Black Farmer Prosperity Track focuses on ideas of abundance

Story by Corinne Kocher

Shared Plates

Matthew Raiford encapsulates his wide-ranging background by calling himself a "chefarmer", a mashup of the two different hats he wears.

Raiford is a farmer at Gilliard Farms, a multi-generational family farm he runs with his sister Althea. Having participated in the Georgia Organics conference since 2010, Raiford has used his background as a chef to serve as the chef coordinator for Jekyll Island's Farmers Dinner, work with the farm-to-school team, and serve as a member of the Georgia Organics board.

Chefarmer Matthew Raiford of Brunswick is a farmer at Gilliard Farms and a member of the Georgia Organics Board of Directors.

This year, Chefarmer Raiford helped shape the 2020 Georgia Organics conference "Black Farmer Prosperity" track through conversations with Georgia Organics staff with funding for Chefarmer Raiford helped shape the 2020 Georgia Organics conference Black Farmer Prosperity Track with a committed group of farmers and Georgia Organics staff along with funding for the track being provided by Southern SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education), which was championed by Brennan Washington, Southeastern Outreach Coordinator and 1890 Land Grant Liaison for Southern SARE.

"We were asking, 'how do we create a track that is about honoring - the ancestors, the people currently farming, and the folks who aren't even here yet?'" says Raiford.

Raiford will be speaking as part of the Black Farmer Prosperity track, in a session titled "Collards Aren't the New Kale". Raiford and his partner, Jovan Sage, will discuss African foodways in Southern Cuisine, and how to "authentically market your traditional crops, and stand your ground in the face of market and cultural pressures to change who you are and where you are from.”

Rodney Brooks, USDA Farm Service Agency Beginning Farmer and Rancher Coordinator, will also be speaking as part of the Black Farmer Prosperity track. With an extensive background as a Farm Loan Officer, he is based in SW Georgia but has been addressing beginner farmer and rancher issues around the entire state since 2016.

At the conference, Brooks will primarily focus on the FSA's Direct Loan program, which lends funds directly to farmers and ranchers, as well as the FSA's Guaranteed Loan program.

"At FSA, we consider ourselves to be the 'Lender of First Opportunity'," says Brooks. "If a farmer or rancher’s financial position isn’t good enough to secure credit from conventional sources, we’re here to give them a start.”

Having been a lender for over a decade, Brooks will be a helpful resource at the 2020 Georgia Organics Conference. "I can answer questions with clarity using my knowledge of our handbooks and regulations as well as my firsthand experience," he adds.

When speaking about the Black Farmer Prosperity track, Raiford emphasizes the key word: prosperity. "I don't think that, on a bigger scale, we've ever had a conversation about the idea of prosperity at the conference," he says. "It's time.”

Conference-goers are going to walk away from this track with a new thought process on what prosperity really means, says Raiford. "It's about abundance - that we should be making money, not just working within the margins," he adds. 

Brooks sees funding as fundamentally tied to the idea of "prosperity", because it allows a farmer or rancher to enter the business world and turn a profit. "Profitability leads to increased equity and wealth building, and, in turn, prosperity," he says. 

"Prosperity is important build a family legacy or even maintain a family legacy. Family farmers make up the majority of farmers in this country," adds Brooks, "and we want to make sure they’re still around for generations to come".  

Raiford, too, looks at prosperity in the long term, rather than how much money is in your wallet. "Prosperity is building up the fertility in healthy soil, creating nutrient dense food, and feeding our families with a kitchen garden - and then have such an abundance that we can sell," he says. "At that point, you're really prosperous".

To Raiford, the conversation can lead to a different mindset on what prosperity actually looks like, with an emphasis on network and community.

"It's what Georgia Organics has become - a collective of farmers, of all kinds of backgrounds, coming together and trying to figure out how to make this thing work". To Raiford, "this is how I see prosperity happen". 

Need to Know:

The full Black Farmer Prosperity Track is as follows:

Session I: Funding your Farm: Understanding FSA Loans, Community Banking, and Non-Traditional Options 

(with Rodney Brooks, USDA Farm Service Agency Beginning Farmer and Rancher Coordinator; Donna Nuccio, The Reinvestment Fund)

Session II: Collards Aren’t the New Kale  

(Matthew Raiford, chefarmer, Gilliard Farms; Jovan Sage, culinary historian)

Session III: Black Farmer Prosperity in Action

(Ricky Dollison, Warrior Creek Farm; Ron Simmons, Master Blend Family Farms)

Session IV: Cooperative Principles and Black Farmer Strength

(Eric Simpson, New Eden Farms, and West Georgia Farmers Cooperative)

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.

