The Atlanta Foodcast Returns: In Conversation with Twisted Soul & Ellijay Mushrooms and Crystal Organic Farm

By Mary Elizabeth Kidd

Welcome back to another year of conversations with farmers, chefs, community activists, and other food leaders around Georgia!

The year has been and continues to challenge, but our hope with the Atlanta Foodcast is that hearing from these incredible people will bring you inspiration. These are the leaders working hard to establish an equitable, regenerative food system for all Georgians.

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On today’s episode, we’re connecting with a farmer-chef duo who participated in our Farm to Restaurant program’s Food Fight GA initiative: Chef Deborah VanTrece of Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours (www.twistedsoulcookhouseandpours.com/) and Howard Berk of Ellijay Mushrooms (ellijaymushrooms.com/).

Chef Deborah VanTrece of Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours and Howard Berk of Ellijay Mushrooms.

Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours is located on the Westside of Atlanta and serves “globally-inspired Soul food with an emphasis on farm to table.” Chef VanTrece’s goal is to serve food that evokes memories and reflects comfort foods from around the world, inspired by her extensive travels. 

Howard Berk, co-owner of Ellijay Mushrooms, where they grow Shiitake and Oyster mushrooms and are currently developing Lion’s Main and other varieties. 

They discuss how a partnership like theirs—relatively close to home—was essential as the global food chain essentially broke down at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

For Chef VanTrece and the Twisted Soul team, this was an essential time not only for the relationship with Ellijay Mushrooms, but also to work with additional farmers as the availability and proximity just made sense and has continued so to this day.  

“Now I use more local farmers than ever before…this was the system that actually saved us, the relationship with farmers. We went through all sorts of different pivots, but one that was most important was being able to offer fresh, locally-grown vegetables; it was of major importance...It’s made me understand that my relationships have to continue to be strong with our local farmers. It’s a win-win for both sides when that happens. We as restauranteurs have learned how important our farmers are to the food chain of America.” 

Chef VanTrece has a cookbook is on the horizon: “The Twisted Soul Cookbook: Modern Soul Food with Global Flavors,” available for pre-order now. To view the Twisted Soul menu and order pick-up, visit: www.twistedsoulcookhouseandpours.com/. Follow on social media at facebook.com/twistedsoulcookhouse/ and @twistedsoulcookhouse.  

On the horizon for Ellijay Mushrooms: they are moving towards a zero-waste operations with composting for local farmers and, in the next few years, a U-Pick mushroom  program, yoga at the farm, and more. Visit ellijaymushrooms.com/ to view their offerings and order for safe pick-up. Howard’s main ask? Support the restaurants that are buying from Ellijay Mushrooms (list available here). Follow on social media at www.facebook.com/EllijayMushrooms and @ellijaymushrooms.  

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Jeni Jarrard & Nicolas Donck of Crystal Organic Farm.

In our second segment, we’re talking to Nicolas Donck & Jeni Jarrard of Crystal Organic Farm. Nicolas established Crystal Organic Farm over 27 years ago and the 175 acre farm, located about an hour outside of Atlanta, has been certified organic ever since.

We talk about how their business’ continual evolution, from serving some of Atlanta most renowned chefs such as Chef Gunter Seeger, to helping establish the Morningside Market, to now offering COVID-safe on-farm pickups, homeopathic remedies, and stress-relieving farm tours.

Throughout the farm’s existence, they have also committed to giving back as much and often as possible. They currently operate the Crystal Organic Farm Food Assistance Program, providing weekly fresh produce bags, at no cost, for members of their community. If you or someone you know is in need of food, contact Crystal Organic Farm (link here) or send them a message on social media.

To learn more about Crystal Organic Farm and shop, visit crystalorganicfarm.com/. Follow them on social media at facebook.com/crystalorganicfarm/ and @crystalorganicfarm.

For our recurring Gardening with Farmers, Nicolas is sharing his expertise on winter gardening for the cold months. 

Thank you for joining us for another season of The Atlanta Foodcast! Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen to podcasts. We also encourage you to Stay Local this year and support their work. You can learn more about the Georgia Organics Stay Local campaign at georgiaorganics.org/staylocal.

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Mary Elizabeth Kidd is the Communications Director at Georgia Organics. To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit www.georgiaorganics.org and follow us on Instagram @GeorgiaOrganics, Twitter @GeorgiaOrganics, and at www.Facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.

Guest Post: Holidays with Farm to School Partner Little One’s Learning Center

By Chef Shay at Little One’s Learning Center

Little Ones Learning Center is a model of Farm to ECE in Georgia. The school garden is a place of learning and exploration, where students gain the life skill of growing food and showing love and appreciation to Mother Earth. School meals and taste tests expose students to a variety of local fresh food to expand their palates, develop cultural awareness for where food comes from, and support brain development. This simply delicious sweet potato recipe is Little One's Learning Center Chef Shay's favorite holiday recipe, and it is sure to be one of yours. 
 

Photo courtesy of Little One’s Learning Center.

Best Mashed Sweet Potatoes 
 

Ingredients 

4 lbs. sweet potatoes (about 5 large or 4 extra large)*, such as red garnet, beauregard or jewel (not white or purple varieties) 

8 Tbsp salted butter, diced into 1 Tbsp pieces, plus more for serving if desired 

1 Tbsp real maple syrup, then more to taste for a sweeter option 

Salt and freshly ground black pepper 

How to Make Mashed Sweet Potatoes 

Making mashed sweet potatoes is really easy!  I make Baked Sweet Potatoes and scoop them out to make mashed potatoes. A quicker method is to boil the sweet potatoes but I prefer the consistency of baked if possible. 

Once cooked (either boiled or baked) and very well drained, the sweet potatoes can be mashed. 
Start by adding the butter and mixing it in using a hand masher. 

Heat the cream/milk and add a bit at a time while mashing. You can use an electric mixer for a creamier texture or mash by hand. 

Once mashed, season with salt and pepper and serve (with more butter  (LOTS MORE!). 

Sweet Potatoes, take a short amount of time to boil, 15-20 minutes or until tender when poked with a fork.  

How to Mash Sweet Potatoes 

You can mash sweet potatoes using a hand masher, this gives more of a rustic consistency. 

For a smoother consistency, you can use a hand mixer or an immersion blender.

Enjoy!

Photo courtesy of Cosmos Farm.

Mid-Week Pop-Up Market: Best Practices and Reflections

By Mary Elizabeth Kidd

On Wednesday, April 26, just over a month after the pandemic took full effect in Georgia, Georgia Organics launched a weekly market with online ordering from small, local farms and COVID-safe, touchless pick-up at Wrecking Bar Brewpub in Inman Park.

When the Georgia Organics Mid-Week Pop-Up Market ended for the season on Wednesday, Dec. 2, the overall performance was assembled alongside best practices and learnings and shared via a Good Food for Thought webinar with a community of interested attendees from Georgia to Massachusetts, Florida, Washington, Alabama, Minnesota, and beyond. Georgia Organics believes this is a market model that individuals and cooperatives in Georgia and beyond can replicate to foster farmer prosperity in their respective communities.

