By Nedra Rhone, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
EliYahu Ysrael of Atlanta Harvest. Photo: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Alyssa Pointer
Zach Richards had just started an internship at a farm in North Georgia when he called his friend Ilana to join him. She fell in love with farming, and Zach, and in 2017, they launched Levity Farms on 2.5 acres of rented land in Alpharetta. It didn’t take long for them to find their niche growing items such as edible flowers, specialty greens and heirloom tomatoes with the chef-focused market in mind. Soon, they were running out of food before they could fulfill orders from local chefs. In 2018, they married. In 2019, they had a baby girl, and in 2020, they, like many other small farmers across the state, were hit by the impact of the new coronavirus pandemic.
When restaurants closed, Levity Farms went from planning to provide 75% to 80% of their produce to chefs to spending one day a week traversing the metro area to deliver veggie boxes to private homes. “It is in the nature of farming to be resilient to changes in the market or changes in the climate,” said Ilana Richards as she made deliveries on a recent Tuesday. “It is one of our strengths in this industry if we are going to be good farmers or successful farmers.”