Fork to Farmer: Wake Co., N.C.
Client: People First Tourism Lab
About the Project
This film is part of the long-running Fork 2 Farmer series that highlights the connections between the people that produce food and the people who serve it. In this installment, we profile two interconnected independent businesses in Wake Co., N.C.—Chickadee Farms and Fiction Kitchen.
Unlike a lot of farmers Jenn Sanford Johnson didn't grow up on a farm. She started her career as a commercial photographer in Minnesota, but after becoming a mother she decided to follow a different path and discovered that her true passion was being outside working with her hands. So in 2016 she opened Chickadee Farms and today grows organic produce on 2 acres of land in Clayton, N.C. "I don't really know where I would be if I wasn't a farmer. I've never worked an office job," she said. "This is like the thing that I feel like I'm here for."
Caroline Morrison has loved to cook ever since her job at a Chick-fil-a while she was in high school. "My day usually starts with me waking up thinking about a dream I had about food, or dreaming of a recipe," she said. After many years of working in the food industry while also being a vegetarian, she realized there just weren't great vegan and vegetarian restaurant options. So in 2013, she opened Fiction Kitchen in downtown Raleigh where she cooks "thoughtfully prepared vegan cuisine." Although sometimes treated as a "wicked stepchild" (Caroline's words) by critics and food media for being a vegetarian restaurant, Fiction Kitchen is beloved by thousands of diners and Morrison has even been invited to cook at the prestigious James Beard house.
This film didn't start out intending to be about COVID-19, but like so many best laid plans, that's how it happened. We began production in early 2019 and had just wrapped filming interviews when North Carolina and most of the United States went into lockdown in March, 2020. As the whole world adjusted to a new reality, we kept in touch with both Jenn and Caroline and nine months later were able to finally finish filming. During that time, both businesses had to make significant adaptations and our film became a snapshot into how independent businesses have both struggled and thrived during the pandemic.
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