FARMERS &
FARMER SERVICES
THE LATEST FROM OUR FARMER SERVICES TEAM
![[Edited]📷A soggy, informative Farmer Field Day at 3 Porch Farm (@3porchfarm) of Comer, GA. Photo by M.F. Espinoza (@healianthusfarms). - Edited.png](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d8cf3beabba6673963f6741/ef031f9b-3c60-443e-a616-ffd2fc6a7841/%5BEdited%5D%F0%9F%93%B7A+soggy%2C+informative+Farmer+Field+Day+at+3+Porch+Farm+%28%403porchfarm%29+of+Comer%2C+GA.+Photo+by+M.F.+Espinoza+%28%40healianthusfarms%29.+-+Edited.png)
Biosolarization is an organic method of weed control that uses heat from the sun to kill weeds.
Read on below as Porter Mitchell, Farmer Services Coordinator, shares more information, tips, and considerations for utilizing Bisolarization!
2021 BARBARA PETIT POLLINATOR AWARD WINNERS: BRENNAN & GWENDOLYN WASHINGTON OF PHOENIX GARDENS
The Barbara Petit Pollinator Award is named in honor of Barbara Petit, a remarkable community food advocate who served as Georgia Organics' past president. This award acknowledges individuals with exceptional success advancing Georgia Organics' mission of "Good Food for All" by spreading—pollinating—the movement throughout community life.
This year's Barbara Petit Pollinator Award winners are Brennan and Gwendolyn Washington of Phoenix Gardens in Lawrenceville!
The Washingtons are successful farmers and icons of ag leadership in Georgia and the Southeast; they offer an urban agriculture education-focused property that has indeed risen from the ashes and thrives, impacting countless farmers across the Southeast.
In 1997, the Land Steward Award was created by Georgia Organics to honor individuals who have contributed significantly to the organic agriculture movement in Georgia. The Land Steward Award recognizes the farmer with significant commitments to the tenets of organic agriculture, including soil fertility, biodiversity, and more.
This year's Land Steward Award winners are Chris and Jenny Jackson of Jenny Jack Farm in Pine Mountain!
Chris and Jenny embody the meaning of this award through their dedication to sustainable scaling, a cared-for team, community connection, and, of course, fostering a better environment through soil health and organic growing practices.
Spring is upon us, and Georgia Organics was lucky enough to ring in the season with a gardening workshop! On March 14, farmer and former Georgia Organics Board Chair Joe Reynolds and co-manager Demetrius Milling of Love is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens shared their green thumb expertise in a live virtual demonstration, demonstrating how to plan and prepare a successful spring garden. Additionally, Laura Diaz-Villaquiran, FoodCorps Service Member, shared some tips and tricks on how to get your little ones in on the gardening fun by demonstrating how to create seed tapes and transplant lavender.
To celebrate Women’s History Month and women in agriculture, we’d like to highlight the contributions to organic agriculture and Farm to School in Georgia by a trail-blazing woman, Georgia farmer, and newly-elected Georgia Organics board member, Loretta Adderson!
Are you a farmer that sells to farmers’ markets or have a CSA but are ready to get into the wholesale market, either to restaurants or institutions? Luckily, we have some tips for you! On Thursday, February 26th, Lauren Cox, Organic Procurement Coordinator at Georgia Organics along with Zac Harrison, owner of Fresh Harvest, and Neil Ringer, Director of Operations of The Common Market Southeast shared knowledge on what the processes look like to enter the wholesale market in Georgia in a variety of ways.
Small farms operate much like other small entrepreneurial businesses. In addition to producing food, a farmer must also be a self-promoter, a marketer, their own research and development team, and very often juggle the wants and needs of a variety of customers. In the 6th installation of the Winter Webinar series, Farm to Restaurant’s Organic Procurement Coordinator leads a three-part webinar covering these activities: deciding on your basket of goods and services and creating a value statement, managing your weekly farm flow, and understanding how you divide up your farm based on your revenue streams.
On February 17, the Good Food for Thought and Farmer Services team brought together many key players in the cooperative food world of Georgia. Eric Simpson of the West Georgia Farmers’ Cooperative, Terence Courtney of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Matthew Epperson of the Georgia Cooperative Development Center and Ahzjah Simons of the Sevananda Natural Foods Market presented on their respective works and then held a fruitful conversation about all things cooperatives.
On February 10, the Southeastern African American Organic Farmers’ Network (SAAFON) partnered with Georgia Organics for a Good Food for Thought Webinar. Dr. Jahi Chappell, the new Executive Director of SAAFON, along with Tammy Harris, the Agroecology & Education Resource Coordinator. SAAFON focuses on supporting black farmers in the southeast, with member affiliates from Maryland to the US Virgin Islands, through direct services, community building and resource sharing.
