rootstock even is and much more!

Chelsea’s videos also showed the beauty of orchards when they are fully green and laden with fruit.  Seeing those orchards made us envy Chelsea who enjoyed taking a few bites of the sun-ripened and sun-warmed peaches while filming.  But how could she resist?

We often say that we wish we could give every consumer a personal farm tour because there is no better way to understand the passion, care and commitment to grow safe and healthy produce then meeting the farmers themselves.  This Instagram takeover helped us do that virtually and we thank Chelsea and HMC Farms for letting us spend the day with them.

If you missed the live takeover, you can still see all Chelsea’s posts and videos on our Instagram channel.