Growing Concerns

Beginnings

Episode 1 – Beginnings  It’s the early 2000’s and thirty year old Jake is itchy to get out of his city boy poser lifestyle and “do something with his life”.  At an afterwork bar he meets Twinkle a bartender who's escaped from a Michigan dairy farm for big city life. On a lark, she agrees to go with Jake to his parent’s Michigan cabin where they exchange life stories over a campfire.

A Farm of His Own

Episode 2 – A Farm of His Own   Jake and his dad, Mike, are at the family cabin in Fruitville, disussing local customs – like shooting into the air randomly and why some many locals have first names that start with the letter “L.”  Mike sees an ad in the local newspaper for a couple of small blueberry farms. He and Jake walk the field with the owner, Mr. Wiley, who is delighted that a young person might go into farming.  An offer is made and Jake is now a farmer in training. When his buddy Andy comes up to help, all their vehicles get stuck in the mud until the new next door neighbor digs them out with his big John Deere tractor.  They end up at the local tavern and meet a sassy bartender named Honey.

Growing Concerns

Episode 3 – Growing Concerns  Almost from the start of his new career as “farmer” , Jake finds himself being tugged as by bad weather, hard chores and all kinds of paperwork and meetings. At a local blueberry meeting, he’s laughed at for wanting to grow “organic” berries, but is taken under the wing of a sympathetic  county agent.

Haircut

Episode 4 – Haircut  With Twinkle coming up for a visit soon, Jake is not impressed at what he sees in the mirror. Time for a trim and encounter with Fruitville society at the local barbershop, where the local gossip is a bit too much for him, as is the Amish looking haircut he ends up with. Twinkle learns of Jake’s fixation on one-syllable names as they snuggle in his newly acquired smelly trailer.

The Market

Episode 5 - The Market Jake’s starting to worry about how his new farm is going to make money. ;He’s already into his parents for a bunch of money and needs so marketing help. His mom Anne’s the go to for help and she’s quick to see that blueberries come in many forms – jams, raisins, and the like.  His new confidence doesn’t last long as he encounters a prickly manager at a Chicago farmers market who says she already has a blueberry seller and steers him towards applying to an Inclusion Festivalthat is anything but. Taking a break to lick his wounds at the family cabin, Jake encounters a surrealistic outdoor show on local TV.