Click below to read more and watch this webinar in our recap of this recent Good Food for Thought conversation.
Mark Cain and his partner Mike Crane chose the property for the creek. It was 1984 and the young couple wanted to reconnect with the land and begin their own farm. Like so many young farmers that came before them and like so many that would come after, they left the city and settled in a rural nook of the country to live out their dream of having their own farm.
“Mike and I used to set up a hammock by the creek on warm afternoons,” remembers Mark. It was one of the most special parts of their new lives as farmers.
But slowly the afternoons in the hammock became less and less frequent, and then they stopped altogether…
Click below to read more in our recap of this recent Good Food for Thought conversation: Continuing Towards Deep Sustainability led by Mark Cain of Dripping Springs Garden.
Running a farm business requires more than just an ability to grow food. If you want to create a business that requires employees, you suddenly jump into managing people, payroll, and human resources. Managing employees can be overwhelming, from training people to fit into your systems to fitting them into the social fabric of your farm. Paul and Lindsey Sorah along with Mark Golden, co-owners/operators of Hearts of Harvest farm in Arnoldsville, GA, have prioritized employee management over the past three years of running their mixed fruit & vegetable, cut flower and mushroom operation.
On Wednesday February 3, Paul shared some of his best practices for employee management and retention on a Good Food For Thought webinar. Click below for our recap!
Looking to create a rotational grazing plan or add fencing to your pastured cattle operation? Improve your water quality by creating stream barriers to prevent your pigs from getting into the water? The NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) is here to help!
On Wednesday January 27, Good Food for Thought hosted a webinar featuring Bryan Hager of Crager Hager Farm, Ricky Dollison of Dollison Farms, and Jose Pagan from the NRCS to share resources and advice on accessing NRCS support for livestock operations. Read our summary by clicking below.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent the last months of his life working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to organize the Poor People’s Campaign, also known as the Poor People’s March on Washington.
The campaign sought to unite poor Americans of all backgrounds to demand economic and human rights. The campaign demanded an end to economic exploitation, a universal basic income, opportunities for employment, and guaranteed food and housing.
Click below to read more and to read the 1968 Statement of Demands for Rights of the Poor.
A few weeks ago, we had a conversation with Julia Asherman, farmer and owner of Rag and Frass Farm in rural Jeffersonville about...EVERYTHING. Rag and Frass Farm, an inaugural Farmer Cohort member of Georgia Organic’s Accelerator program, is an organic flower and produce operation growing on 2.5 acres. Julia has been operating Rag and Frass Farm for 7 years and farming for 9 years. Rag and Frass Farm sells their products through many avenues – the Mulberry Market in Macon, the Green Market in Milledgeville, the Grant Park Market in Atlanta, and through their own farm stand.
Farmer Spotlight: Eric Simpson of New Eden Ecosystem & West Georgia Farmer's Cooperative
Eric Simpson put his hands in the dirt with an intention to grow something 12 years ago and grow something, he did. His farming journey, from backyard gardener to lead member of the West Georgia Farmer’s Cooperative, unfolded as organically as it gets (no pun intended) and continues to set an example for other farmers in how to hold space for building strong community and continuing the tradition of convening and mobilizing, while carving out space for a successful, independent business.
Dan Glenn's family farm is located in one of the country’s poorest counties, located right in the middle of South Georgia. Over one-third of people in Ben Hill County have lived below the poverty line for at least the past three decades. The sun is blazing hot, the humidity is intense, and the weeds grow so fast you can practically sit and watch them take over your fields in a single day. But the heavy rain and warm winters mean you can grow there year-round, and cattle can graze on pasture 365 days a year.
Four Georgia Farms Pivot Operations to Weather the COVID-19 Pandemic
In the tumultuous months since March 2020, countless farms have had to change their sales outlets, the ways they interact with their customers, their weekly farm routines, and more.
Not only did they have the normal busy season of spring – when the earth is warming up, harvests are abundant, and planting starts for summer – they also had to create online stores, build new relationships, and, for some, change their entire business model. Here are four farms, all members of Georgia Organics’ Farmer Services Accelerator program (click to learn more) or the Farm to Restaurant Farmer Cohort program (click to learn more), and how they were able to pivot over the past four months.
inventive anand leads snapfinger farm to success
Snapfinger Farm sits on a sleepy, winding suburban road, across from an old church and its small cemetery. A steady stream of airplanes fly over the 14-acre farm in Henry county. Rahul Anand has farmed here for two-and-a-half years, slowly reshaping the fallow pasture land into tilled rows of soil, building a hoop-house on the old horse ring, and constructing an impressive fence to keep out the deer. He’s an ambitious business owner, always looking to grow his business and differentiate his farm in a crowded marketplace.
Remembering Andy Byrd, a Veggie Visionary
Meet Fredando Jackson of Flint River Fresh