Over its 32-week run, the Georgia Organics Mid-Week Pop-Up Market served an average of 45 customers per week and helped eight small farms secure over $55,000 in sales to help re-establish some of the pre-pandemic business lost over the tumultuous year of restaurant closures, changes in wholesale channels, and other sales interruptions.

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To develop the concept and detailed logistics, members of the Farmer Services, Farm to Restaurant, and Events teams combined their personal experiences farming as well as participating in and coordinating farmers markets to develop an experience that would meet the safety needs of customers and the sales needs of farmers. The goal of this pop-up market was to serve the needs of customers looking for a Covid-safe, farmer-supporting shopping option and, primarily, to enact Georgia Organics’ goal of fostering farmer prosperity.

The Mid-Week Pop-Up Market ended after a successful 32-week run on Wednesday, Dec. 2 and, per our recent Good Food for Thought webinar, has proven to be a highly replicable model for communities looking for alternative, manageable ways to offer a safe, smaller market experience.

While the market ended for the season on Wednesday, Dec. 2, Georgia Organics is passing the proverbial baton to a cooperative of small farmers and hope to continue sharing learnings and advice from this model so that communities in Georgia and beyond can establish their own pop-up markets.

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On Dec. 9, Georgia Organics hosted a Good Food for Thought webinar for those interested in beginning an online-driven, safe pickup pop-up market. The Zoom call was led by Kayla Williams, Farmer Services Coordinator with Georgia Organics, who primarily managed the Mid-Week Pop-Up Market, and Lauren Cox, Organic Procurement Coordinator and manager of our Farm to Restaurant program, along with Mid-Week Pop-Up participating farmer Rahul Anand, owner of Snapfinger Farm in Stockbridge.

All participating farmers in the Mid-Week Pop-Up Market were a part of the Farm to Restaurant program’s Farmer Cohort, a group selected for restaurant-specific direct support, training, farmer-chef partner building, and other resources to help foster a more transparent and flourishing “farm to table” economy in Georgia. To learn more about the Farm to Restaurant program, visit farmtorestaurant.georgiaorganics.org/.

In the Good Food for Thought program, Lauren and Kayla shared some of the essential learnings and findings from this 32-week initiative, including the basics of why and how Georgia Organics launched the pop-up market and how others can recreate this online, touchless weekly event.

A few of the foundational factors making this a successful market included strong pre-existing relationships with the team at our host site, Wrecking Bar Brewpub, a Farm to Restaurant Farmer Champion restaurant with an idea event space tied to the restaurant and parking spots for farm-to-trunk curbside pickup. Additionally, the labor of these weekly markets was no small feat, Kayla shared, taking around 8-12 hours of weekly coordination and on-site labor to pack and distribute orders.

Finally, it was important to have the Georgia Organics-hosted Mid-Week Pop-Up website (bit.ly/midweekpopup), designed via Squarespace, where customers could be directed to the online stores of participating farmers. Ongoing marketing via an email newsletter and social media promotion served as reminders for the ordering window and pick-up days and also introduced prospective customers to the participating farmers.

Participating farms in the Mid-Week Pop-Up Market 2020.

For the farmers, a few key operational factors made this market successful: Mid-week scheduling aligned with farmers pre-existing commutes into Atlanta to drop orders at restaurants and, crucially, the online functionality that was possible as most participating farmers had already transitioned to online stores within their weekly sales flow.

The fact that this market served only online pre-orders was a significant differentiator of this pop-up market vs. traditional farmers markets and in-person or on-farm sales.

Atlanta Harvest CSA order at the Mid-Week Pop-Up Market.

A few measurable results of the online, touchless market: foot traffic was lower, the average customer was older, and the spend-per-customer was higher on average, around $35.

Additional logistics details and results were shared in the Mid-Week Pop-Up Market: Best Practices and Reflections webinar, watch below.

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Rahul Anand of Snapfinger Farm

When asked about the impact of the Mid-Week Pop-Up Market, Snapfinger Farm’s Rahul Anand responded that the Mid-Week Pop-Up Market, over the 32 weeks running, accounted for 3-4% of Snapfinger’s total sales. “While that number might seem small. It’s big. When you take what that means week-to-week over 30 weeks with payroll going out; it’s really not an insignificant amount of money. It made the logistical burden of changing up where we’re selling things a whole lot easier,” Rahul added. 

Farmer EliYahu Ysrael of Atlanta Harvest, another Mid-Week Pop-Up participating farmer, added: “This program has been absolutely amazing. A great way to bring different organizations together that commit to creating a better environment for food. Allowed farmers to have direct access to customers and share resources so that the growers can spend the much needed time in the field and know that food being grown is going to homes in our city.”

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Stay tuned to Georgia Organics’ social media for updates about the Mid-Week Pop-Up continuing in 2021!

To watch this Good Food for Thought webinar in full or view the slides from the presentation, click below. Click here to download the full presentation deck.

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To learn more about the Farm to Restaurant program, visit farmtorestaurant.georgiaorganics.org/.

If you have questions about how to start an online-driven pop-up farmers market in your community, send an email to info.georgiaorganics [at] gmail [dot] com.

Innovation and Passion Drive Farm to Early Care Education at Pre-K Preparatory Academy

By Yaza Sarieh

Some educators may think that getting small children to try fruits and vegetables can be a daunting task, but not for Arbendette Van. The director of Pre-K Preparatory Academy in Gainesville, GA, Arbendette Van has excited her students, faculty members, and families about local foods and nutrition education. Having joined the Farm to Early Care Education Collaborative over a year ago, Arbendette has done amazing work to incorporate Farm to Early Care Education in everything they do in the classroom.

After a career in the corporate world, Arbendette Van followed her lifelong passion for working with low-income communities and educating children by establishing the Pre-K Preparatory Academy. The Farm to Early Care Education program at Pre-K Prep began due to Arbendette’s interest in local food and the health benefits of eating goods grown in the local community. She was inspired to challenge each classroom to integrate healthy foods and nutrition into their curricula, which began with a garden competition using bathtubs as planters and some seeds to see which produce grew the fastest. What started as a small contest quickly developed into a school-wide incentive to create more opportunities for the students to engage in F2ECE.

The Farm to Early Care Education initiatives has benefitted the community, as Pre-K Preparatory Academy has built a large garden, created activities and curricula with the help of Georgia Organics, and set a standard for eating local. According to Arbendette, one of the most rewarding products of the Farm to Early Care Education work has been the student’s joy for healthy eating. She said, “One of our moms took her kids to Florida for a vacation, and someone commented on how amazing it was that her children were not eating candy or junk food, but that they were happy to eat vegetables and fruits.”

