The Food of the Gods: From Farmer’s Hands and Atlanta Makers

By Mary Elizabeth Kidd

When you walk into the Krog Street Market food hall in Atlanta’s historic Inman Park neighborhood, one of the predominant scents is that of warm, rich, roasting cacao coming from Xocolatl Small Batch Chocolate. Cutting through a barrage of temptations like Szechuan noodles and Nashville-style hot chicken, there’s something in the intimacy and warmth of chocolate that cannot be denied.

Five years ago, on Black Friday in 2014, one couple took a bet. A bet that Atlanta was ready for bean-to-bar, single-origin craft chocolate. Chocolate with 70%+ cacao content to Hershey’s approximate 30% and costing over three times the price of the average American chocolate bar. 

Thankfully for founders Elaine Read and Matt Weyandt - and anyone who’s tasted Xocolatl chocolate - the answer remains a resounding yes. Yes, in the Southeast and beyond, consumers are ready for a better bar of chocolate. A chocolate that feeds the senses and, most critically, serves the people throughout the process who grow, harvest, ferment, dry, ship, roast, crack, winnow, grind, temper, mold, cool, wrap and sell what has been called throughout civilization: “the food of the gods.”

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In 2004, Atlanta-born Matt and D.C.-born Elaine met doing grassroots fundraising and organizing for the Democratic National Committee. Their bond over shared passions for travel, humanitarian causes and progressive politics was immediate, and they married within the year. 

Fast forward to 2011, and the couple, between political and humanitarian work contracts, craved travel and a more involved means to promote change in the world. They decided to return to a small town they loved on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. So in January 2012, Elaine, Matt and their two young children Ronan and Evabelle set off to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica with “big, vague dreams,” a very modest financial cushion and a plan to stay around six months to a year.

During this stay, they fell in love with the chocolate bars from nearby farmers markets. These bars were made only of local cacao, a little sugar and no dairy, and they were very, very good. Nothing like the milk or dark chocolate confections they’d tasted before. Developing relationships with the local cacao growers changed everything. For the couple, it brought clarity and structure to the “big, vague dreams” that brought them there. 

They returned to Atlanta and began making simple, delicious, single-origin bars, selling them locally at the Piedmont Park Green Market and Inman Park Festival. “The motivation was not just to make chocolate, we wanted to use this as a vehicle to accomplish the things we’d been working on over our careers,” Matt said.

They chose the name Xocolatl Small Batch Chocolate. Xocolatl (pronounced “chock-oh-lah-tul”) means “bitter water,” a word used by the Maya and Aztec for their spicy, tea-like drink of ground cacao, water and spices. It reflected the origin story and simple perfection of the chocolate they make; having “ATL” in the name spoke to their entrepreneurial home.

Husks are separated from the nibs in a winnower created by Matt Weyandt. Nicaraguan husks are saved for the Xocolatl tea and other husks are donated to local markets for composting. Photo by Kevin Brown.

From the business’ formative years to today, mentorship, connections and partnerships have aided Elaine and Matt in their goal of sustainable, ethical entrepreneurship. Key players in this? Bill Harris of Cafe Campesino and Dan and Jael Rattigan of French Broad Chocolates.

Harris founded Cafe Campesino, a 100 percent fair trade, organic coffee company, in Americus, Georgia in 1998. He is also a founding member of Cooperative Coffees, an importing organization dedicated to improving trade relationships between farmers and roasters. Harris’ work in the industry has charted the course for coffee and cacao cooperatives. “He’s been the model for running an ethical business,” says Elaine. Bill Harris has remained a constant hero and mentor to Matt and Elaine, he also facilitated their first cacao purchase from CAC Pangoa, a Peruvian coffee cooperative whose farmers also grow organic cacao.

Nema Etheridge, Cafe Campesino’s Marketing Director, clarifies why it’s important that cacao and coffee industries work together: “Both coffee and cacao can seem faceless, it’s easy to not think about the people and processes behind them. Ultimately it’s work to change a broken system that doesn't benefit those doing the most work.”

