Soil Focus Leads Riverview to Land Steward Award

By Porter Mitchell

Riverview Farms sits on 1,100 acres near the small town of Ranger in northwestern Georgia. The Coosawattee River, the farm’s namesake, ambles slowly through the property that’s been in the Swancy family since the 1970’s.

Wes Swancy and his wife Charlotte returned to this family land nearly 20 years ago and began Riverview Farms as a modest vegetable operation.

“Back then, Georgia Organics was an organic certifier—and we sold our vegetables at Morningside, the only farmers market,” Charlotte said, laughing.

Soon they added pigs, chickens, cows, and other livestock to the mix to help nurture the soil.

“We’ve always focused on the soil,” Charlotte explained. “It may sound simple, but it isn’t. You have to have good farmland to feed your plants, that then feed your animals, whose manure feeds the soil-- everything has to work in a cycle.”

In February, Wes and Charlotte will receive the Land Steward Award at the annual Georgia Organics Conference for their tireless, 20-year commitment to caring for their soil.

“Land stewardship is an awareness of your connections to a much larger system,” said Georgia Organics Farmer Services Director Michael Wall. “It’s not just the land, it’s water, it’s air—it's a living network that we’re all connected to.”

Riverview expanded to other farmers markets as they opened and were founding farmers of the Freedom Farmers Market in 2014. Wes and Charlotte began making in-ways in the chef and eater community.

“Back then, no one else was dedicated to humanely raised pork,” explained local butcher and food advocate Rusty Bowers, who opened Pine Street Market in 2008 after meeting the Swancys and now partners with them on Chop Shop in Atlanta, which they created in 2018. “The attention to excellence at each step in their process is what really sets Riverview Farms apart.”

Riverview is a “full-circle” farm. It produces all the feed that sustains the livestock, and in turn, the livestock supports the land.

Their Berkshire, Tamworth, and Cheshire pigs forage the property for sweet gumballs, pecans, and acorns. They also enjoy the farm’s leftover fruits and vegetables, and have a particular fondness for melons. Their diet is supplemented with non-GMO corn grown on the farm, the same corn that’s milled and made into Riverview’s famous grits and polenta.

“Riverview is an industry leader,” noted Terry Koval, head chef at The Deer and the Dove and former head chef at Wrecking Bar. He’s been sourcing from Riverview since 2010. “Their commitment paved the way for so many of the organic farms in Atlanta that came after them.”

Riverview exists in a unique place in an agricultural landscape dominated by extremes. It’s neither a mega farm spanning thousands of acres or a two-acre market farm. It sits right in the middle.

“Riverview is truly a cornerstone of the farming community, and they exemplify the three pillars of the Land Steward Award: environment, health, and community,” said Alice Rolls, Georgia Organics President and CEO. “Riverview is in a tough position as a mid-sized farm. They’ve struggled, but they’ve been able to innovate. They’ve worked cooperatively with other farms and the business community, and they’ve transformed their land.”

Charlotte is thoughtful when asked about what land stewardship means for her and Wes.

“Land stewardship is to care for the land and for the soil—leave it better for your great, great grandchildren,” she explains. “The land isn’t just for now and for today, it’s for 100 years from now.”

Congratulations to Charlotte and Wes of Riverview Farms on being named the 2020 Land Steward Award winners.

Porter Mitchell is Georgia Organics’ Farmer Services Coordinator. She can be reached at porter@georgiarganics.org.

Canfield A Good Food Champion For Athens

Story by Corinne Kocher

Photos by Bailey Garrot

Shared Plates

One of Molly Canfield's favorite parts about Athens is the sheer amount of "small scale agriculture". Listing the eclectic mix of markets, growers, farms, CSAs, and activists in Athens, Molly apologizes for the long, drawn-out list, but also admits that she could keep going.

"Athens is a perfect host city for the Georgia Organics conference, because of the plethora of small family farms, urban farms, inside and just outside of Athens," she says.

To Molly, there's something about "the spirit of Athens" that leads community members to be so supportive of one another. For her, she saw this support first-hand while working with a group of citizens to change a city planning ordinance that banned both front yard gardens and backyard chickens. Four years later, her front yard garden is abloom with tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers.

Sarah Thurman, Athens Farmers Market Manager, met Molly at a previous Georgia Organics conference in Atlanta, but has known Molly as a farmers market patron for years. "Molly has been one of the most stable and consistent supporters of the local good food movement here," says Sarah. 

After working in Washington DC with an environmental and consumer advocacy nonprofit, the Atlanta-born activist moved back to Georgia in 2011. She quickly became involved with Georgia Organics, working to coordinate farm tours, facilitate small grant-giving programs, and assist with organizing The Golden Radish awards. While working with the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia to implement farm-to-school grant, Molly saw another side of Georgia Organic's work in the state.

"Georgia Organics done so much needed work in Georgia - it makes a difference for both farmers and consumers to have that support throughout the state," she explains.

To Molly, the Georgia Organics Conference & Expo offers something for everyone, from newcomers to the scene to farmers. "Across the board - topics on agriculture, community, economic issues - you can learn different things every year," she says.