The Farm to Early Care Education program has encouraged student’s excitement because they are included in all elements of growing, harvesting, and serving. The children not only plant the seeds and “love to poke holes in the ground,” but they are also responsible for watering the garden and tending to its needs. She has done a fantastic job of including sustainable practices in her own garden, by using recycled planters like tires and milk cartons, and utilizing compost so as not to waste any scraps from the kitchen. While learning more about the ecological systems in the garden, one classroom even did a research study on the different types of worms that would support prime growing conditions and had the children find those worms around the playground and relocate them to the garden. After harvesting the plants, students have prepared meals to be taken home to share with the parents. Arbendette has noticed that “The students are so interested in the growing process and working in the garden that it encourages them to try the produce – they are so eager that some of them want to try immediately after they help harvest!”

Despite challenges that have arisen from the COVID-19 Pandemic, Arbendette has not stopped her F2ECE activities – in fact, she has taken this time as an opportunity to grow the program. With the help of parents and staff, Pre-K Prep has just constructed a greenhouse and Arbendette hopes to continue increasing the garden in the next year.

One of Arbendette’s goals is to expand the Academy’s procurement of local food, specifically working with POC farmers who use sustainable growing practices. The most challenging part of procuring local foods has to do with logistics. Many Georgia farms do not have the capacity to deliver long distances at this time. The Gainesville farmers market is during school hours on a Friday, which excludes the market at a procurement option. Because the school has a smaller number of students, it is difficult to find farms with order minimums that fit her needs. However, Arbendette has not given up and still does all she can to eat local – whether it is going to Kroger multiple times a week, or continuing to connect with distributors – she is steadfast in her priority of providing healthy foods to her students and community.

With the dedication of school faculty and the support of Georgia Organics resources, Pre-K Preparatory Academy has become a model of best practices in Farm to Early Care Education.

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To connect with Pre-K Preparatory Academy, visit http://www.preparatorylearningacademy.com/ and follow them on social media at www.facebook.com/prekpreparatory/ and www.instagram.com/prekprepacademy/.

Yaza Sarieh is a contractor for Farm to School at Georgia Organics. To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit www.georgiaorganics.org and follow us on Instagram @GeorgiaOrganics, Twitter @GeorgiaOrganics, and at www.Facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics. 

Chef Asata Demonstrates How to Turnip the Volume for October Farm to School Month

By Caroline Croland

Are you ready to Turnip the Volume with Chef Asata? 

As October Farm to School Month has drawn to a close, Georgia Organics would like to take some time to celebrate Chef Asata Reid. 

Chef Asata Reid (Photo courtesy of Chef Asata Reid).

An invaluable Farm to Early Care Chef Educator here at Georgia Organics, Chef Asata is a Farm to School all-star. She has almost two decades of experience as a professional chef and community health educator. With an honors graduate of the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Atlanta, a cum laude graduate of Florida A&M University’s School of Journalism, an honors recipient with a Masters in Education from the University of Kansas, and a Master of Public Health from Emory University, Reid brings a wealth of knowledge to Georgia Organics’ Farm to School program. 

In addition to her extensive educational background, Reid is also the CEO of Life Chef LCC, creates educational videos for DECAL and Quality Care for Children, creates taste tests for Small Bites Adventure Club, and is releasing her first book, “How to Feed a Kid” before the end of the year. 

“Chef Asata is brilliant, creative, pragmatic, funny, and relatable, all at once. With an extensive educational background in the culinary arts, education, and public health, as well as practical, first-hand experience as a mother, Chef Asata brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the farm to school table,” says Kimberly Koogler, Farm to School Coordinator at Georgia Organics. “In training and workshops she delivers, she makes real connections with the audience and provides practical guidance based on a tried and true experience, often in a way that also makes you smile and laugh.”

Chef Asata recently created six recipe videos for Georgia Organics’ “Turnip the Volume: Can you dig it?” Farm to School month campaign. 

Whether it’s learning about fractions and photosynthesis while making Turnip Carrot Slaw, or states of matter while creating a delicious turnip stew, Chef Asata’s recipes turn delicious cooking into a memorable, hands-on learning experience. 

We sat down with Chef Asata to talk with her about her work and her passion for Farm to School education. 

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Tell us a little bit about your background and experience as a chef and an educator.

I’ve been a professional chef for almost two decades. After I started my business Life Chef, I realized how much I love helping people learn to improve their lives, so I have expanded my practice beyond teaching cooking and nutrition into other areas of health and wellness. As a community health educator, it is important to me that anyone who attends my classes or seminars walks away with actionable items to immediately apply to their lives. No matter how old or young, we can all learn something to help us achieve our health and wellness goals. Even better if we can do it by eating delicious food in the process!

Photo courtesy of Chef Asata Reid.

What inspires you about your work?

I think the “a-ha!” moment when someone grasps a concept or technique and now owns it for themselves is really what keeps me going. I want people to feel empowered in their lives, in their bodies, in their kitchens, in their decisions. When someone gains knowledge, they can wield that knowledge to benefit themselves. I think that is at the core of teaching. So when a parent feels like they can get a balanced meal on the table for dinner, or a college kid feels like they can eat healthy on a budget, or a senior citizen can stretch their food dollars further, or a child tries a new vegetable and likes it… all of those scenarios include a person gaining knowledge and applying it to their life. So basically, when you learn and grow, that inspires me.

Tell us about some of your favorite experiences that you have had collaborating with Georgia Organics and our Farm to School Program.

Over the years, some of my most rewarding work has been with Georgia Organics and the Farm to School and Farm to ECE programs, because these initiatives aren’t just about putting fresh produce in front of kids. These initiatives are about building communities, and food is the medium through which communities are fostered. The Farm to School/Early childhood education programs builds bridges between farmers and schools/ECEs and that’s a great thing, especially if local foods are served in meals and local dollars stay in the community. But it’s so much more than that. We work to empower the nutrition staff to embrace local and fresh produce and train them in recipe development and in thinking of themselves as educators as well. With that mindset, we can also build bridges between the kitchen/cafeteria and the classroom. In the classroom, we can bridge Farm to School/ECE goals with the curriculum so that children can learn about food from many different angles. Not just nutrition and health, but culture, community, commerce, and their learning objectives from science, math, literacy, and more. Farm to School/ECE can strengthen the bridges between the classroom and home for students and parents. Through Farm to School/ECE, food serves as a powerful conduit of information, connection, learning, and sharing and I’m proud of the work we have been able to do and am humbled by the many lives we have touched.

Photo courtesy of Chef Asata Reid.

Why do you choose to work with Farm to School and Farm to Early Care initiatives?