Happy New Year! Have you had your Hoppin' John yet?

Photo courtesy of Garden & Gun

Many families will sit down to a New Year's meal on the first day of 2020 with the hopes of prosperity and renewal for the coming year. Thanks to Georgia Organics’ Farm to Restaurant program and their group of amazing farmers, Georgians and those in surrounding areas will have the opportunity to use fresh, local produce to create the quintessential combination of greens, black-eyed peas, and cornbread for the popular New Year’s dish known as Hoppin’ John.

While New Year’s Day dishes might vary depending on the region of the country, one thing that everyone can agree on is that the meal is meant to nourish the soul while feeling hopeful about the future. Hearty winter greens such as collards and a side of cornbread, possibly representing gold, are often paired with the soul-soothing rice and peas combination known as Hoppin’ John.

Hoppin’ John can be first traced back to the low country areas of South Carolina, where rice grew well in the marshy river deltas. Soon, the popularity of the dish spread throughout the entire area of the South. Even further back, hoppin’ John has evolved through the many bean-and-rice meals consumed by enslaved West Africans headed to the Americas. Many versions of this savory dish have been produced, from Cuba to the Caribbean and of course, the American South.

Steven Satterfield, chef and co-owner of Miller Union in Atlanta and a Farmer Champion chef, talks about the history of one of the most popular food items on New Year’s Day in his book “Root to Leaf: A Southern Cook Through the Seasons.”  

“Throughout the South, Hoppin’ John and collard greens are served together on New Year’s Day to ensure good luck and fortune for the coming year,” Steven writes. “The peas represent coins and the greens, dollar bills. Hoppin’ John is a mixture of peas and rice believed to have originated during the mid-1800s in the coastal plains of the Southeast. The black-eyed pea is more commonly seen now, but the red pea was the true original in this historic mixture.”

If you don’t have a copy of “Root to Leaf,” or your own recipe, here’s an excellent Hoppin’ John recipe from Garden & Gun’s “The Southerner’s Cookbook” for you to try.

Many farms participating in the Georgia Organics Farm to Restaurant Campaign offer produce perfect for the New Year’s Day meal: 

West Georgia Farmers Cooperative (West Point- The Common Market GA)

• Collards

• Hot peppers

Truly Living Well (Atlanta- Freedom Farmers Market)

• Collards

• Hot peppers

Narrow Way Farm (McDonough)

• Collards

New Eden Ecosystem (West Point - The Common Market GA)

• Collards

• Hot peppers

Also look for seasonal bounty at these farms: 

Brown’s Place (Augusta)

Adderson’s Fresh Produce (Augusta)

Dig in to holiday recipes from our Farmer Champions

Phote Credit: Atlanta Magazine

Good company and comforting meals overflow during the holidays.

Whether friends and family gather around the table at their own home or at the counter of one of the many outstanding restaurants in our home state, gratitude will be in abundance.

We asked some of our Farmer Champions from Georgia Organics, chefs who go above and beyond in their local and sustainable purchasing, to share a recipe and a note of what they are thankful for during this season. 

Steven Satterfield, executive chef and co-owner of Miller Union in Atlanta, shared two of his favorites: Greens, Field Pea, and Cornbread Casserole and Slow Simmered Field Peas.

“Miller Union just celebrated 10 years this year, and as I reflect on what I'm thankful for, I keep coming back to the good food community,” Steven said. “We have so many people in our local food system that are doing such important work, and it just keeps growing. It's an honor to be a part of it, and I look forward to many more years to come as I participate and witness us grow into a more resilient city in every passing season. If we hold ourselves to a higher standard, we can accomplish just about anything.”

Satterfield suggests using these places to source the ingredients: 

• Mustard greens or collards: Truly Living Well, Pinewood Springs Farm, Hickory Hill, Freedom Farmers Market, Marietta Farmers Market

• Cornmeal: Daysprings Farm (sells to Root Baking Co.)

• Eggs: Pinewood Springs, White Oak Pastures, Wrecking Barn, Marietta Farmers Market and Freedom Farmers Market

• Hot sauce: Rag & Frass Farm, Grant Park Farmers Market

Jessica Rothacker, owner of Heirloom Cafe in Athens, shared her mom Susie’s Sweet Potato Souffle.