In addition to her work on various projects, Molly has volunteered at Georgia Organics conferences for many years. Conference volunteers support the overall success of pre-conference, on-site, and post-conference events through everything from registration to set up for the Farmers Feast. Volunteers are able to connect with conference attendees, attend educational sessions, and receive a registration fee reimbursement. 

But the best part? "When you're volunteering, you get to meet and work with new people you wouldn't normally get to meet," Molly says. "I first went to conference to get involved with the organization, but I discovered that there is the communal social connection too".

If you are interested in learning more about volunteer opportunities for the Georgia Organics 2020 Conference & Expo, please visit conference.georgiaorganics.org. 

Corinne Kocher and Bailey Garrot are the writer-photographer team behind Shared Plates, a blog exploring food in the world and how it gets to the table. Read all of their work at www.shared-plates.com and follow them on Instagram @sharedplatesatl.

The Daily Groceries Co-op Centered in Athens Culture

Story by Corinne Kocher

Photos by Bailey Garrot

Shared Plates

On a warm Tuesday afternoon, the old wooden front door of the Daily Groceries Co-op squeaks open every few minutes. Community members stop by in downtown Athens, picking up dinner supplies, late-lunch sandwiches, and sweets.

Christy D., a long time co-op customer, juggles a basket filled with produce in one hand while reading the label for the "ice cream" her 9-year-old son has picked out. She's grateful the co-op offers alternative options for her lactose-intolerant son. "I come here because I love local food," says Christy, "but also because getting it here at the co-op is so convenient."

The Daily Groceries Co-op has been "centered in Athens culture" for over two decades, according to Theo Horne, Daily's Outreach and Marketing Coordinator. "Most of our customers stop in several times a week, and many folks we see every day," says Theo.

People buy into the co-op membership, Theo adds, because they're thinking about their value system. "It's putting your money directly in a place that cares about what you care about - the future of the community," says Theo.

From tabling at the West Broad Farmers' Market every week to bringing in local farmers to speak at in-store events, Daily Groceries aims to connect the Athens community with fresh, local produce. In recent years, Daily Groceries has also focused on making the co-op accessible to everyone who'd like to shop there. 

Working with partners like Wholesome Wave Georgia, the co-op doubles dollars for EBT users buying local produce. The co-op also started The Daily Change program this past year, giving customers the option to round up their total at the register. Daily Change funds providing EBT users 10% off the entire store, with the remaining funds donated to the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia and an additional different nonprofit every month (ranging from Athens PRIDE to the Youth Leadership Conference through Georgia Cooperative Council)

"Athens is a service-oriented town - we try to make it viable for the folks who work downtown to come shop with us on their way home," says Theo. 

As for Georgia Organics members attending the 2020 Conference in Athens, Theo encourages conference attendees to "interact with Daily Groceries how the folks in Athens interact with Daily". This includes stopping by for coffee, a snack, or, as Theo adds, "if you need a recommendation around town - because we have fantastic taste".

Theo admits that Daily Groceries is in a moment of change, but adds that the co-op is "always going to be about serving Athens and providing what the community needs in their daily life."

That's because, through the years, the co-op has remained close to the spirit of this special community. "Athens is a very special place because it lets you be who you are," says Theo. "That's true of the co-op as well - there's room for everyone here."

Corinne Kocher and Bailey Garrot are the writer-photographer team behind Shared Plates, a blog exploring food in the world and how it gets to the table. Read all of their work at www.shared-plates.com and follow them on Instagram @sharedplatesatl.

Inventive Anand Leads Snapfinger Farm to Success

By Porter Mitchell

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. 

“One of Rahul’s greatest assests is that he’s very inventive and he’s not afraid—even if he doesn’t know something, he’ll dive in and figure it out along the way,” explains Chris Jackson of Jenny Jack Farm, where Rahul first began farming as an apprentice in 2015.

Rahul walks along a long row of sunchokes, a native North American cousin of the black-eyed Susan whose nubby roots’ artichoke-like flavor gave the plant its name. Their woody stems tower nine or ten feet in the air, their dried leaves barely clinging onto the stalks.

“White Bull buys pounds and pounds of these every week, they can’t get enough of them. I have no idea what they’re doing with all of these sunchokes but I’m happy they’re buying them,” he laughs.

Rahul sells his produce at a smattering of restaurants across Atlanta including Local Three, White Bull, Eat Me Speak Me, and Watchman’s, at the Decatur Wednesday Market, and he operates a CSA. Rahul also recently joined the Middle Georgia Farmers Co-op to send his famous mizuna, arugula, and black radishes out into new markets.  

“I would rather work with Rahul than someone else because he has this mindset of ambition and growth,” said Pat Pascarella, executive chef at White Bull, who has sourced from Snapfinger since meeting Rahul at the Decatur Farmers Market last year. “He doesn’t try to be a supermarket and have everything—he grows what he grows and he does well. His green garlic, hakureis, and sunchokes are the best—no one compares.”  

Rahul first became involved with Georgia Organics in the summer of 2019 after hearing about the 200 Organic Farms Campaign. The 200 Organic Farms Campaign provides one-on-one coaching to guide farmers through the laborious certification process and reimburses them the certification cost.

“I’m not against the spirit of the program, but I don’t know if I believe that certified organic is necessarily better than local,” Rahul explains, “but being certified will open up new markets for me, both literally and figuratively, especially with the fruit trees I’m planting this year and with an on-farm market.”