I fully believe that if children grow up connected to their food, the people who grow it, harvest it, distribute it, and cook it, they will have a more holistic understanding of food, and not tend to separate food from nutrition, and food from agriculture. To me all three of those topics are intertwined and to understand one, you have to have an understanding of the other three. Research has shown us that children who learn what I call “food literacy” in these early years of life have better success at being healthy eaters and having a healthy attitude about food. Just as math and language literacy starts in the early years, so does this “food literacy.” If we want to turn the tide of some of the health crises that are so glaring in America, we have to start with our children and we have to include our communities. The problems of food insecurity, food apartheid, affordable health access and equality, community equity, and sovereignty are complex and multi-tiered. But one thing we can all agree upon is that people have to eat, and equal and fair access to food should be a basic human right. Working with Farm to School/ECE initiatives allows more than just interaction with kids (which I love!) but also provides an opportunity to impact the food policies and purchasing power of schools and ECEs, which has a financial impact on local businesses and farms, a health impact on the students and staff, and ultimately takes steps to build a future where kids and their food may be separated by just a few miles. Farm to School/ECE work gives us all an opportunity to reprioritize food as activism. Some of what we do is so simple, but everything we do is a building block, and with intention and over time, each school or early education site can be a house of opportunity for grassroots food activism. In that way, I believe we can reclaim food as a human right and change the world.

One simple thing that an early care provider or parent can do to make eating veggies exciting for their children? 

Photo courtesy of Chef Asata Reid.

To be honest, eating veggies doesn’t have to be “exciting,” it just needs to be normalized. I don’t know that dinner needs to be a sideshow every day, it just needs to be eaten. And sometimes I think adults have expectations that are too high when it comes to what and how kids eat. If eating vegetables is normalized, if it’s “just what we do,” then it isn’t something that has to be overemphasized and kids don’t need so much coaxing. I always say a parent’s job is to provide healthy meals at regular mealtimes. That’s super simple, but that’s it. If there were one other thing I’d add to that, it would be: make sure the food tastes good. I know that seems obvious, but in so many settings, both at school and at home, adults are more focused on checking nutrition boxes. “Was a vegetable served? Yes. Was it green? Yes? Was it eaten? No.” You know why? Because it was overcooked, mushy, and gross. Before “Was it served?” somebody should’ve asked, “Does it taste good?” Kids have spectacular, vibrant, sensitive palates which means they love appealing flavors and textures and are very put off by unappealing flavors and textures. I think adults would have more success if they prepared veggies in ways that enhance their natural deliciousness and normalized eating veggies by modeling that behavior themselves. Parents should also recognize that they are in it for the long-game and that growing and nurturing a “healthy eater” can take all of the 18 years we have with our kids.

What projects are you working on right now?

We are in the throes of Farm to School Month so we just released the Georgia Organics Turnip the Volume Videos. I will be doing some training videos for family home care providers under Georgia Quality Care for Children, and some training videos for Bright from the Start DECAL. I am very excited to launch my book “How to Feed a Kid” before the year is over. It is a guide to help parents navigate some of the major pitfalls we encounter in feeding our kids well over the years. It is a quick, light-hearted read packed with my years of experience of feeding kids of all ages. And as always, I have projects in the works with my partners at Georgia Organics, Small Bites Adventure Club, the National Farm to School Network, and more to continue working on the behalf of kids, families, schools, and communities to have access to food education and food empowerment.

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Spotlight on Farmer Fund Accelerator Rag and Frass Farm

By Kayla Williams

A few weeks ago, we had a conversation with Julia Asherman, farmer and owner of Rag and Frass Farm in rural Jeffersonville about...EVERYTHING. Rag and Frass Farm, an inaugural Farmer Cohort member of Georgia Organic’s Accelerator program, is an organic flower and produce operation growing on 2.5 acres. Julia has been operating Rag and Frass Farm for 7 years and farming for 9 years. Rag and Frass Farm sells their products through many avenues – the Mulberry Market in Macon, the Green Market in Milledgeville, the Grant Park Market in Atlanta, and through their own farm stand. You can find more information about where to buy from Rag and Frass here.

I have been case managing for Rag and Frass Farm throughout the Accelerator program and feel lucky to be working with such a strong, motivated, and smart grower. I could have summarized our conversation, but Julia’s words were too impactful and honest for me to do any mincing…

Why did you choose to be a farmer?   

I don’t even really remember farming being a choice…it was more of happenstance – the things I wanted in life were most readily available if I became a farmer... I wanted to live in the country, have a big garden, have more independence, and be more sustainable. I just thought I’d be a rural person who lived in the country. When I was 19 or 20 in art school in Chicago and thinking about what was after college. For me, it wasn’t about food production or business, but more about being away from police, loving art, liking science, loving plants, and wanting to carve out space in the world for myself. It wasn’t that I was ever hooked – just made a decision to do something, and it just happened to be my calling. As a kid, I wanted to be an inventor – that really is what farming is, a marriage of art, science, philosophy, building processes, problem-solving. I really like being challenged and figuring it out.   

Rag and Frass Farm. Photo credit: Kate Blohm

What happened when you told your family you were going to be a farmer?   

I didn't have much to lose because I was really young and because I was in art school to be an artist, they had already made peace with the fact that I was going to do my own thing and probably wasn’t going to be wildly financially successful, so that made it easier for them to be OK with. And there just generally there wasn’t a lot to lose. They weren’t initially supportive but not shocked, and I’d always been the black sheep of the family. I come from a gardening family – both my parents, my aunts and uncles, my grandmother, all gardened and we went to the farmers market growing up so I didn’t have to convince them that it was important. Now that I’ve been farming for a while, they are all in, sending Boston Globe articles about local food. They’re just happy that it worked out.   

What piece of advice helped you when you were just starting out?    

A little bit of advice I didn’t take but I should have – protecting yourself and your investment. Starting as an apprentice or a tenant farmer, I was naïve about investment and ownership. Even if you put 110% effort into the farm you’re working on, you own 0% of it. It’s very easy to be taken advantage of when you’re so enthusiastic and love the work and the people you’re working for will let you do it.   

Photos courtesy of Rag and Frass Farm

What advice do you have for beginning farmers?   

Consider your own equity and worth, and make sure you don’t have any illusions about your ownership. It’s important to give full consent and fully understand what you are getting out of the experience. Your manager may be someone fully invested in your future and it may be someone who’s not, so be cautious.   

What are your biggest moments of gratitude as a farmer?   

When it’s raining and customers come out – when you’re going through a hard time and people show up, that makes me feel a lot of gratitude. When people put their money where their mouth is and choose integrity over comfort, that makes me feel grateful. When folks are doing the right way, and it has a positive impact, that makes me grateful.     

What's a skill you have that makes you a better farmer, but you didn't initially think it would help you?    

Knowing how to handle money and business-y things in general. All of the boring, dry, numbing, capitalistic parts…but have made me viable. Becoming a part of the system enough to stay alive. Knowing how to work the system, knowing how it functions, and also recognizing the parts of the system that aren’t wrong. Just because you’re anti-capitalist doesn’t mean that record-keeping and data and keeping track of money is wrong. There’s nothing wrong with that and it makes your life easier. And recognizing that farming IS a business and it’s a business by the nature of the fact that you’re making an exchange. The notion that farming is fun and good and pleasurable and there are no problems is wrong and also, it shouldn’t have to be romantic to make people want to farm. I’ve heard people and organizations say “I just really want to show people how easy it is to grow their own food”. It’s not easy AND it shouldn’t have to be. It’s worth doing because it’s necessary. It’s not more important because it’s easier – hard or easy has to do with outside factors. The incentive to farm is not purely financial.   

