REAL FARMER CARE - Farmers feed us. We take care of them.
Real Farmer Care awards self-care grants and wellness support to farmers across the United States — because the people who grow our food deserve care too.
ABOUT
Clara Coleman is a second-generation farmer, founder of Real Farmer Care, and host of the Winter Growers Podcast. She consults with farms and agricultural organizations, writes and speaks on farmer wellbeing and sustainable year-round growing, and serves as a jury member of the Food Planet Prize — the world's largest environmental award.
Raised at Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine, Clara grew up learning four-season organic farming alongside her father, pioneering farmer and author Eliot Coleman. From 2016 to 2023, she led the farm's business operations, deepening a lifetime of hands-on experience before turning her full attention to Real Farmer Care, which she founded in 2020 to address a critical and often overlooked need: the physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing of farmers.
Earlier in her career, Clara co-founded Divide Creek Farm — an intensively managed, certified organic two-acre four-season vegetable farm in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. She also developed the ARC Farm model, an innovative collaborative farming concept designed to give young farmers a viable path into the field without requiring land ownership or significant startup capital.
Today, Clara's work is rooted in the belief that farming must be sustained from the inside out — that caring for farmers is as essential as caring for the land. Through Real Farmer Care, she works to ensure farmers have access to the wellness support they need and deserve. Through the Winter Growers Podcast, she shares year-round growing knowledge with a community of growers across the country. And through her Substack, she reflects on farming, life, and love with characteristic honesty and warmth. Across all of it, she is driven by the same purpose: to inspire the next generation of farmers to build sustainable, lasting legacies — for themselves, for their communities, and for the land.
She is based in Portland, Maine.
CONSULTING
Clara Coleman brings more than 15 years of on-the-ground farming experience to her consulting work. Raised at Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine, she learned sustainable four-season growing directly from her father, pioneering farmer and author Eliot Coleman — and spent years learning, practicing, and leading the farm's business operations before building her own independent practice.
Clara consults with farms, food businesses, and agricultural organizations on sustainable year-round growing systems, farm operations, and farmer wellbeing. Past and current clients and collaborators include American Farmland Trust, Wegmans Food Markets, Maine Farmland Trust, Apricot Lane Farms, Beetlebung Farm, Johnny's Selected Seeds, and the No-Till Growers Network.
To inquire about consulting availability, get in touch →
