Last Thursday at the Dudley Farmer’s Market an older woman approached the stall and asked “Who grows this food?” D.I.R.T crew member Rony answered “We do, we grow it here and in Lincoln.” She looked at him, shook her head in disbelief, and declared, “No you don’t… you don’t grow this food.”

I was watching this unfold, curious to see how Rony would respond. Brittany, a Rural Ag intern, overheard and in a strong voice added, “Yeah we do, all of us grow it.” The woman did not back down and kept shaking her head and mumbled, “You’re too young, you.” Finally, after a couple more attempts, Rony looked at me and asked me to tell her that he helped grow the food.

Before I even started to speak she demanded, “Who are you people?” I gave her a run-down of The Food Project and Rony stepped in front of me and proudly said, “See, we do grow the food.” By the end of the conversation, she was overcome by the grace and confidence of the youth and elated about The Food Project. As she left, with three heavy bags of full of produce and one small pumpkin, she smiled and said, “You’ll be seeing me again.”