The progress of Cooperative Coffees has encouraged Xocolatl and similar makers to form an informal cooperative, traveling and buying together. This group includes French Broad Chocolates (Asheville, NC), Raaka Chocolate (Brooklyn) and Parliament Chocolate (Redlands, CA). Together, they visit partner farms, trips which are important for the maker-farmer long term relationship, says Elaine. “They’re planning out multiple years of harvests, and we don’t want to just be the transactional customer. We want to be partners, so they can count on us to be buying the fruit of their labor.”

Cacao is a labor-intensive crop grown in countries prone to political unrest where there is little to no representation for small farms and where the effects of climate change and disease have further complicated its growth. Farmers are increasingly incentivized to move away from growing cacao towards soil-depleting monoculture crops. 

In the face of these obstacles, it’s often left to smaller-scale makers like Xocolatl to commit to the small farmers and cooperatives who are growing cacao sustainably, organically and ethically. With their informal collaborative, they can meet and exceed fair-trade prices, establish equitable relationships and bring more overall sustainability to the cacao supply chain. And it's paying off. Not only are the farmers able to better provide for their families, but they can also afford to maintain best practices in their cacao growing and avoid the transition to less profitable, less sustainable crops.

The hard-won success of makers like Xocolatl and the farmers they champion is profiled in the documentary Setting the Bar: A Craft Chocolate Origin Story. Producer Amy Burns says of the Xocolatl founders: “To us, Matt and Elaine are part of a group of chocolate makers who are creating the benchmark for what craft producers should be striving for.”

“This whole project goes so much further than chocolate for them. It gives them a chance to affect powerful change on a human-to-human level in the countries where their cacao is growing, it gives them the opportunity to speak directly to consumers about why our choices matter, and it helps them form community in Atlanta to provide for their employees and keep pushing the incredible products that keep coming out of Atlanta.”

Speaking further on the collaborative effort it takes to effect change in the cacao trade, Etheridge believes vested partnerships like this that are helping to turn the tide. “Change will come through collaboration, not competition. It happens with cooperatives, a course charted by members creating collective demand and determining trade arrangements that benefit all.”

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The cacao tree grows year-round within 20 degrees of the equator, thriving in a diverse ecosystem under shade canopies. Trees range from 20 to 40 feet tall and produce small flowers, which, when pollinated, grow to oblong, grooved pods varying in color from yellow-orange to rich red. Today, the largest variety of cacao species is found in Latin America, however, according to SlaveFreeChocolate.org, 70 percent of the world’s supply comes from West Africa, where underpaid, exploited, often underage workers harvest what is consumed in modern commercial chocolate products from corporations like Hershey, Nestlé and Mars. 

According to Dan Rattigan, co-founder of French Broad, “Cacao, like many other tropical agricultural commodities, can either heal or devastate the rainforest, depending on how it's produced. It is also produced in many places with the worst forms of child labor. We are rather myopic at times, being so entrenched in the cacao supply chain, but we believe the importance of a healthy supply chain cannot be understated!”

“[Elaine and Matt] are involved in cacao sourcing in a way that doesn't usually happen for manufacturers until they have much bigger budgets: I don't love fighting metaphors, but they are punching above their weight!”

The cacao in Xocolatl’s chocolate is harvested, fermented and dried locally before being shipped to the States. One of the local partners vital to this process is Giff Laube, who co-owns Cacao Bisiesto, a Nicaraguan cacao company linking local independent cacao farmers to American craft chocolate makers. Laube was introduced to Matt and Elaine in 2016 through the Rattigans of French Broad. Xocolatl’s Nicaraguan beans have been sourced from Cacao Bisiesto ever since this introduction.

In opposition to price-gouging brokers who are common to modern cacao trade, Cacao Bisiesto negotiates for the farmers to receive above-market prices for their high-quality, responsibly-developed commodity. They also handle the labor-intensive fermentation and drying process steps that challenge most small farmers; this ensures beans reach the highest standard quality for supplying to artisan chocolate makers. 

This is no easy process and, according to Laube: “It's not what a lot of us thought it would be when we got involved and it has not had the take-off everyone expected when we look at craft beer, coffee, etc. Given this difficulty, Xocolatl's success is admirable and is an example to many other makers. They have the right attitude and mesh well with their community.”