Rahul hopes that the certified organic label will appeal to the suburbanites of Henry County and set his farm apart from other operations in the area. Even with the incentive of this new market, the certification process is still difficult to go through.

“Transitioning to certified organic is hard, even if you really want to,” Rahul said between sips of coffee. “The record keeping is a lot of work, especially since it’s just me right now. Plus the application has a million ambiguous questions so it’s helpful to have Michael to call and ask ‘what does this mean in practical terms?’, ‘What are they looking for here?’.” 

In fact, Rahul believes that without a strong network to reach out to, he wouldn’t have come this far at all.  

“It’s really important for farmers to have someone they can call,” he said. “I can call Chris and Jenny of Jenny Jack Farm up any time for advice, and I do. I don’t know how you would farm without that.”  

Rahul walks along his property and motions to an empty field. He explains that soon, the whole tract will be planted with dozens and dozens of fruit trees and berry bushes. He even plans to grow niche citrus trees like Meyer lemons in his hoop house. He’s always undertaking new projects, as if the time and labor required to operate his farm wasn’t enough.  However, they seem to always pay off—Rahul has recently constructed his own vacuum seeder, a piece of equipment that speeds up the planting process, saving him significant amounts of valuable time.  

“To have a farmer apprentice at our farm, leave, start their own farm in Georgia, and for that farmer to be successful—that’s really our ultimate goal. It means a lot to us,” says Chris Jackson.  

Porter Mitchell is Georgia Organics’ Farmer Services Coordinator. She can be reached at porter@georgiarganics.org.

"I grow, we grow," with Fredando Jackson's Flint River Fresh

By Porter Mitchell

Fredando Jackson, sits on a picnic bench on the patio of Pretoria Fields Collective Brewery in Albany, Georgia. It’s one of the first spring days of the year, and the sun warms the exposed brick wall that encircles Pretoria’s patio, highlighting the imprints of long-gone doors and windows on the old brick. He slowly sips their strawberry wheat ale, brewed with grains from Pretoria’s farm and strawberries

from Fredando’s farm. Fredando looks like a farmer—plaid shirt, trucker cap, and the strong hands of someone who spends their days working the land.  

Fredando is on a mission to return Albany to its roots, to how rural Georgia’s food system used to be—community based and local.  

“It’s a tradition here,” he explains, taking a sip of the pinkish beer. “When you’re in rural communities, especially southwest Georgia, most towns used to have a farm stand where everyone would buy their produce--but now they’re overgrown, abandoned, and the sign is faded. But that’s how things used to be. So I'm reintroducing this way of eating and thinking about food. I call it a throwback to pre-refrigeration days. There’s a trend nationally towards hyper-local, towards people wanting to know who produced their food, but that’s how most rural communities functioned before refrigeration and before automobiles made our current food system possible.” 

Fredando’s desire to return to the traditional food system doesn’t stem from some wistful nostalgia for roadside produce stands—it's because the current food system has utterly failed the Albany community. Food deserts cover wide swaths of Albany’s Dougherty county, and the grocery stores that do exist have limited produce options. Diet related illnesses affect the community at sky-high rates. Dougherty county has Georgia’s second highest food insecurity rate, second only to Clay county, with more than 26% of the population categorized as food insecure.  

“One neighborhood, there was just one grocery store for miles. And it was destroyed by Hurricane Michael last year, so now that area has no grocery store,” explains Fredando.  “When I first came here, I saw a need for access to food. So I asked myself--how could we bring food to people who need it?”  

Since the grocery stores wouldn’t come to these communities, Fredando decided to do what rural communities had done before—grow their own food.  

“If I could teach people how to grow, I could increase people’s access to food, and also help create a new generation of organic growers.”  

Fredando started the Grow Your Groceries program to teach people easy, simple ways to grow their own produce.  

He began working with faith-based groups to convert parcels of church property into farms, and worked with the city of Albany to install raised gardens at public parks and schools.  

In 2016, Albany received a grant from the National Association of Conservation Districts to form the new Flint River Soil and Water Conservation Program. In 2017, they hired Fredando to lead their urban agricultural and food access initiatives, creating Flint River Fresh.  

Since then, Fredando has partnered with the City of Albany, Dougherty County Schools, Pretoria Fields, and many other to regrow the food and farm ecosystem that used to nurture the Albany community. When Fredando isn’t connecting local farmers to Pretoria for sourcing, operating the Flint River Fresh farmers market at the brewery, teaching children and adults about gardening, or advocating for small farmers, he can be found wheeling a shopping cart turned mobile garden bed along the side of the Flint River in downtown Albany. “I have this to show that you can grow anywhere,” he remarks. “This one shopping cart can easily grow more lettuce than a family can eat.”  

“It takes a village, it’s all hands on deck to help our communities be healthier,” explains Blaine Allen, School Nutrition Director at Dougherty County School System. Fredando has partnered with the school system for the past six year, installing garden beds, conducting taste tests, teaching, and connecting the schools with local farmers.  

“It’s about what Fredando says,” reflects Blaine. “He says, ‘I grow, we grow.’ That says it right there--we all grow together.” 

Learn more about Flint River Fresh by following them on Instagram @flintriverfresh!  

