When Gracie’s Farm director Lynsey Gammon first began farming, she learned from a mix of childhood lessons from her grandmother, plenty of research, and, of course, trial and error. Now, after a decade of farming in the Wasatch Back, Gammon decided to launch a consulting business so other smal l farmers can learn more easily. “I see that there’s a gap for young farmers, especially women, to start accessing the same success that I’ve had,” she said. “Even getting your foot in the door to figure out how to progress in this field is really hard; there’s no real clear footprint or pathway.” Mountain Song Farms Consulting, named for Gammon’s first farm in Silver Creek, is open for clients and designed to be completely customizable to each farmer’s needs. What many don’t realize is that planning for the growing season begins early. Now through March is an ideal time to begin, Gammon said. Through meetings with each client, she said she will help people determine their goals and how to achieve them.  “The planning part really starts like the minute that the last season started,” Gammon said. “The meat of what I do is more of like helping them define their goals and mission and vision and where they want to go with the farm, because I think that that’s missed a lot of the times, and where people are just like, let’s just jump in and farm, instead of really being intentional and thinking about their strategic planning.” It’s even harder in high-elevation desert regions, Gammon said, where the short growing season means even less room for error because there’s less time to recover from mistakes. Gammon said her consulting work is essentially mentorship, something she’s been passionate about since working as a guide of sorts to her staff of Gracie’s Farm “farm-hers” over the last seven years. Farming is extremely complex, she said. It’s not just bed orientation, soil profile, water zoning, pest management, crop selection and selling. There are also the demands of a small business: finding a client group, budgeting, marketing, management and figuring out alternative income streams. It’s those extra bits that Gammon has found to be especially important for success. Her farms have always had community event elements, like Farm Fridays, where buying food becomes a social activity — something people continue to crave. That’s a tool that many farmers forget to utilize, Gammon said. “Part of my shtick is that I provide consulting on how to bring people to farms. Not just be the faceless farmer behind the food, but also just have people connecting with you on a different level,” she said. The community connection is one of the main things that drew Gammon to farming later in life. While perhaps a stereotype, she said women are often attracted to that people-nurturing characteristic. Gammon said she’s especially passionate about women farmers because of the legacy they have. Women had been the growers since the beginning of time, from hunter-gatherer groups to industrialization, when machinery gave way to “Big Agriculture.” Gammon said it wasn’t until World War II that women returned to the field to tend Victory Gardens while men were at war. In recent history, women’s return to farming centered on the market-garden movement, a style of growing that optimizes small pieces of land. It’s also what Gammon has perfected. A recent leadership course with the Market Gardener himself, JM Fortier, cemented her desire to teach other women how to succeed in a career they’re often excluded from. Gracie’s Farm Director Lynsey Gammon, left, attends author and educator Jean-Martin “JM” Fortier’s leadership retreat in Quebec last fall. Credit: Photo courtesy of Lynsey Gammon “(Women) just aren’t looked upon as somebody who has real relevance or leadership in that field,” Gammon said. “Until the small garden, the market-garden style, came back online, it becomes a little bit more accessible to women.” Gammon said these small farms are still popping up, even in difficult growing areas like Utah, despite climate change stressors and the rising cost of everything from land to seeds. The United Nations recognized 2026 as the year of the woman farmer, and with the rising “grassroots” movement — no pun intended — Gammon said she hopes to help lead the charge. When it comes to helping people overcome barriers, Gammon said her strategy is to celebrate the small wins and build from there. “With the state of the world and the state of the climate, last year was our hottest summer, driest summer, and it was really a beat down, but we focused on what we could accomplish,” she said. “People need each other. People need small farms. People need the local food. And maybe that’s the way that we keep each other standing up, is as a team.” There’s plenty of opportunity and demand to grow that network of farmers. Not just to support each other, but to collectively feed the Wasatch Back, Gammon said. She cited her limitations at Gracie’s Farm in meeting the demands from local buyers or restaurant clients, and the growing success of the Gracie’s Farm dinners. “I can’t provide enough food for the entire Wasatch Back, or that community connection, every single day of the year. I think people are never going to get tired of going to a farm to get their food,” she said. “I think that our community specifically craves that; we love to be together.” Designing ways to incorporate those events is something that Gammon, an experienced farmer with her own connections, can bring that a computer can’t recommend. It’s the value of having a human resource over tools like AI to help with farm planning. “The computer does not have their hand in the dirt, and their arms aren’t sore and their backs aren’t sore, and they’re not watching the people eat their food at the farm dinner and understanding that connection piece,” Gammon said. “Some people might get a lot out of AI for farming and planning and such, but they’re not going to get the meat of why you do it, what makes it worth it and what you’re going to struggle with each day, because that computer is not going to tell you that.” Gammon said that as a mentor, she can prepare farmers for the struggles and the hailstorms that wipe out crops, but also the joys, the wins and the steps to overcome setbacks. She admitted that she won’t have all the answers, but she will be a safe place to explore those dreams. Because the success of more farms benefits the whole community. “I want to broaden this network of farms, so that we all have a safety net of each other to keep each other up, because it is so hard, and it is physically demanding and it’s mentally challenging,” she said. “But the more people who are in it, and the more people who see what we do, not even just the farmers, but the people who buy what we grow or come to our dinners and see the hard work that goes into it, maybe that’s the joy. That’s how we survive all of this chaos and the climate and the devastation of the world.” For more, visit mountainsongfarms.com or email [email protected]. The post Experienced farmer hopes to mentor others with Mountain Song Farms Consulting appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less