Rag and Frass Farm. Photo credit: Kate Blohm

What's the best thing you invested in on your farm?   

Two things – the tractor and the people. Investing in people has been a struggle – it’s not always easy to invest in people, because they’re hard and because investing in people takes a lot of emotional resources but it makes a difference. And the soil, let’s not forget the soil. There are a lot of things that are good investments. Another good investment? Owning land. It’s a totally different feeling and relationship to farming when you are able to own your land.   

What makes you sustainable and what makes it important?   

I don’t know…I don’t feel like my farm has reached the level of sustainability that I’d like it to. I’m pretty sustainable in practices, not perfect but pretty good. I feel “medium” about financial sustainability. The fact that everyone on the farm including myself and my partner are low paid makes me realize we’re not financially sustainable. But, the fact that the farm is able to operate year after year and is able to invest means we’re not in the red. There is a component of financial sustainability that is becoming increasingly necessary. To me, sustainability by definition is the bare minimum...being able to sustain yourself and tread water. Sustainability is a pretty low bar, and that’s how we measure success? And, we’re sustaining a level that’s been depleted overtime. That level is not an impressive place to begin with and maintain, we should be striving beyond sustainability. Sustainability is the bare minimum. It’s really not a lofty goal.   

What's your vision for your farm?   

I want it to be better in EVERY way, I want it to be more productive, more financially sustainable, I want my employees to have more rewarding experiences, and to be more financially rewarded, AND I want it to get easier. And to feel easier. And to be less heavy and less draining. I want to have my cake and eat it too. What we want is such a bare minimum, so it’s hard not to want it to be better.   

How do you think farming should be in ten years?   

I want farmers to be respected the way that doctors are, I want children to aspire to be farmers when they’re kids. I want a cultural 180. Why should physical labor be underestimated? Farmers are athletes, artists, scientists, preachers, philosophers, entrepreneurs – all careers that people respect.   

What misconception about farming annoys you most?   

There are so many. Like I mentioned earlier, that it’s romantic and glorious and that farmers love it all the time. And also that it’s a terrible lifestyle. That you can’t do it and be happy and have a life. Both sides are wrong and they’re not uniform and universal. I also think it’s annoying when farmers are seen as martyrs. You can be a bad farmer and a good person or a good farmer and a bad person. I'm not into the demonization of commercial growers. I see a lot of commercial farmers who are trapped in a system that they didn’t create and they don’t have the resources to get themselves away from that. And that’s related to the history of ag which is fraught with violence. People come to farming for such different reasons. Some come to loving food and food justice. But for me, the food aspect was the last part. I wanted to get away from rules and oppression, and food was a nice bonus. One of the things I like the most about farming is that I have more in common with someone who lives 200 years ago than a lot of people today. I can speak the same agrarian language from people across the world and across different times.  

Rag and Frass Farm. Photo credit: Kate Blohm

What can sustainable agriculture and conventional agriculture learn from each other?  

A lot. There’s a lot of common ground. I like finding common ground with people that are really different. The only real difference is the way people view certain resources and the economy. Conventional farmers are still plant and animal people, they just have different tools. There are only two reasons people are growing organic and/or sustainably: either you believe in it or you see the financial opportunity – and they’re both valid reasons. When I think about conventional growers who are thinking about transitioning, they usually see it from a financial standpoint. From some generations who grew up doing it a certain way, they may never see the tools in their toolbox as bad because they’ve been doing it forever. I’ve learned a lot from conventional farmers. They can teach sustainable/organic growers about efficiencies. There are a lot of things they can learn from each other. Having everyone around you say the same things isn’t always good. And different generations and types of farmers and different perspectives is a healthy thing. My neighbors who are spraying pesticides, I don’t feel like it would be helpful to get preachy about why they shouldn’t use the chemicals. It would be rude; this is their livelihood. Instead, let’s share our methods and work it out in a mutually beneficial way and learn from each other with communication and respect.  

Anything you want to say about Georgia Organics and the Accelerator program?   

I’m really happy and pleased to see GO doing more direct farmer services and reaching a diverse group of farmers - diverse in every way. For me, I always think about rural access and I’m happy to see there’s a lot of rural growers represented in the group and it’s nice to see rural farmers supported. Federal ag programs tend to leave out urban growers and sustainable growers. And non-profits tend to leave out rural growers. So, sustainable farmers in rural places get left out from support and opportunities a lot. In education, healthcare, childcare, internet access – there are a lot of specific challenges for rural populations and many of those challenges have not been addressed. I believe that is a big reason why you see the incredible polarization happening between urban and rural populations. That’s the next hugely significant issue that will continue to become more significant and we’re seeing the effects of that disparity in our political environment. Rural growers are not all young, hip people. A lot don’t have a computer and don’t have Instagram and don’t access the information they need because they’re not getting the benefit of celebration and being highlighted. I feel there’s a deeply ingrained stigma within this state about middle and south Georgia, so I appreciate that Georgia Organics and the Farmer Services team is prioritizing rural growers right now.   

Favorite farm lunch?   

Kale salad is a definite go-to in the spring/winter/fall. For summer, a tomato sandwich w watermelon & shishitos. For fall, I love sweet potato-poblano soup. But obviously, it depends on the season.  

Photos courtesy of Rag and Frass Farm

Small Bites, Big Impact: Spotlight on Erin Croom

By Caroline Croland

Farm field trips. Taste tastes. School gardens.

If your child has experienced in-depth farm to school experiences in Georgia, there is a good chance that they have Erin Croom to thank. Croom has spent her career studying, advocating for, and implanting farm to school programs.   

Courtesy of Small Bites Adventure Club. Photo credit: Kate Blohm.

“The day Erin Croom walked into the Georgia Organics office in the fall of 2006 was the day farm to school launched in Georgia,” says Alice Rolls, President and CEO of Georgia Organics. “She brought her Vermont farm to school experiences down South, and even though initially we didn't have money to pay her, her entrepreneurial spirit attracted allies and supporters in no time. Since then, literally millions of children have been positively touched by Erin's leadership and dedication to healthy foods, farms and families.”  

Croom was the Farm to School Director at Georgia Organics from 2008-2016 and has since founded Small Bites Adventure Club, a monthly subscription Taste Test Box for educators that help children discover their love for fruits and vegetables by giving them an opportunity to actively participate in the preparation of meals.  

Her work at Georgia Organics laid the ground work for our nationally recognized Farm to School and Farm to ECE programs.

Courtesy of Small Bites Adventure Club. Photo credit: Kate Blohm.

