Farmer Focus: Meet Megan Ayers, Unvarnished Farm

Written By Julia Bubp

On 11 acres of land in Deputy, a small rural community in Southern Indiana just outside Madison, Megan Ayers is bringing soil back to life. Her operation, Unvarnished Farm, focuses on regenerative grazing and soil health, using no-till practices to produce healthy and delicious food for Hoosiers.

“I started farming in earnest in 2013 when my husband and I bought our first home in Cincinnati,” Ayers recounts. “I bought three chickens. What started as a supplement to our dinner plates became an urban farm with a micro orchard and enough food to sell at farmers markets and support a small CSA.”

After moving to Deputy in 2020, Ayers started the process of rebuilding the soil of what had once been a conventionally run corn and soybean farm. By rotationally grazing geese and chickens and using mulches and composts, she’s created a clean and healthy ecosystem for her vegetables, berries, orchard, and animals to thrive.

“We can do more with less cropland if we care for our soils first,” says Ayers. “It’s possible to feed millions through small-scale agriculture that values soils and health over efficiency. Healthy soils produce healthy food, which in turn, makes healthier humans.”

While restoring soils, growing crops, and raising animals are challenging in their own ways, it’s the struggle against grocery store convenience culture that Ayers says presents the biggest challenge in farming. “I’m not selling what a buyer gets at Walmart or Kroger,” she explains. “You can’t get what I produce at the grocery because food in that system is not as fresh as mine, has traveled hundreds, if not thousands of miles to get there, and is a variety that is bred for travel resilience and uniformity, not taste. Convenient, cheap, shelf-stable food may make the pocket book happy, but eaters will pay for that food in dividends over time in chronic disease and medical care.”

Since Indiana is a state known for farming, it’s easy to assume that most of our food is already locally produced. In reality, up to 90% of the food we eat is sourced from outside the state. Supporting local farms like Unvarnished not only gives our local economy a boost, it gives Hoosiers access to delicious and nutritious food with all the benefits of being grown and raised seasonally and locally.

“It’s a win-win to eat seasonally and locally: healthier, more economically responsible, more delicious, and better for the planet,” Ayers adds.

“I will farm until I die. It’s not a job, it’s an identity.”

Megan Ayers, Unvarnished Farm

As she works to steward the land at Unvarnished, Ayers knows she’s just one part of the larger rhythm of nature. “The symbiosis of life all around plugs me into a greater understanding of my role in the bigger picture,” she says.

So, how does Unvarnished Farm fit into the bigger picture? Like most farmers, Ayers recognizes that what she brings to the farmers’ market and, ultimately, to your table is unique because every farmer is unique. Visit her booth at the market and you’ll find fresh eggs, herbs, vegetables, fruits, and maple syrup straight from the farm.

“I will farm until I die,” says Ayers. “It’s not a job, it’s an identity. It’s all I think about, almost all day, and it makes me happy. Sure, there’s a lot of uncertainty and risk-taking, problem solving, physical discomfort, and low wages, for sure, but if I can help the land I’m on be better when I leave it, then I’ve done a service to my neighbors and the Earth.”

Find Unvarnished Farm year-round at the Madison Farmers’ Market and at the Seymour Farmers’ Market in the winter. Follow Ayers’ journey on her website, unvarnishedfarm.com and on Instagram @unvarnished_farm.

Keep Digging!

Want to learn more about Hoosier food and farming? Ayers recommends these resources:

  • Urban Soil Health - “From transitioning to no-till to calculators for how much mulch to apply, and even very technical nutrient calculators based on the grower's soil tests, this site has everything.”

  • Hoosier Young Farmers Coalition - “This site feels like the community message board in a coffee shop: there are classifieds, opportunities for education, mentorship, and community building. This organization is a non-profit chapter of the larger ‘Young Farmers Coalition’ who lobby for a more equitable food and agriculture system.”

  • Cornell Small Farms - “This site is very much a school for small-scale farmers, utilizing an online course model in recorded and live sessions to teach growers any number of valuable food and farming skills.”

  • “These books are essentials for anyone looking to start or improve their market garden or home plot,” says Ayers. “I encourage anyone who can to visit all the farms these farmer-authors have created and continue to learn on…Reading in theory about what works and then visiting their farms to see it in action is life-changing!”

Photos courtesy of Megan Ayers.

Julia Bubp