Submissions

Farmer-ish publishes both online issues and print collections. We are excited to announce that the third volume of our print annual will publish in September 2026!

We’re looking for creative and engaging content on farming, homesteading, raising animals, cooking, making, and raising a family. We want creative nonfiction, personal essays, memoir, patterns and instructions, how-to pieces, informational and instructional essays, poetry, and more.

General essays and how-to essays should be approximately 800 to 1,000 words. Personal essays and memoir should be between 800 and 2,000 words. Photographs for recipes and how-to essays should be included when submitting. Poetry can be of any length, though we prefer short to medium.

Be sure to single space after periods and provide hyperlinks to source material when applicable. Please do not use footnotes, endnotes, or in-text citations.

All work must be owned by you. We aim for original work, but if you have published your work on a personal blog, you can re-purpose it for us. Please note you retain copyright for your work. We simply ask that you mention Farmer-ish as the original publisher if your work appears elsewhere. Please also note that we do not accept submissions written in part by generative AI or submissions edited heavily by AI. We want to hear your human voice.

For our quarterly online issues, we do not offer pay at this time, but submission is free. Our journal also reaches approximately 75,000 readers per year, so your writing will reach a wide audience. For our print annuals, we offer a $25 honorarium or a copy of the book.

Be sure to review our About page, as well as past issues, to get an idea of what we’re about before submitting.

Journal Submissions for 2026

Summer 2026
Theme: What would Thoreau do?

For our first issue of 2026, we will be celebrating Thoreau’s birthday and examining what Thoreau can teach us during times of instability about how to be self sufficient and prepared and how to resist a corrupt government. In his book Walden, Thoreau argues for simplicity and self sufficiency. How can lessons from Thoreau help us as we live with an economic uncertainty unprecedented in modern times? How can we prepare? What lessons of simple living do we need to learn?

But Thoreau did not just argue for self sufficiency. In his famous essay, “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau wrote that an unjust government must be resisted. He argued that slavery in the United States, along with the Mexican-American war, provided evidence that the American government was corrupt and must be resisted. In what ways can we resist through farming, bartering, and creating alternative economies? What do alternative economies look like? What other types of resistance would Thoreau argue for?

Please send essays and poetry with Thoreau and these themes in mind by June 20, 2026 for consideration for publication on July 12, 2026, Thoreau’s birthday. Please note this issue will include audio.

Submission Deadline: June 20, 2026
Publication Date: July 12, 2026

Please send submissions via email to farmerish.journal@gmail.com. In the subject line, please put your title and issue for submission. Your submission should be copied into the body of an email. Attachments will not be accepted. If your work is accepted and you are willing to read for the audio files, please let us know in your submission email.

Summer Solstice 2025
Theme: Self Sufficiency in a Small Space

For our 2025 Summer Solstice issue, we are going to focus our energies on what readers can do to make the most of small spaces. Whether it’s growing in containers, turning your yard into a garden, or using every inch of a quarter acre to raise food for your family, we want to hear from you. Tell us about your tiny home. Tell us what you do to save money on groceries even though you have a small kitchen.

Send us your poetry, stories, essays, recipes, book reviews, or craft pieces on making the most of small spaces, especially during the challenging times of climate change and high food prices.

Submission Deadline: May 31, 2025
Publication Date: June 20, 2025

Fall Equinox 2025
Theme: Putting By

Whether you call it “putting up” or “putting by,” food preservation is an important skill that is growing in popularity. For many, the skills skipped a generation, so they are relearning how to process food to “put by” for later, but for some, these skills have been passed down for generations. Whatever your story, we want to hear it! We are also interested in educational pieces, the how-tos, as well as poetry, recipes, and more.

Send us your poetry, stories, essays, recipes, book reviews, or craft pieces on canning, freezing, dehydrating, pickling, or other strategies related to long-term food storage. Tell us how you eat what you grow by saving it for later.

Submission Deadline: September 10, 2025
Publication Date: September 22, 2025

Winter Solstice 2025
Theme: Making

The winter season is the time for rest, but for the homesteader, it’s also a time of preparation and getting the things done that we can’t seem to get to during the planting, growing, or harvest seasons. It’s the time to make the quilts, hats, and mittens that keep family and friends warm for years to come. It’s the time to bake the breads and soups that use the vegetables in our freezes or cans from harvest season. It’s also the time to make art, write poetry, carve wood, and use our creativity in ways that sustain us through the long dark nights and seasons to come.

For our Winter Solstice issue, we want to hear about your stories and traditions and are hoping you will share your strategies, patterns, recipes, and more. Send us your poetry, stories, essays, recipes, book reviews, or craft pieces on the things you make in the winter and how that making sustains you.

Submission Deadline: December 5, 2025
Publication Date: December 21, 2025

photo credits: Image 1, Crystal Sands; Image 2, Ray Shrewsberry, Unsplash; Image 3, Arkadiusuk Gasiorowski, Unsplash; Image 3, Oksana Maelko, Unsplash; Image 4, Crystal Sands; Image 5, Nik, Unsplash

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