“I'm so proud of the work being done. The science supports it. And every dollar invested in young children around health and academics is paid back. I love seeing how Georgia has come out as a leader and how other States have used what we've created. I love getting calls from Hawaii and Alabama and North Carolina; other States that call and ask, ‘How did you do this, and can we replicate it?’ Croom says.

I sat down with Erin over zoom to talk about her Farm to School journey.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and what drew you into your work in nutrition education/Farm to School? 

Absolutely! I'm a huge Farm to School fan and co-founder of Small Bites Adventure Club. I was born and raised in Mississippi.  After graduating from college, I began an apprenticeship on one of the first organic farms in Alabama and immediately fell in love. I loved the hard work, I loved just the magic of growing good food, but more importantly, I really loved the community that the farm created through the volunteers that came out and the CSAs we delivered to families. 

One of my responsibilities was to organize school field trips as a value-added program for the farm. I loved observing children on the farm discovering that food comes from plants and the magic of that interaction between kids, food, and agriculture. I knew that there was something powerful there and that I wanted to dedicate my life to this work.

I attended the University of Vermont to pursue a master's degree where I could focus my research on Farm to School programs. (I froze my toes off.)  At the time, Vermont had one of the very first formal programs in the country, and I had the opportunity to evaluate the program and observe their leaders. 

 So when I moved to Georgia, my very first meeting was with Alice Rolls! (This was when the GO office was based out of a tiny office in the YMCA) I brought every research paper and book I had on the subject and told her I’d love to start a program in Georgia.  After a couple of years of volunteering and grant writing, we finally got the program off the ground! 

You were the Farm to School Director at Georgia Organics from 2008 to 2016, can you talk about that experience? How did Farm to School education across Georgia grow or shift during that time?

I love how farm to school went from being fringe to a more mainstream movement in the last decade. 

I absolutely loved working as the Farm to School Director. It was such a big part of my life, and I will always think of Georgia Organics and the entire Farm to School community as my extended family. 

When we began this work, many people thought Farm to School would never work, and could only be successful in places like Vermont and California. But that never deterred me-- I just knew if people understood it, they would get behind it. And they did! 

We started really small with a pilot program in two schools. The teachers and parents were very generous with their time, and I know we made a lot of mistakes. But we did a lot of things right, too. We definitely moved from a place of creating programming and just seeing what sticks, to listening to teachers and school nutrition staff to understand their needs and ideas. 

The National Farm to School Network used to track all the states with farm to school programs. In the beginning, it was just a handful of states. Today, farm to school is present in all 50 states, tribal territories, and DC.  I talk to the leaders in Hawaii, Washington, Alabama frequently for advice and resource sharing. It’s a big family. 

Check out our 2020 digital celebration of Golden Radish below!

What was the impact of Farm to School programs on districts that you worked with? 

The early days of farm to school coincided with a lot of negative press about school meals. However, we would visit schools, eat lunch and see a very different picture--  salads, local apples, and kale chips.  One of the greatest impacts was being able to lend a hand in showcasing their best practices and helping to change the narrative that school districts can and do serve fresh local food, but also that kids really love it. 

Harvest of the Month programs were popping up, and school communities really rallied around that.  I remember one principal in DeKalb dressed up as broccoli just to get the kids to eat it and it worked!  

I believe one of the biggest accomplishments is that farm to school became institutionalized and part of the way schools operate. But we still have so much more to do! 

What inspired you to create Small Bites Adventure Club?

Small Bites Adventure Club is a social impact venture and our mission is to help children discover, love and eat their fruits and vegetables. Our product, Taste Test Box, is a turn-key nutrition education tool that we ship to schools, clubs, and preschools. 

The CDC reports that 9 out of 10 children don’t eat enough vegetables.  We know that poor diet can lead to poor health in later life -- many times causing preventable disease like hypertension, Type II diabetes, and some cancers.  So laying the foundation for healthy eating while kids are young is critical. 

Courtesy of Small Bites Adventure Club. Photo credit: Kate Blohm.

We created Taste Test Box because teachers were always asking for resources to help them teach students about fruits and vegetables.  But, there was nothing on the market that we could just send teachers.   Our kits include all the fresh, pre-measured local ingredients to create and taste a simple delicious recipe. Recipes include Summer Salsa Fresca, Power Smoothies, Sweet Potato with Honey Mustard Dip. During Covid-19, our kits are simpler - like Apple Adventure or Turnip the Challenge. 

We also are very intentional with our purchases, and at least 50% of the food we purchase is from women and black and brown farmers. It’s important that the children we serve see themselves in the materials we provide, and that we are actively celebrating diversity.

Small Bites Adventure Club is not singularly focused on nutrition, but also on the simple joys and discovery of fruits and vegetables. And we feel like, what's better than the best food on earth- grown with love right here in Georgia!

The premise of farm to school education is that food can be a powerful tool for learning that can also inspire a lifetime of healthy eating habits.  Any advice for parents or caregivers on how to get their children engaged around meal prep, taste testing, and healthy eating?

Take kids shopping! Take them to the farm! Let them plant a seed and watch it grow.  When I take my kids shopping (even online now), I ask them to find something green, a root, something with leaves.  Don’t worry if they don’t eat all of it- exposure is the most important part when they are young. And be a good example. Show them you love to eat your veggies, or at least try them! And whatever you do, don’t force a kid to eat anything. You will never win. 

Honestly, my most important teachers are Chef Asata Reid and Jenna Mobley- so my advice is to follow them on Instagram! Or subscribe to our Small Bites boxes. We’ll have home kits available soon and they will be all sorts of fun. 

On some level, we all realize that food is more than nutrients and calories. Food is about sharing love and carrying on traditions. One of the activities that we do a lot in our workshops has people close their eyes and think about their favorite food memory. For me, I remember the smell of fresh bread from my next-door neighbor in Mississippi. And I hope that some of my kids’  favorite memories are going to the farmer's market with me or snapping green beans on a hot summer day.  

Courtesy of Small Bites Adventure Club.

You can learn more about Small Bites Adventure Club by visiting their website. Be sure to sign up for October Farm to School Month to get fact sheets, recipes, lessons, and activities.

Caroline Croland is the Fundraising Coordinator for Georgia Organics. She can be reached at carolinec@georgiaorganics.org.

Farm to Restaurant In Conversation: Local Lands and Arnette's Chop Shop

By Lauren Cox

If you know Local Lands and Atlanta Harvest, then you know that these two farms, owned and operated by the Ysrael family, make up a deeply-rooted and community-based part of our Georgia good food community. It may come as a surprise to discover that it was less than 10 years ago—2010, to be exact—when they packed their bags in Pennsylvania and moved down South.  

EliYahu and Asa Ysrael at Local Lands. Photo: MSNBC.

Steven Herman of Arnette’s Chop Shop.