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Chocolate is tempered in one of two grinders with granite base and wheels, a mechanized mortar and pestle that grinds the nibs for 24 hours for 3-4 days. On good days, good tempering can help produce 500 bars per day. Photo by Kevin Brown.

Today, Elaine and Matt continue to bring chocolate back to its roots, focusing on their direct-sourced bars made solely with cacao and organic cane sugar and their “Flavor Inclusion” bars incorporating cacao, sugar and other ingredients like dried berries, Caribbean spices, nuts and coffee. All of their bars feature cacao from Peru, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Madagascar. The simple goodness of these bars allows the terroir and character of each region’s cacao to shine through.

In their first year, they produced 2 to 3 tons of chocolate per year. Currently, they are at maximum production of 11 to 12 tons of chocolate, all from a 220 square-foot production space at Krog Market. They have grown from a team of two (Matt and Elaine) to a team of 14 full-time and part-time employees. Currently, they are eyeing a larger production space and a public-facing craft-brewery-style space. 

Praise from organizations such as the Good Food Awards, Star Chefs, and the UK Academy of Chocolate has, according to Matt, “served as a signifier to people outside of Georgia” and has translated directly to sales across the country. Xocolatl bars are available in boutiques around the country as well as in Georgia Whole Foods and The Fresh Market stores.

At their Krog Street micro-factory, Xocolatl offers afternoon tour & tastings, where the staff’s knowledge and passion for chocolate are evident. The tour includes lessons on history, botany, and sourcing along with a behind-the-scenes walkthrough of the process and equipment.

On the collaboration front, they have worked with companies in Atlanta and beyond like Cafe Campesino, East Pole Coffee, Queen of Cream, Little Tart Bakeshop, the Atlanta Audubon Society, Wild Heaven Beer and more.

For Eric Johnson, co-founder of Wild Heaven Beer, a Xocolatl collaboration was as simple as a phone call to Matt. Together, they have developed three seasonal beers and one signature bar. One thing Johnson admires most in Elaine and Matt is their similar commitment to excellent ingredients. “If you don’t care about your ingredients, you’re never going to make a product that is intrinsically delicious.”  

According to him, there is also emotional value and currency in the logos on each others’ products. “In a city like Atlanta, there is a cultural renaissance being driven by collaboration. The confluence of brilliant creatives in this space is changing the face of Atlanta.”

Five years from Xocolatl’s founding, Matt and Elaine’s goal remains the same - to be known as Atlanta’s craft chocolate maker, with a reputation for sourcing ethically, sustainably-grown cacao and for uniquely showcasing the cacao’s distinct flavor profiles. “Our vision is To Enrich Lives through Chocolate,” continues Elaine. “It’s not just about making chocolate to make people happy, although that’s certainly part of it, it’s about how creating a chocolate company can benefit the lives of our employees, the farmers we work with, other members of the small business community and the customer.”

Many thanks for the participation of:

Elaine Read, Matt Weyandt, and Dan, Jess, Bobby, Joann and the wonderful team at Xocolatl Small Batch Chocolate, (www.xocolatlchocolate.com)

Giff Laube of Cacao Bisiesto (www.cacaobisiesto.com)

Nema Etheridge of Cafe Campesino (www.cafecampesino.com)

Dan and Jael Rattigan of French Broad Chocolates, (www.frenchbroadchocolates.com)

Eric Johnson of Wild Heaven Beer (www.wildheavenbeer.com)

Chef Maricela Vega of 8ARM (www.8armatl.com)

For information and statistics about the state of the cacao industry, consult the World Cocoa Foundation (www.worldcocoafoundation.org)

For information about the ethical production of chocolate products and to verify before you buy, visit Slave Free Chocolate (www.slavefreechocolate.org)

DaySpring Farms Unique in Georgia for Cleaning, Milling

Story by Corinne Kocher

Photos by Bailey Garrot

Shared Plates

On a cool September morning, DaySpring Farms is in transition - the corn harvest is winding down, and the sweet potato and peas harvest will soon be amping up.

"But all year round, we're milling," says Nathan Brett, co-owner of DaySpring with his father, Murray Brett. "Our niche market is holding onto stuff that will store for a little while and we can sell over the course of a year."