Porter Mitchell is Georgia Organics’ Farmer Services Coordinator. She can be reached at porter@georgiarganics.org.

Overheard at the Athens Farmers Market

Story by Corinne Kocher

Photos by Bailey Garrot

Shared Plates

The Athens Farmers Market is full of characters with something to say. To catch a glimpse of this community, we asked six market attendees the same three questions:

1 - What's your favorite part of living in the Athens area?

2 - Why do you believe it's important to know your farmer?

3 - If you were a fruit or vegetable, what would you be and why?

---

 Tanner M.

1 - "The community! I moved here recently, and I got in immediately with this farm [Tanner is a farmhand at Hearts of Harvest Farm]. I've been immersed in the culture of the agriculture and the markets. I play music as well, and I feel like those scenes tie together here. The community and the culture around here is pretty sweet."

2 - "You know what you're eating. If you know the people, you know what you're getting, especially when you're organic like we are. From an energetic standpoint, I feel like there is a deeper connection there in my mind, knowing the people that are producing this food. It makes the food taste better."

3 - [Interviewer: "If your baby was a fruit or vegetable, what would they be and why?"] "I think he might be a chickpea. My sister calls him chickpea, and that fits. Chickpea or snap pea maybe. [baby cries] He likes it. His name? Calen, short for the flower calendula."

---

Danny M.

1 - "So far, honestly, these farmers markets. I just moved here about a year ago. I grew up in Atlanta, so we had those big farmers market, and a couple small ones but they weren't as fun to go to. "

2 - "So you know you're not eating crap! You gotta know what you're eating - especially with meat and stuff like that. I've learned this over the years, I don't want to eat trash and a bunch of chemicals."

3 - "That is really difficult. I want to say pumpkin, just because I really like pumpkins and Halloween and how spooky they are. And there's a pumpkin right there, see, we look so much alike."

---

Jim C.

1 - "I live in Bogart, a suburb of Athens. I love things like this market - anything in the downtown area, the music scene, and stuff like that. Sports is big but it's not the biggest thing in my life. I just really enjoy a small town, a college town. It's a lot of fun here."

2 - "I've got friends that come here, they also go to the market in Bishop Park, so I came here. I just think the vegetables are good. I think the tomatoes are terrific compared to what you get at the grocery store. I love the salted pretzels. And I like the beer too, can't count that out."

3 - "Gee… I think I'd be one of these tomatoes. They just taste so much better, they've got a lot of flavor. [interviewer: "So you're saying you have a lot of flavor?"] I am. I'm a very flavorful guy. You've come to the right place, ha!"

---

Angela T.

1 - Being able to have the bus system. We don't have a vehicle, so it definitely helps a lot. It's accessible, you can pretty much get anywhere you need to go on the buses. 

2 - "It's like if you go to a store and you don't like the people there, more than likely you wouldn't go back. So if the farmer is someone you trust, and you can hear about how they grow the vegetables, that's good. That was different for me, because I used to think all farms were the same. I didn't realize there were organic farmers. There are so many different people here that you probably wouldn't come across unless you were at the farmers market.

It was really nice that me and a friend of mine got into the nutrition class program [Farm Rx]. We were able to do that and start getting the tokens to come here and use them. Overall it's been a really good experience. Sometimes my family struggles, with food and everything, but it has helped a lot, it really has. And, you get used to seeing the same farmers repeatedly, so you're like, 'I remember you from last time!' That's really cool."

3 - "That is awkward! I think I'd be a banana. Not just because of the sweetness, but it seems like it's healthy, compared to some fruits - it has potassium. At the same time, it makes me smile because it's yellow and it's really bright. And it's in the shape of a smile. It makes people happy."

---

Chris L.

1 - "All the people, just the association - I know everybody there has bought stuff from me in the past. They're all so friendly, and I'm just so humbled when they come up to my booth [Rhonda's Blueberries] and buy some of my products, it's wonderful. Because I live out in the boonies and there's nobody to talk to except my blueberry plants. It's just me, I'm a one man band - so this market is my event."

2 - "Oh gosh, it's vitally important. You can't go into any grocery store and talk to the farmer who grew the product. They're never there, and it wasn't picked today or yesterday, it was a month ago or longer. But every product that you see here was harvested today - and it's all organic. You can ask any kind of questions about the product, and there's the farmer that grew it, and he has all the answers."

3 - "I would be a blueberry, of course. I AM blueberry. I live and breathe blueberries, ok? I grow blueberries. I have 1200 mature plants as big as that tent right there, and I planted them all with these hands. I put up an eight-foot deer fence to keep them out and enclosed a five acre field, ran my own irrigation, planted my own plants, and I've been doing it for ten years. I've been a vendor here for nine years at the AFM.

[interviewer: "surprised you haven't turned blue yet!"] "It's a wonder I don't look like a Smurf, because it's one in the mouth, two in the bucket, all day long every day. That's how you know what you're harvesting. If you're eating every third one, then you gotta know something. And if I'm picking inferior blueberries, then I know it. I shoot for extraordinary blueberries, not ordinary blueberries, there's a difference."

Corinne Kocher and Bailey Garrot are the writer-photographer team behind Shared Plates, a blog exploring food in the world and how it gets to the table. Read all of their work at www.shared-plates.com and follow them on Instagram @sharedplatesatl.