This tidbit of knowledge was a common thread and bonding point for Arnette’s Chop Shop chef and owner Steven Herman the first time he was approached by Asa Ysrael to see if he was interested in sourcing local produce for the restaurant. “We instantly bonded over being Georgia transplants and our relationship has continued to deepen ever since.”  

In this Zoom interview with Farm to Restaurant farm Local Lands (Atlanta Harvest), EliYahu Ysrael and chef Steven talk about the importance of farmers and chefs working together to transform the local food movement. “It all boils down to relationships and the mutual respect we have for one another’s work,” EliYahu says. “We’re both super busy people with so many balls in the air that sometimes it’s hard to slow down and make time just to talk but that, ironically, is one of the most important things you can do as a farm trying to sell to a restaurant.”  

Check out the conversation here…

To learn more about the Farm to Restaurant program, visit farmtorestaurant.georgiaorganics.org/

Connect with Local Lands: https://www.locallands.net/

Connect with Arnette's Chop Shop: http://arnetteschopshop.com/

Hometown Harvest: An Heirloom Garden for Food and Appalachian Heritage

By Yaza Sarieh

Purple potatoes. White cucumbers. Heirloom tomatoes. While you may have never come across these produce varieties, they have been harvested for decades in the Appalachian Mountains of Georgia. The Hometown Harvest project in Lumpkin County, Georgia is an heirloom garden intended to preserve produce unique to this region while educating children about nutrition and the ancestral foods grown in Appalachia.  

During the summer of 2019, University of North Georgia Biology and Ecology Professor Dr. David Patterson and his wife were delivering meals to schoolchildren in Lumpkin County. While interacting with the children and their families, Dr. Patterson noticed that they did not have any access to fresh produce. He began to work with Lumpkin County School Nutrition Director Julie Knight-Brown, who has worked around the state for over 16 years in childhood nutrition and wellness. While striving for the Golden Radish Award, Julie was exploring ways to increase wellness, food, and nutrition education in all aspects of school programs.  

Photo courtesy of Hometown Harvest.

“Every School Nutrition Director hopes to get a Golden Radish Award each year. Students in Lumpkin County have a very hands-on educational experience, and I wanted to find ways to incorporate that with nutrition” said Knight-Brown.  Hometown Harvest

In collaboration with Dr. Rosann Kent in the Appalachian Studies Department at the University of North Georgia, Dr. Patterson and Julie began the Hometown Harvest Project to supply Lumpkin County Schools with a surplus of fresh fruits and vegetables, while propagating heirloom seeds to support the preservation of Appalachian food heritage.   

Hometown Harvest is not just any community heirloom garden. It is a space for students to experiment with the latest gardening technologies and best gardening practices for school and community plots. The Hometown Harvest heirloom garden utilizes a precision agriculture system, which takes daily readings on the garden to determine crop needs, such as the pH levels of the soil or the amount of water necessary for ideal growing conditions. Additionally, the garden uses a rainwater system, which helps to cut the cost of utilities. These strategies have made it possible for the Hometown Harvest garden to supply fruit and vegetable donations, while also maintain the garden without large expense.  

Photo courtesy of Hometown Harvest.

Photo courtesy of Hometown Harvest.

Students in Lumpkin County have experienced the garden in multiple ways. Hometown Harvest has provided over 150 pounds of fresh produce for school meals in Lumpkin County. Their favorite food from the garden has been the cherry tomatoes, which can be found at the cafeteria salad bar alongside other crops such as spinach, broccoli, or kale. The garden produce has provided students the chance to try unknown fruits and vegetables, such as kohlrabi or rutabaga, in addition to experiential learning opportunities. For instance, students used the garden to conduct experiments about pollinators and their importance to plant life cycles. Hometown Harvest has been a source of enrichment not only for student’s health and nutrition but also for real world application of classroom knowledge.  

The Hometown Harvest project has enabled students not only to learn about growing their own food but also to grasp the importance of nature in Appalachian heritage. This heirloom Garden has engaged members of the Lumpkin County community from all walks of life, with individuals coming together to plant seeds that have been passed down for generations and to tell stories about regional traditions and practices. As an ecologist, Dr. Patterson has found it interesting that the knowledge of gardening is inherent among many community members.  

He mentioned how many of the school lunch workers have contributed key insight into growing and harvesting produce without any formalized training, reflecting, “The staff from the Lumpkin County School System have a rich history in gardening and they come to the heirloom garden to tell me everything I should be doing for the crops. They have lots of tricks in terms of planting and harvesting, and I enjoy learning from their knowledge.”   

Additionally, he discussed how many heirloom seeds have evolved over the generations because various individuals have artificially selected plant traits and propagated new produce varieties without even realizing it. Dr. Patterson cited the rich bean tradition as an example of this phenomenon—Appalachian families have been growing their very own unique bean varieties that can only be found in this region of the world.

The most rewarding component of the heirloom garden for Dr. Patterson and Julie has been the opportunity to introduce children to new types of produce while making fresh fruits and vegetables more accessible.  

Julie acknowledged, “I love being able to feature the garden produce in the schools. It is a great way to connect the kids with the community and show them new vegetables they may have never known about. They are even educating their parents on the healthy produce they try at school!”  

Furthermore, it has united the community during the COVID- 19 pandemic, as dedicated volunteers have continued gardening and spreading knowledge of Appalachian culture.

If you are interested in creating a garden at your school, Dr. Patterson and Julie recommend reaching out to others—both kids and community members. Try engaging your student’s interest and planting produce that they would be excited to eat. Additionally, contact other gardeners, schools, or organizations such as Georgia Organics, to learn about starting a garden and get support for your project. The Hometown Harvest project in Lumpkin has been an amazing way to supply food and to connect folks through a garden that will continue to keep on giving for generations to come.  

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For more information or to get involved, please contact Julie Knight-Brown with Lumpkin County Schools at julie.knightbrown [at] lumpkinschools.com. 

Yaza Sarieh is a contractor for Farm to School at Georgia Organics. To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit www.georgiaorganics.org and follow us on Instagram @GeorgiaOrganics, Twitter @GeorgiaOrganics, and at www.Facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics. 

Farm to School Month Educator Spotlight: Jenna Mobley

By Caroline Croland

Fall is in the air, and Georgia Organics is excited to kick off our October Farm to School month by talking to a seasoned farm to school advocate and expert educator about how to engage kids around eating healthy foods.    

Jenna Mobley is truly a farm to school rock star, and we’re so grateful for her work educating and engaging with young Georgians around healthy, local food.

Jenna Mobley and student. Photos courtesy of Jenna Mobley.

“Farm to School Month is all about creating access points for educators that maybe don't see themselves as having a green thumb or have never taught in a classroom. People tend to worry that they don’t have enough experience with gardening, or don't know how to cook—all of that is okay! All of this work is accessible to everyone at all experience levels and interest levels,” says Mobley.  

Jenna received the Presidential Innovation Award for Educators from President Barack Obama in 2015. She began her career in education in 2008 and has since become a leading provider and advocate of increasing educational resources in the areas of social justice, food access, and environmental education.  

