The Black Girl’s Guide to Building a Boutique Farm

Praise for The Black Girl’s Guide to Building a Boutique Farm:
“In this generous and practical guide, Farmer Cee proves that it’s possible for your small-farming venture to be profitable, values-aligned, and joy-centered. Focusing on high-margin products and authentic messaging is a pathway for Black women, and everyone, to find our way back to the land without compromising our well-being. Farmer Cee’s relational, approachable tone makes you feel like you have a big sister in your corner. This refreshing, honest, and practical volume will take its rightful place among the emerging canon that celebrates and uplifts Black agrarianism.”—Leah Penniman, cofounder, Soul Fire Farm; author of Farming While Black

“The Black Girl’s Guide to Building a Boutique Farm is a powerful and practical roadmap for the visionary building a farm brand with heart and purpose. Clarenda “Farmer Cee” Stanley blends deep agricultural wisdom with entrepreneurial insight, offering not only clear steps for profitability but also a philosophy rooted in community, resilience, and sustainability. This book will inspire and equip aspiring, new, and experienced farmers to cultivate business success and meaningful, long-lasting impact.”—Christa “FarmerJawn” Barfield

“The Black Girl’s Guide to Building a Boutique Farm is a gift to the farming community! Rooted in years of experience and a family legacy of farming, Cee Stanley’s writing is filled with essential wisdom from both the field and the marketplace. Farmer Cee is a masterful storyteller, sharing her journey of building a boutique farm that embodies her abundance mindset, business savvy, and dedication to the land. Farming can be an isolating and overwhelming endeavor, and that is why every farmer, from the newbie to the old salt, needs this book! Farmer Cee calls in the joy of claiming (or reclaiming) your space in the agricultural world. She also explores different models of boutique farms, illustrating the belief that ‘if you can dream it, you can build it.’ With every page, she reminds us, ‘sis, don’t play small,’ and gives us the skills and encouragement to build a brighter future for farming. Big-time gratitude to Farmer Cee for her voice and her work!”—Melanie and Jeff Carpenter, Zack Woods Herb Farm

“A huge part of decolonizing our relationship with agriculture, especially for Black girls, is drawing the parallels between nature, self-love, and adornment. We already know how to build and support boutique businesses that are stocked with fashion finds, accessories, fragrances, and homemade home essentials. We’ve built small businesses that are community sanctuaries of culture and beauty. Now Farmer Cee is expanding our boutique sensibility into farming so that we can remember how powerful our relationship with land, healing, and wellness is. Her ecosystem of wisdom in The Black Girl’s Guide is the epitome of joy and abundance. She’s helping us to continue to build life-affirming portals, and it’s clear we can look and feel damn good doing it!”—Dominique Drakeford, host and executive producer, Compost, Cotton & Cornrows podcast; cultural sustainability strategist

“Black women started the herbal industry in the United States. For hundreds of years, absent were hospitals and pharmacies where Black folk could seek medical help. Our doctors were
Black women who caught babies, cured illnesses, and wrapped us in mantras of healing. Their care extended to white communities, too, and they collaborated with First Nations.
“What the annals left out is that Black women—both Indigenous and brought from Africa—kept America healthy. Through their medicinal flowers and plants grown in complex systems of gardens, plots, and farms, Black women’s entrepreneurial savvy was unmatched. So much so that they are the root of American child birthing, floriculture, culinary arts, the herbal industry, and, of course, pharmaceutical professionalism, which started with plant medicine.
“Today, Farmer Cee exhumes the secrets of our mothers with incredible depth. Her book weaves together high-integrity herbal farming practices; a carefully cultivated business stratagem that includes social acuity; and the creation of a tightly knit global community. This book demonstrates her fearless acts of love to expand an agricultural ecosystem with care and her know-how to build a thriving enterprise. In short, you can farm and still be fly.
“What is entirely dope about Farmer Cee is her generosity with knowledge and time. I cannot count the many times she has directed people to Black Farmers Index and encouraged us to continue our work. All the while, she maintains a multigenerational family. Her dirt-divinity is most evident in what comes from her farm: the most brilliant harvests that produce superior herbs. That’s more than magic; that is goddess-energy and ancestors returned.”—Dr. Kaia Shivers, president, Black Farmers Index; founder and editor-in-chieftess, Ark Republic; clinical associate professor, New York University

Praise for Clarenda “Farmer Cee” Stanley:
“She’s a farmer, but also a mentor, an advocate, and a catalyst for change.”—Jeff Tkach, CEO of Rodale Institute, writing for the Fast Company Impact Council