Experimenting with market gardening in previous years, the father-and-son team has since switched to commodity crops. "We're predominantly a two-man operation, so we have to think smart about what we get into," says Nathan.

With 87 acres just outside of Danielsville, Georgia, Dayspring has "more acreage than a regular market garden, but less than most commodity farmers," says Murray Brett, Nathan's father.

DaySpring saw early on in their business that there was an acreage threshold, even in organic commodity farming, to making a profit. Caught in the middle, DaySpring did a side step, getting into value-added commodity production and storage crops.

"We have the benefit of having one, if not the only, certified cleaning operation in the state," says Nathan.

Providing cleaning and milling on the same property allows DaySpring to make a larger profit percentage off of what they grow.

DaySpring sells their grains both wholesale and direct to consumer. Sarah Dodge, baker and owner of Atlanta-based Bread is Good, uses DaySpring bread flour and cornmeal in her products. She believes one thing sets DaySpring apart: "flavor, flavor, flavor!"

"I do my best to use as many local Georgia grains as I can for flavor, nutrition, and most of all digestibility," says Sarah. "Good grains take time and patience, and Nathan and Murray are putting so much into making their grains shine". 

DaySpring sits on the southern edge of where hard red winter wheat will vernalize and produce grain, making this Georgia-grown wheat even more unique. And with DaySpring's grits and polenta production growing, Murray Brett adds, "with this flavor profile, our products speak for themselves".

During the Georgia Organics Athens 2020 conference, DaySpring will be hosting a Friday-morning farm tour. Depending on the winter, the February fields will either be in cover crop, or thick green fields of wheat in the early stages of filing out.

Nathan knows he's found value in farm tours he's attended in the past, seeing farm operations that allowed him to "take away their philosophy and methodology to make certain aspects of my operation better".

Can't make the farm tour? Don't worry - DaySpring Farms will also be providing wheat and corn donations to the conference food menu. One way or another, you'll want to try these locally-grown Georgia grains.

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.

Building Better Farmers: Collective Harvest’s Jacqui Coburn and Alex Rilko

By Erin Wilson, The Seed & Plate

“If I plant arugula nobody cares when its ready except for me,” says Jacqui Coburn on a hot day at Front Field Farm in Winterville, Georgia.

That was before Collective Harvest and the responsibility of a shared farming Cooperative.

Second career farmers, Jacqui and Alex Rilko started small with ¼ acre in Covington, Georgia. But even in their early days driving into the Athens Farmers Market, they were looking ahead to what should be next. They knew their future–and the expansion of access to fresh food for their community–couldn’t rely on their farm alone.

They saw overlaps and flaws in the status quo every time they went to market. Sometimes Eva at Full Moon Farm would buy produce from Jacqui to fill gaps in her own small CSA operation. Jacqui would do the same.

“We’d joke about racing Ed [of Sundance Farm] to 5&10,” said Jacqui. “We were all at different points during the week going to the same restaurants and sending the same itty bitty [availability] email. We just thought that was silly.”

In 2015, the farmers behind Full Moon Farm and Diamond Hill Farm partnered with Front Field Farm because Alex and Jacqui put out the call for a new system that would give farmers more time on the farm and alleviate unnecessary competition between them.

Their ultimate impact from these efforts are why Jacqui and Alex have been selected as the 2020 Barbara Petit Pollinator Award from Georgia Organics.

The Barbara Petit Pollinator Award honors an individual or organization for outstanding community leadership in Georgia’s sustainable farming and food movement. The award acknowledges exceptional success in advancing Georgia Organics’ mission by spreading—pollinating—the movement throughout community life, such as the food industry, faith communities, public agencies, schools, and institutions.

The award is named after Barbara Petit, who passed away in 2015. She was a committed leader, culinary professional, and organizer who served as President of Georgia Organics from 2003-2009.

In 2001, Jacqui left her corporate after growing tired of the corporate world of food. Unexpectedly, a neighbor asked Jacqui to begin work on her farm despite having no experience to speak of. At almost 40 years old, it was late in life to take on such a physical challenge as farming, but the transition felt immediately natural.

