Tilt

Historically speaking, the concept of “on your honor” was not unheard of. It was likely that you would have credits at your local grocer, be able to leave your luggage for a minute at the airport and potentially even be able to go to school without going through a metal detector or fall victim to a random locker search during the day.

Over the course of the last decade, we have transformed as a nation into a somewhat neurotic, untrusting place (with of course very good reason from the tragedy of 911 and other such occasions). But here, out in the woods of Glenn Arm, Maryland is a perfect little oasis of trust.

On a recent visit to our eCommerce partner for Jes-M, EcoSumo, Jess and I saw this adorable little farm on the way. We decided to stop and grab some fresh veggies for our respective family dinners that evening. We drove up and the first sign that we saw said, “Honor System, Park on Field” with an arrow directing to a large wide-open space. We thought that perhaps this field was special and we should be cautious where we park to ensure that we didn’t interrupt the land. Oh, we were so wrong.

The “Honor System” on the upper sign was in fact a separate message from the “Park on Field” statement below. When we got into the market area, we were floored with abundance of variety. We walked around for a few minutes (and granted it was not a large space), and found something a little off about the shopping experince. There was another woman shopping as well, thank goodness, and we struck up a little mindless conversation about the in-season pumpkins. Then we realized what was wrong! There wasn’t a tenant or cashier there… CLICK!

The “Honor System” signing was an old-minded formula for agricultural success; Farm away all day and leave your products for patrons to take and hopefully in return money will be left as a note of gratitude. This concept, to modernized business women, was not on our radar as a business possibility until we came across The Bill’s Farm. Below you can see a proud purchase by Jess, the weighing station with the clip board of costs and of course the money slot to drop in your precious bills. And just in case we were confused and needed more explanation or wanted to give an IOU Ed and Lonna from The Bill’s Farm could be contacted via email or phone from the sign above the money slot.

What a phenomenon! We will always remember this wonderful adventure and the trust we felt from The Bill’s Farm shopping experience.