Eight Reasons to Eat Locally Right Now

Southern fried chicken parm with creamy collards & fusilli at BoccaLupo. Photo Credit: Creative Loafing

By Lauren Cox

Fall is here at last, allowing metro Atlantans to enjoy its changing colors, cool, crisp breezes—and seasonal, organic and locally sourced fare from restaurants and farmers taking part in Georgia Organics’ Farm to Restaurant Campaign, which brings local farmers and chefs together, allowing restaurants to source fresh, healthy ingredients from across the state—and for small, local farms to place their products in front of thousands of customers.

Here are eight fun reasons for Georgia consumers to eat locally and organically this fall, courtesy of some of the state’s best farmers and establishments:

Chestnuts: This seasonal staple is good for more than just roasting on an open fire. They’re a good source of fiber, essential fatty acids and minerals such as vitamin C, potassium and magnesium. This fall Root Baking Co. used chestnuts from Narrow Way Farm in its bread, pastries, and soup.

Brassicas: These cruciferous vegetables are plentiful (from broccoli and Brussels sprouts to cabbage), are good sources of folate, calcium, iron and other nutrients, and can be prepared in a variety of appetizing ways, like the Roman-fried cauliflower at BoccaLupo or the fried Brussels sprout quesadilla at Wrecking Bar Brewpub.

Radishes: This member of the brassica family can be a great way to add texture and brightness to heavy winter dishes—like the bok choy and radish that accompany the lamb shank and lamb neck at Kimball House.

Pickled and Fermented Foods: Wrecking Bar Brewpub uses these preservation methods for such items as its charred octopus (with fermented black bean chili sauce and pickled shiitake), a house-cured meat board with pickled veggies, house-fermented kraut and shishito peppers with pickled corn.

Bitter Greens: These dark, leafy greens—think turnip and mustard greens, kale and escarole—can help lower cholesterol and aid in digestion, among other benefits. And you can find them everywhere, from Gunshow’s beef tongue with endive to the house-made vegan burger at Farm Burger (which features kale and arugula) to the Southern fried chicken parm with collard greens at BoccaLupo (whose chef Bruce Logue loves to use radicchio in his dishes whenever he can get it).

Winter Squash: Harvested in the fall, these versatile gourds are a staple this time of year. Try the delicata squash starter at Miller Union or the cinnamon-roasted acorn squash at Wrecking Bar Brewpub.

Herbs: Thyme, mint, peppermint, rosemary and oregano add flavor to a variety of dishes, like the grilled quail with butternut squash and rosemary at Miller Union. Pinewood Springs Farm is a great source for organically grown herbs.

Fun Fall Oddities: Earthy root vegetables like salsify and parsnips aren’t very common in this area but are highly prized by chefs. Snapfinger Farm in Henry County is a great source for sunchokes, and Gunshow chef de cuisine Chris McCord has been known to roll out a dish like stuffed leeks with horseradish.

Lauren Cox is the Organic Procurement Coordinator for Georgia Organics. She is leading our Farm to Restaurant program and our Farmer Champion campaign. Lauren can be reached at laurencox@georgiaorganics.org.

Georgia Organics Launches Farmer Champion Campaign

Gunshow Chef de Cuisine Chris McCord puts his Farmer Champion decal in place.

By Jeff Romig

“Farm to table” should be a commitment, not a marketing gimmick.

That’s why Georgia Organics launched its Farmer Champion campaign to quantify “farm to table” through food purchasing percentages, to create transparency around the marketing of “farm to table” and to recognize Georgia restaurants that consistently invest in Georgia farmers as part of their purchasing culture.

“We all tend to follow trends in this industry like, ‘Oh man, I really want to do what they’re doing’ or ‘they do this great,’” said Bruce Logue, owner and chef of Boccalupo in Inman Park. “These decals let me see that maybe I need to do a little more or realize that I want to be higher up on that list. We’re all kind of competitive, and this is an opportunity to put your money where your mouth is. If nothing else, this campaign makes you think and look at what you’re doing, and that’s a good thing.”

The Farmer Champion decals are awarded to participating restaurants that meet a minimum baseline of 5 percent of their total food budget on locally sourced foods—that is, foods that are sourced from within the state of Georgia. Tiered decals that will be distributed starting in 2020 showcase restaurants that dedicate a separate percentage to Georgia products that are Certified Organic under the USDA.

“At the Wrecking Bar Brewpub, we have always tried to source locally and organically whenever possible. First and foremost, it’s nice to see what that commitment looks like on paper and when it’s quantified compared to our peers,” says Stevenson Rosslow, owner and general manager of Wrecking Bar Brewpub and member of the campaign’s Chef Advisory Board.

The tiered decals are given out once a year, and restaurants can receive the partner decal immediately once they begin participating in the program and hit 5 percent in local sourcing.

The tiers are:

•  Gold Tier:                       5% Certified Organic (purchased in-state) + 20% local

• Silver Tier:                       3% Certified Organic (purchased in-state) + 20% local

• Bronze Tier:                    1% Certified Organic (purchased in-state) + 10% local

• Partner Tier:                   5% Local

In December 2018, Georgia Organics hired Lauren Cox, the longtime farmer at Woodland Gardens in Athens, to create a program to provide farmers with tools to access the restaurant market in Atlanta, while engaging with chefs to build a metric that would recognize the chefs and restaurants that are committed to buying from local and organic farms. The Farmer Champion campaign and the Farm to Restaurant program grew from these goals.