“I am grateful every day to get to work with such lovely produce that is planned for, planted and cared for, then harvested and delivered so lovingly and thoughtfully by so many wonderful people,” Jessica said. “The families and individuals that I have gotten to know while working with local food have truly touched my heart. I love seeing how older generations teach new, young farmers how to thrive, and how these people work so hard day and night all year round to grow the best food possible. Further, the restaurant community in Athens inspires me every day. We have so many great chefs making such great food, and everyone is so willing to share advice and knowledge. I am lucky to have come up in such a giving community. So really to sum it up, I am grateful for the people who make the local food scene a possibility.”

Rothacker suggests using these places to source the ingredients: 

Sweet potatoes: Daysprings Farm, Hickory Hill Farm, Freedom Farmers Market, Grant Park Market

Flour: Daysprings Farm (sells to Root Baking Co.)

Eggs: Pinewood Springs, White Oak Pastures, Wrecking Barn, Marietta Farmers Market and Freedom Farmers Market

Susie's Sweet Potato Souffle

Jessica Rothacker, Heirloom Cafe 

My mom always makes sweet potato souffle for the holidays. This is your dessert for a side dish-style souffle. It is not healthy, but it is delicious, and it makes me feel like home. We get our sweet potatoes from DaySpring Farms out of Danielsville, run by maybe the sweetest family ever. Here is my take on my mom's recipe. 

For the filling:

• 3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into several pieces

• 4 ounces unsalted butter

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 cup whole milk

• 3 eggs, slightly beaten

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For the topping:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 3 ounces unsalted butter, diced into small cubes

• 1 1/2 cup pecan halves

Place sweet potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Boil until soft, about 20 minutes. Strain water. Add potatoes, butter, brown sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer or to a large mixing bowl and beat with the whip attachment or a hand mixer until smooth. Grease a 9 x 13 pan and spread filling inside. 

Put flour, brown sugar and salt in another mixing bowl and stir together. Add butter and cut in with your hands or a pastry cutter until the butter is thoroughly incorporated. Mix in pecans and spread on top of sweet potato mixture. 

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 35-40 minutes, until the topping is browned.

Slow Simmered Field Peas (Serves 6-8)

Steven Satterfield, Miller Union

• 4 cups fresh shelled field peas (lady peas, pinkeyed peas, blackeyed peas, crowder peas, zipper peas, or a mix)

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• ½ cup finely diced (1/8-inch) yellow onion

• ½ cup finely diced celery

• ½ cup finely diced fennel bulb

• Kosher salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 1 thick slice country ham or 1 small piece of smoked ham hock

• 1 sprig fresh thyme

Place the peas in a large pot, cover with water, and agitate them gently. Pull them out in small handfuls and check for blemishes or debris. Set the washed peas aside.

In a large saucepan, hear the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and fennel; season with a little salt and pepper; and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the ham, peas, and thyme, and then add water to cover by 1 inch. Simmer on low hear until the peas are tender, skimming all the while, 45 to 60 minutes.

Greens, Field Pea and Cornbread Casserole (serves 8-10)

Steven Satterfield, Miller Union

I love the combination of bitter mustard greens and creamy field peas in this hot and crusty cornbread bake. Make this using the slow simmered field peas recipe, and if fresh peas are past season, use dried and soaked peas or frozen fresh peas in its place.

• 1 recipe slow simmered field peas

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 large bunch mustard or other fall greens, washed, stemmed and chopped, (about 1 pound trimmed)

• ½ cup crème fraiche or sour cream

• 2 to 4 tablespoons hot sauce, to taste

• 1 cup fine cornmeal

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• 1½ cups buttermilk

• 1 large egg

• 2 tablespoons melted butter

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and set aside. Heat the batch of cooked peas and set aside. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, warm olive oil. Add mustard greens and season lightly. Cook, turning with tongs, until the greens are wilted and tender, about eight minutes. You may need to add a bit of liquid from the cooked peas to help wilt the greens.

Remove from heat. Pour off most of the cooking liquid from the peas and reserve. Add the cooked peas to the wilted greens. Stir in the crème fraiche and hot sauce to the field pea and greens mixture, adding a little of the reserved pea cooking liquid to make a smooth sauce.

Spread the pea and greens mixture into the prepared baking dish and check the level of liquid. Add more of the reserved cooking liquid from the peas to come about halfway up the solids, and gently stir to combine. Keep the mixture hot while you make the cornbread topping.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cornmeal, salt and baking soda. In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and egg. Whisk the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients, then whisk in the melted butter. Carefully pour the cornmeal mixture evenly over the hot peas and greens mixture, covering the entire surface. Bake until cornbread topping is set and lightly browned, about 30 minutes.