“I really just felt so comfortable in that environment. The competition in the corporate world is so underhanded… whereas the competition in farming is there but everyone is so open,” Jacqui explains. “Everyone will tell you pretty much everything about what they’re doing because you have different resources so you may or may not being able to use their technique or ideas.”

Individually, each farm was up against the off-farm challenges of emailing, social media, data collection, advertising, delivering, ordering supplies and the list goes on. Collective Harvest takes a portion of this burden off the individual farmer, offers expanded bulk buying power, stabilizes finances through regular payment on delivery, and enables the farmers to focus on growth both of produce and infrastructure without fear of an off harvest.

“Last year it was raining so much that it was a bad year for us personally with farming but other farms were able to pick up our slack. When you’re doing a CSA on your own, with the year we had last year we’d probably have had to refund their money…or they would have just gotten a lot of okra,” Alex jokes.

At the beginning of each year, the Collective Harvest farmers meet for a bid process in which they plan the crop schedule and their weighted produce commitments.

“The bid process allows everybody to be as involved as they want to be,” says Jacqui. “Everyone puts down what they’re really comfortable with because we all have other outlets as well. We all want to go to the market and look full,” Jacqui explains. “Everyone’s at different levels naturally.”

Just as one farmer’s secrets to success may not translate to another, each farm in Collective Harvest varies based on acreage of land, number of staff, physical capability and focus on market versus CSA and direct-to-restaurant.

While the organizational side may have taken some getting used to, especially by farmers who once didn’t even keep an inventory at market, this data-driven planning allows Collective Harvest to reliably secure availability for 11-12 items every week, provide members with the details of their share a week in advance, and enable customers to swap undesired items for a variety of 20 other items available in lesser quantities.

After all, mother nature is a part of the collective too.

Although Collective Harvest primarily focuses on their CSA members, the group’s consolidation of direct-torestaurant business has benefited both farmers and chefs alike.

“In the previous model, we would have to pick and choose, trying to order equitably amongst all the farms, trying not to play favorites because everyone does such a great job,” recalls Chef Peter Dale of The National. “Collective Harvest has taken away that awkward part of the equation. Everyone shares the orders and the restaurants benefit from expanded and consolidated availability.”

Restaurant owners, like Ryan Sims of Donna Chang’s, see the same values as the farmers in being able to consolidate tasks and simplify systems while maintaining a strong standard of quality.

“We know their passion, values, and that quality is something that is important to them. That is something we are proud to align our restaurant with,” Ryan says. “What is great about working with organizations like Collective is that they are our neighbors. They aren't some face-less entity.”

Admittedly, some farmers initially feared that combining forces would require them to shed an element of personal identity or recognition of their own quality of product. Fortunately, each farmer’s maintained presence at the markets, conferences and events only grows the power of their shared mission and the weight of the Collective Harvest name.

“Once people got involved with us they realized pretty quickly this is better,” said Jacqui.

With the stability Collective Harvest affords, the current eight member farms have all shown growth and ambition. Diamond Hill Farm moved from a landlocked farm to one closer to town with more acreage. Ed Janosik at Sundance Farm built a fence to protect his crops. Each of the farmers can support more full time employees just as Collective Harvest itself now operates out of a downtown headquarters with five employees to maintain the day-to-day operations.

As membership increases, Jacqui still smiles when she sees a CSA member shopping at the Saturday market with their Collective Harvest bag in tow. When Collective Harvest began, over 100 people signed up and the founders were nervous they couldn’t keep up. This fall they have a seasonal record of over 300 members. It’s clear that different outlets for fresh food working collaboratively and a cooperative farming community can uplift one another instead of existing in competition.

“Our big picture goal is to have all the farms at the farmers market be part of it,” dreams Alex. “It would be awesome to get to that point where you’re so busy, you have that many people, and you can bring all these vendors [into the collective].”

Erin Wilson is the general manager and part-owner of The National in Athens. In her spare time she is part of The Seed & Plate, an exploration of sustainability, self-sufficiency, and slow living through storytelling. Read more from The Seed & Plate at www.theseedandplate.com.

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.