Chris Edwards farms at Mayflor Farms in Stockbridge and is working to move more into restaurant sales through the Farm to Restaurant program.

“To be honest, there are real barriers to accessing the restaurant market,” Edwards said. “It’s understanding the root causes that will help us to overcome them.”

“The goal of the Farm to Restaurant program and the Farmer Champion campaign is to give farmers from around the state increased access to restaurants as a market and revenue stream,” Cox said. “Restaurants have been on the forefront of a return to local purchasing and seasonal eating. They have the power to influence how people eat, whether they are dining out or cooking at home. There is a group of committed chefs in Atlanta that have worked to increase awareness of this type of eating over the years, now is the time to highlight that work and grow the movement to support Georgia farmers.”

Twenty farmers were selected for the 2019 cohort, including produce farmers, goat and rabbit producers, the first certified organic beef producer in Georgia and a certified organic grain producer. Five of these farms are involved in cooperatives, seven are USDA certified organic and many currently sell to Atlanta-area farmers markets. 

For the duration of 2019, Georgia Organics will support them with business training, field management, pricing and communication strategies, as well as organic certification cost share. As part of the campaign, Georgia Organics hosted a speed-dating style mixer at Wrecking Bar Brewpub in Little Five Points, where members of the farmer cohort mingled with chefs who are already buying local and organic or are interested in doing so.

“There are such small margins for the success and failure of a restaurant,” Cox said. “In a world that pressures you to cut costs and do it the wrong way, these people are doing it right, so we should pay attention. We want to acknowledge people who are doing what they can within their business models, because every bit counts. We’ll also be featuring people who are going above and beyond, whether it’s the chef who participated in the most community events, worked with the most organic produce or had the highest overall percentage of local purchasing that year.”

The Farmer Champion campaign recently added partner restaurants in Macon and Athens, and continues to engage potential partner restaurants across the state. To date, 14 restaurants in Georgia have joined the program as Farmer Champion partners.

The fast-growing list of Farmer Champion restaurants currently includes:

• BoccaLupo (Atlanta)

• Dovetail (Macon)

• Farm Burger (Multiple locations)

• Gunshow (Atlanta)

• Heirloom Café (Athens)

• JCT. Kitchen & Bar (Atlanta)

• Kimball House (Decatur)

• Eat Me, Speak Me (Atlanta)

• Miller Union (Atlanta)

• Murphy’s (Atlanta)

• No. 246 (Decatur)

• One Eared Stag (Atlanta)

• Root Baking Co. (Atlanta)

• Wrecking Bar Brewpub (Atlanta) 

Georgia diners and consumers interested in dining at restaurants that serve locally sourced and Certified Organic foods can follow Georgia Organics on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for updates on the Farmer Champion program, including new partners, success stories, and even recipes.

In case you missed it, Georgia Organics procurement coordinator Lauren Cox was featured on ATL Foodcast on Monday, Nov. 4, where she talked about all things Farmer Champion with BoccaLupo chef Bruce Logue. Click here to listen to the episode.

Jeff Romig is the Fundraising & Communications Director for Georgia Organics. He can be reached at jeff@georgiaorganics.org. 

Bridging the Gap Between Farms and Restaurants

By Caroline Croland

Lauren Cox’s passion for food started at home.

Growing up in a food-centric family, food was always a point of connection to culture and identity.

“There's a deep mutual respect between a chef that supports a farm and the farmer that sees what they grew transformed into something really beautiful and thoughtful on a plate,” said Lauren, Georgia Organics’ Organic Procurement Coordinator who is leading the new Farmer Champion campaign.

As an adult, Lauren has worked in restaurants and studied communications and food studies abroad, but what particularly influences her work is her seven years of working on farms.

“I think being part of a farm that sold predominantly to restaurants informs everything I do here,” she said. “And just being a farmer in general, thinking in the way of: what would help my bottom line if I were still farming? What do I want for my farm? What gives me inspiration to continue doing the hard work of growing food?”

For Lauren, that inspiration comes from the passionate, hardworking people that she encounters in both industries.

“It’s the relationships you have with people that are doing equally hard work,” she said. “I think of the work which happens in kitchens and restaurants where you're working 60-65 hour weeks. You're always standing, you're sweating. I mean there are so many physical similarities to farming and the work in a kitchen. There is a lot off common ground and respect there. And so I think that those types of relationships are really inspiring.”

Those deep connections to both industries and passion for good food are evident to those who work with Lauren.

Susan Shaw of Hickory Hill Farms in Athens enjoys the energy and experience that Lauren brings to her role.

“She is someone who always excited,” Susan said. “She believes wholeheartedly in the importance of organics. She has been in the industry a long time and those connections are evident in her work.”

Susan appreciates what those connections bring to her business.

“As an Athens based farm, the idea of working with Atlanta restaurants seemed out of reach for us, we would image having to do a four-hour round trip commute to set up meetings and develop those relationships,” she said. “Working with Lauren has allowed us to start sourcing to Atlanta restaurants. It’s been very beneficial.”