Rashid Nuri, Chef Alice Waters headline 2020 Georgia Organics Conference

By Jeff Romig

Two giants of the good food community are coming to Athens on Feb. 7 & 8 to share their work and impact during back-to-back meals at the 2020 Georgia Organics Conference & Expo.

K. Rashid Nuri is the visionary urban farming leader behind Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture, author of Growing Out Loud: Journey of a Food Revolutionary, and past chair of the Georgia Organics Board of Directors.

Alice Waters is the founder of The Edible Schoolyard Project, owner and executive chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., and a matriarch of the farm to table movement, pioneering local, organic, and sustainable sourcing since 1971.

On Saturday, Feb. 8, Georgia Organics will host Waters at lunch, where she and her team – including current Georgia Organics Board Member and 2018 James Beard Award Semi-Finalist Matthew Raiford of Gilliard Farms in Brunswick – will create one of Alice’s Edible Schoolyard menus and present it in a way that evokes the school experience.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Georgia Organics and Chef Matthew Raiford to prepare this school lunch experience,” Waters said. “We will be sourcing all ingredients for this meal from independent, organic, local farms with the hope that this meal can demonstrate the possibility for a free, sustainable, school lunch throughout Georgia.”

The Reimagined School Lunch is being sponsored by Eversheds Sutherland’s Women Stepping Up Initiative, The Lunchbox Group, and Whole Foods Market who will provide food alongside local and organic farmers in Georgia.

Then, that evening, Nuri will deliver the keynote address at the annual Farmers Feast to an expected crowd of at least 800 attendees, where he will discuss his journey as an “elder revolutionary” through his more than 50 years of urban farming and the current efforts to create a homestead act to expand the work of urban farming.

“It’s exciting to see the number of people that have been impacted by Georgia Organics’ work,” Nuri said. “We’re creating more than a local food movement. We’re creating local food economies now.”

Raiford is thrilled to have both icons in the same place sharing their experiences and vision: “It’s going to feel like Georgia is the leader in the U.S. when it comes to organics,” he said. “And Georgia Organics is leading that charge.”

Three years before Waters opened Chez Panisse, Nuri was growing corn in a backyard, 500 miles south in San Diego.

“Technically, it was illegal,” Nuri told Natural Awakenings earlier this year. “I’ve been able to watch the growth from when we weren’t able to find a farmers market, to now, when you can find one just about every day of the week.”

This sea change in demand for local, organic, and sustainable produce is a credit to decades of work between Waters and Nuri – one on the farm, and the other in her restaurant.

“Every year, Georgia Organics brings together farmers, chefs, and eaters to learn, engage, and break bread together at Georgia’s premier good food movement educational opportunity,” said Alice Rolls, President and CEO of Georgia Organics. “Every year is special and relationships are formed or deepen that impact the landscape of our food system. But, to be able to eat with and listen to Rashid and Alice at back-to-back meals is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our members and attendees.”

The annual Georgia Organics Conference & Expo is designed to foster a community of farmers, chefs, and eaters interested in supporting healthier foods, farms, and families, while showcasing and celebrating the people of Georgia’s good food movement. Prospective attendees can register to participate in the 2020 Conference by going to conference.georgiaorganics.org and clicking “Register Here.”

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

Coolong prepares farmers for success

Story by Corinne Kocher

Photos by Bailey Garrot

Shared Plates

When we meet Tim Coolong, Associate Professor in UGA's Horticulture Department, he's actually wearing a Georgia Organics hat.

"I'm fired up," he laughs, citing the relationship between the university and Georgia Organics.

Coolong earned his bachelor, master, and PhD in horticulture from UGA. Now as a UGA extension vegetable specialist, he spends his days researching practical techniques for growers. Coolong will be speaking about his research at three different Georgia Organics conference sessions.

A hands-on heavy equipment demo for farmers at the Durham Horticultural Research farm outside Athens will feature five key pieces of vegetable-specific equipment. Coolong explains that mid-sized farms and up may find real value in seeing the heavy equipment in action.

"Equipment is not cheap, so you definitely want to see it work before you spend the money," says Coolong. He adds that videos of farm equipment can be deceiving - the handling or the build quality might look different online. But during an in-person session, farmers can ask questions and see how equipment really looks in the field.

Highlighting equipment like a ground-driven precision fertilizer rig, plastic layer, rotary spader, and vacuum seeder, Coolong also explains that he's planning on spending the most time on an offset cultivating tractor with belly-mounted hydraulics for cultivation. Especially in the south, this tractor can be found at "very accessible" prices.

"For organic growers who want to get to that scale where they're not hand weeding anymore, having a tool like this is probably the most important thing in terms of labor saving," says Coolong.