Caroline Croland is the Fundraising Coordinator at Georgia Organics. Contact her at carolinec@georgiaorganics.org.

Inspiration kept Erin Wilson in Athens

Story by Corinne Kocher

Photos by Bailey Garrot

Shared Plates

"Over the years, small change makers have done so much to make Athens a rich, southern small town," says Erin Wilson, gazing out the front window of The National, a well-established restaurant in the heart of downtown.

After coming to University of Georgia in 2007 to study Public Relations, Erin quickly fell in love with the vibrant Athens community. The city's energy pulled her to stay after graduation, where she found a home in the local restaurant scene.

"I was asking myself, 'how can this PR skill set be used for [something] that I felt good about?'" says Erin. "This town really inspires me, the people in it really inspire me, and working at The National brought it all together".

At The National, Erin is able to combine her passion for writing, community building, and food. Originally starting as a host and a PR intern, Erin is now General Manager and Partner, overseeing day-to-day operations as well as the long-term growth of the business.

The National is well-known in Athens and beyond for their commitment to quality food, built on farm-centric sourcing. The restaurant has helped grow the Athens good food movement through investing in local producers.

"The audience that we have from this restaurant, its reputation, its time in existence - it affords us the opportunity to uplift people," says Erin. "Why put your money out into the world, where you'll never see it back, when you can put it out into your community and see it grow people who you want to see grow?"

As for the role of restaurants in general, Erin adds, "I think restaurants being on board is essential for the good food movement to progress."

Because there is such a range of people dining out, she believes, restaurants can demonstrate to a wide audience how sourcing good ingredients makes for delicious food.

"Customers take these ideas from restaurants" Erin says, "to the farmers market, to a CSA, to the grocery store, to their homes. I think restaurants are a gateway - the more that access is grown, and the more that restaurants can facilitate that access, the more people adjust their thinking about food."

As for the 2020 Georgia Organics Conference in Athens, Erin is excited to share what The National does in the city. "I hope we can be as engaged with conference goers as possible," she says, adding that The National is open for a coffee in the morning, a midday break, or a cocktail after the conference.

"Come here and see how Athens is doing so much for the farming community in this town - and how the restaurants are buying into it.”

Corinne Kocher and Bailey Garrot are the writer-photographer team behind Shared Plates, a blog exploring food in the world and how it gets to the table. Read all of their work at www.shared-plates.com and follow them on Instagram @sharedplatesatl.

Remembering Andy Byrd, a Veggie Visionary

By Paul Shea

It’s an early fall morning a decade ago on Andy and Hilda Byrd’s Whippoorwill Hollow Farm near Walnut Grove, an hour east of Atlanta. Vendors and organizers for the annual Field of Greens fundraiser are beginning to arrive.

The 5 Seasons Brewing Co. food truck — a 1975 Mercedes fire engine tricked out to serve beer and food at the festival — pulls up to the farm’s entrance, and the driver asks Andy where he should park.

“Just follow me,” Byrd shouts, and he takes off across a large pasture in his own customized vehicle — a battered, all-wheel drive, thick-tired wheelchair built for the rough terrain of a 74-acre farm. The fire truck gets in gear and takes off after the farmer — a parade that would make you smile.

 “He just blasted ahead, as always,” said Suzanne Welander, who worked at Georgia Organics at the time and helped organize the early Field of Greens festivals on the Byrd farm. “He took any preconceived notions you might have and made them disappear. The wheelchair never seemed to slow him down. There was nothing stopping him.”

John Andrew (Andy) Byrd died March 27 at age 62.

Shelley Mitchell, an outpatient case manager at Shepherd Spinal Center in Atlanta, began working with Byrd in 2002, more than 20 years after a diving accident at a lake  caused a cervical injury that left Byrd a quadriplegic. 

“When you work with a patient at Shepherd, you don’t see the chair, you don’t see the disability. You see the heart of the person,” Mitchell said. “He was compassionate and funny and a deeply moral man. He was very thankful, and committed to helping other people.”

Welander, who now works at Riverview Farm in Ranger, called Byrd and his wife Hilda, who died in 2009, anchors of the organic food movement in Georgia.

“Organic farming was not popular when he started,” Welander said. “He had an indomitable spirit. He has hardships but never let that slow him down. He stood up for what he believed in. He led the way to bring healthy food to people.”

Andy and Hilda were childhood friends in Walnut Grove and married later in life, after Andy was injured in 1980.

Andy was a city councilman in Walnut Grove and ran several businesses over the years before he and Hilda decided to buy the land that would become Whippoorwill Hollow Farm in the late 90s. The farm was certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2002.

In a 2008 article for the Shepherd Center’s magazine, Hilda Byrd said they bought the land to build a house, “but we became organic farmers instead.”

The Byrds began selling their produce to restaurants and helped start Ѵwo farmer’s markets in the Atlanta area — the Morningside Market and the Decatur Market.They also worked for many years in Georgia Organics’ farmer-to-farmer mentoring program.

Celia Barss, who works at Woodland Gardens farm near Athens, came to Georgia in 2003 and met Andy at the Morningside Market.