Ashley Rodgers, owner and operator of Rodgers Greens & Roots Organic Farm, agrees that some heavy equipment can bring efficiencies to a farm operation. "Whether considering scaling up or looking to save time, this class could benefit anyone who owns and operates a farm," she says.

Coolong will also speak on a packed UGA panel about soil health booster research. "Organic farming is always about soil quality - it's what you build your farm off of," he says.

The panel will cover research like a segmented trial plot of different summer cover crops and tillage regimes. In addition to the university's nitrogen mineralization calculator for cover crops, this new research can "help you plan some of your fertility tactics, based on your cover crops," says Coolong. 

Coolong is practical about his research. "If we trial things out here and they don't work, that's just as important to let growers know as 'this is a great new tech to use'," he adds.

Coolong is excited to see so many farmers at the conference in Athens, saying, "I can get immediate feedback on what some of the biggest problems are for organic farmers are, so we can cater our research to their needs". 

"We're excited that this conference can bring together a wide group of people so that we can show them this technology.”

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.

---

Register TODAY so you don’t miss these exciting sessions: https://conference.georgiaorganics.org/

Check out Tim Coolong speaking at these sessions at the Georgia Organics Conference.

• Friday Feb. 7: Farm Tour - Durham Horticultural Research Farm Hands-On Tour [Note: Tour for farmers only]

• Friday Feb. 7: Morning Workshop - Soil Health Boosters, UGA Research Roundup: Locally Effective Microorganisms (LEMs), and The Challenges and Opportunities of Low-Till (along with Dorcas Franklin, UGA; David Weisberger, UGA)

• Saturday Feb. 8: Forward Farming Track, Session I

• Saturday Feb. 8: Legal Hemp is Here (along with Wes Swancy, Riverview Farms)

Envisioning Athens through Action

Story by Corinne Kocher

Photos by Bailey Garrot

Shared Plates

Walk around downtown Athens, and you might spot a community development plan that's not just sitting on a shelf, but is actually being referenced in a meeting between community members, business owners, or activists.

"It's not unique for a community to have a plan written down," says Erin Barger, project manager for Envision Athens. "What's more unique is for it to actually be in use.”

Envision Athens is a public-private partnership focused on "leveraging grassroots activism and institutional capacity together to formulate a 20-year strategy for Athens- Clarke County’s community and economic development," according to Erin. 

Envision Athens is composed of 103 priority actions, organized into 14 domains "informed by people who live in the community". Finishing up year one of the 20-year plan Erin says the community is focusing on "solutions need to actually be relevant, affordable, and of interest.”

In the agriculture domain, the current focus remains creating a sustainable and consistent venue for fresh food within the east side of Athens.

"People, at times, tend to oversimplify the barriers people have to eating fresh food," says Erin. Envision's approach works to grow the prosperity of the community while supporting the prosperity of the farmers who produce fresh food.

Envision Athens is currently working with five strategies within the agriculture domain, including the Farm Rx program at the Athens Farmers Market and collaborating to create a farmers market in Winterville (part of Clarke county). Envision is also working to address the ($20.5 million) underutilization of SNAP and WIC benefits, helping people move from eligible to enrolled quickly, and partnering with the Northeast Georgia Food Bank to increase fresh food access through their distribution channels.

Finally, Envision is partnering with the Athens Career Community Academy for multiple initiatives, including creating mobile food vehicle that would deliver food where it is needed while creating a learning environment for career academy students. Emmanuel Stone, Program Coordinator and Community Chef & Culinary Arts Coordinator at the academy, meets monthly with the "Abundance" team working in the agriculture domain. 

"Members of our community from various local agencies and organizations who care about our community come together to connect and further this work," says Emmanuel. "People who attend Envision Athens meetings are working actively to bring positive changes to the place we call home.”

What has enabled such an ambitious plan in the Athens community? Erin has a quick answer, saying, "at some point, the community has acknowledged that the way we tried it before has not served us adequately - so we decided to do something different if we want to actually see different results."

"Athens is difficult to put into words - there is scrappiness, resilience, creativity, and innovation that is really unique," adds Erin. With progress reports, work plans, and meeting calendars open to the public, Envision Athens is harnessing the power of transparency to create committed community development.

"A lot of communities experience barriers in convincing people to buy into the process and engage - but we have active work groups in various domains that have been meeting for over a year now," says Erin. Citing a recent move to larger meeting spaces, she adds, "and people continue to come to the table.”

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 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.”

--

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.”

-- 

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.”

--

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.