“He was so welcoming right off the bat when I moved here,” she says now. “The sense of community he tried to build on the farm, he seemed to care about that as much as about his own growing. The farm really kept him going. I was blown away with what he was trying to accomplish.”

For the Byrds, organic farming was the only way to go, Karen Adler said in a 2009 article for Atlanta’s Finest Dining magazine.

“They uncovered fruit trees, cultivated the fields, and enhanced the vitality of the soil,” Adler wrote. “Along the way, they resurrected their connection with heritage plants such as the whippoorwill field pea that Hilda remembers her father growing, and the heritage black peanut that her brother carried forward from an aging farmer.”

Adler, who worked for Georgia Organics and Woodland Gardens and is now at the Organic Farms Research Foundation in California, said that growing high-quality produce wasn’t the most important yield of the farm. Whippoorwill’s primary mission was inspiring the next generation of stewards and farmers to take care of the Earth.

“Our future is our children,” Andy Byrd said in Adler’s article. “They’re the ones with the opportunity to change our environment and policies, and the way we look at farming from now on.”

As leaders in Georgia Organics’ mentoring program, the Byrds provide the invaluable hands-on experience and local knowledge base that new organic and sustainable farmers can’t learn from books, Adler wrote.

In 2010, the Byrds were awarded the Georgia Organics’ Land Stewardship Award.   

“They taught the tricks of the trade to many people,” Adler says now. “What inspired [Andy’s] life was his wellspring of desire to be independent and to succeed, but above all, to share whatever he had, and help others. It’s hard to find adequate words — they all seem understated — to express Andy’s incredibly inspiring, encouraging, and nurturing presence.”

Cynthia Head, Andy’s sister, said that after Hilda was diagnosed with cancer, Andy broadened his research on how organic foods could help people with illnesses.

“He wanted information for her and to give to other people — what to eat that might help,” she said. “He wanted to know how it could heal your body.”

These were Andy’s own words in the 2008 Shepherd Center magazine article by John Christensen: “If you look at things as how I can’t do it, it’s not possible. But if it’s, ‘How am I gonna do it?’ you don’t have any barriers there. That’s kind of the way I look at things. If there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Andy continued: “People come to me and say, ‘Andy, you’re such an inspiration’ to a cousin or a friend or someone. And they’re thinking, ‘If he can do it, I know I can do it.’ Up to this day, I still have people tell me that, so I feel that’s what God left me on this earth for.”

Paul Shea has been a member of Georgia Organics since 2004.

You can read more about Andy Byrd in this story from The Walton Tribune.

The Plate Sale

Story by Corinne Kocher

Photos by Bailey Garrot

Shared Plates

It's 10:30pm on a Monday, and there's a long line outside of Octopus Bar, a late-night restaurant on Atlanta's east side. A menu is winding its way slowly down the queue, passed from guest to guest, each pointing out something new.

"Sauce africaine." "Hot sausage po' boy." "Oh my gosh, hazelnut custard."

Suddenly, the front door swings open, and the line quickly files in. Within seconds, the main dining room is packed. Diners split between tables and the bar, and the room fills with conversation made all the louder with DJ Kountry Boy spinning tunes from the corner.

Behind the bar, Shyretha Sheats is using a shaker to pour out tall cocktails for the waiting crowd. Past a narrow hallway, food runners darting to and fro, Mike Sheats is grilling sliced okra over flames in the kitchen. Shyretha and Mike are the couple behind The Plate Sale, a multi-faceted food concept that, tonight, is a pop up.

Shyretha and Mike Sheats have returned to Octopus Bar, where they held their first pop up over three years ago. Tonight, The Plate Sale is also collaborating with Chicomecóatl and Supremo, two fellow well-known pop up concepts in Atlanta. While the three pop ups draw from different cuisines, all are focused on themes of preservation.

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Shyretha explains, "The menu is things we grew up eating, inspiration from family recipes, paying tribute to someone in our communities".

Their menu isn't just paying tribute to "the south" - the Sheats are paying homage to their home base: Athens. Mike, originally from Athens, and Shyretha, from Oglethorpe County (about 20 miles east of Athens), are making food and cocktails that pull from what they've shared with their families.

But for The Plate Sale, it doesn't just stop at preservation - their work is about rediscovery as well. While they draw inspiration from their experiences, the Sheats also do extensive research into older foodways and recipes. "The Plate Sale is also about things we've realized we don't even see or taste anymore," says Shyretha.

"The Plate Sale is a whole entity, focused on projects that are related to southern history and southern foodways," Shryetha expands. This includes their pop ups, but it also encompasses their farm restoration project, restoring Shyretha's grandmother's farm northeast of Athens, and someday, a brick and mortar restaurant in Athens that sources from that farm.

Until then, The Plate Sale keeps a homebase in Athens, hosting events, pop ups, and working in the city's food scene. Shyretha and Mike are planning on attending the 2020 Georgia Organics Conference in Athens - and with talk of a potential pre-conference dinner, as well as a possible pop up held during the conference, The Plate Sale is sure to be cooking up something good.

Stay up-to-date with The Plate Sale by following them on Instagram @theplatesale.

Corinne Kocher and Bailey Garrot are the writer-photographer team behind Shared Plates, a blog exploring food in the world and how it gets to the table. Read all of their work at www.shared-plates.com and follow them on Instagram @sharedplatesatl.