As a grade-school teacher, Mobley was struck by what a powerful tool food could be in the classroom and what a profound impact being in the garden had on her students. The passion and excitement she observed in her students around activities was undeniable.

“I could just tell that this was the sort of context where the kids were genuinely curious, engaged, and excited about the academic concept that we were learning,” said Mobley.  

Georgia Organics is lucky enough to have Jenna as one of our teacher trainers.  

“Jenna Mobley is the teacher we all wish we had as a kid, and the one who truly gets us as adults. She's a fantastic teacher of all age groups and helps our farm to school team train educators across the state of Georgia. Jenna brings lessons to life; whether she's cutting fruits into fractions, turning taste tests into theme paper topics, or simply sharing her love of growing gardens. We are thrilled to have her on our Georgia Organics Farm to School team,” says Kimberly Della Donna, the Farm to School Director at Georgia Organics.  

We sat down with Jenna over Zoom to talk about what drives her work, her journey with Farm to School, tips on how to get kids excited about eating healthy…and alien spaceships in the garden.   

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and what drew you to your work in education and food access?   

Absolutely! I have been a public school teacher for 12 years. I worked primarily in Atlanta Public Schools as a first-grade teacher, second-grade teacher, and then a fourth-grade teacher.  

I currently work as the Education Director for Community Farmer's Markets, and I am also a teacher trainer for Captain Planet Foundation, Life Lab, FoodCorp, and Georgia Organics.  

The first unit to inspire me in this work was a Johnny Appleseed unit that I was teaching to my first-grade class. I quickly realized that food was the one thing that every single one of my kids could get excited about, every single one of my kids regardless of background or their prior knowledge all got excited about eating together.  

First grade standards also include George Washington Carver, so we followed that up with a lesson on growing sweet potatoes, which we planted in May. Then when they came back as second graders we would go back out there and harvest them. It was truly such a light bulb moment because every child absolutely loved being outside, loved being in the fresh air.  

I could just tell that this was the sort of context where the kids were genuinely curious, engaged, and excited about the academic concept that we were learning. They also had a lot fewer behavior problems. Not only because the kids were excited, but also because they were getting a chance to move their bodies and practice their fine motor and gross motor skills. I was excited to see them eating better off the cafeteria line. There were just these amazing outcomes that came into play. It was also an opportunity to get the parents more involved—we formed a Wednesday group where all the grandparents came to weed up the garden with us on Wednesday.  

Teaching through food brought about all these amazing things within my little 28 kids in my classroom year after year after year, so I kept growing with it. My passion for the work grew over the years, and eventually, President Obama awarded me the Presidential Innovation Award for Educators in 2015. That’s when I started doing teacher training all over the country and began focusing my work more on curriculum development. It was a real big shift when our president at the time took the effort to acknowledge one little teacher in her one little sphere, and now I feel like the work has been able to reach a lot more people.  

With all of the upheaval in education created by the COVID-19 pandemic, what does the future of Farm to School education access look like?   

There are a couple of big things that have changed. One thing is that a lot of this experiential sensory learning used to happen at schools and with teachers. They were the folks that were in there, had access to these kids, and these materials and could create these experiences together.  

With the onset of the pandemic, that has shifted profoundly. Now we have homeschool teachers, pod leaders, tutors, mentors, parents, caregivers, and after school caregivers taking on a much bigger role in a child’s day to day learning. We have so many different adults that are working with children now that this work can be extended throughout our communities in a really beautiful way. We're reaching a lot of folks that maybe did not know about farm to school before, or have never thought about using food as a mindfulness and learning tool. It’s very exciting actually that now that work is spreading deeper into these communities instead of just being focused on teachers.  

When we talk about what is shifting, it's hard to tell what will also shift back. One of the things that have shifted right now is that, as a teacher, I am not the one gathering the materials for 28 children. Instead of me gathering all the apples and having all the apples ready to go, I will tell the kids and the caregivers about a week in advance that we are going to do a taste test with apples. I am intentional with telling them that I want to see if all of you guys can go out into your communities, go to the grocery store, go to the farmers market, and see if you can have an apple ready for our lesson on Tuesday.  

We're still doing the different exercises, we're still estimating the diameter then measuring the diameter. We're still doing our fractions and cutting up in different parts to share with our friends. We're still using all of our senses and writing our thoughts about apples. We're still doing all those things, we're just not in the same room. That's been pretty neat to sort of figure out how to put that piece of finding your materials on the caregivers and students when it's accessible.  

Of course, it is created some barriers where we come up with solutions to where we can deliver some of these things to the home so that everyone still has equal access. For those who can access local food that has the privilege of a schedule and transportation to get to local farmers markets, it has been a nice push to get them to local farmers markets to try it out, to meet farmers to get a certain apple so that they can come together with me to do this lesson plan.   

But, in a lot of ways, this has created equity gaps or has continued to perpetuate these equity gaps. And I think that's something extremely important for farm to school work to be thinking about. For all these opportunities that we offer, we need to have the materials available to address the gaps as well.   

Since the pandemic began and schools closed, many parents and caregivers are finding themselves taking a more active role in the day to day education. Could you give our readers tips on how to best engage kids with lessons around healthy eating?    

Parents and caregivers are absolutely the experts on their kids and feeding their kids. And they do it all day every day. It can be tricky and challenging because kids of all ages, including the senior citizens that I work with, can find trying new foods to be scary.  

I think one of the starting places would be to always remember that it can take kids many opportunities to try something. And to not just try it through eating, but to experience something in different ways before they are ready to do something like stick it in their mouth.  

This could be reading a book about turnips and growing turnips and painting turnips because they're such a cool color. Then also looking at turnips and sorting all of the turnips and dividing all the turnips between all the different family members, make sure everyone gets an equal amount. Then building this up. So by the time we eat it, you're going to love these things!  

This includes opportunities for the whole family to be involved. For example, scrubbing vegetables with brushes is a great task for even our smallest kids.   

I would also encourage caregivers to invite kids to try lots of different varieties of turnips. I think even as adults what we do oftentimes is we say, "Oh I tried apples once and I did not like them." But their biodiversity offers us so many different varieties with so many different tastes and texture profiles that it's nice to be able to introduce right off the bat, here are lots of different varieties of radishes. Which one do you like more or less?  

Then when you're trying those different varieties, and I should say preparation styles too. That could be raw turnips, roasting turnips, sautéing turnips. But it could even be just the way you cut the turnips. It could be the way that you do carrots in coins or that you grate carrots or that you do them in match sticks because that texture makes a difference, it can make a difference to a kid.   

All of those variations will get kids closer to feeling like they have some choice on which one they want to try first, next, and last. It'll also help develop this sort of sense that it's not a dichotomy between, yes I like it or no I don't. It's more an idea of which one do you like more? Would you like it prepared differently? Would you like to try a different variety? And it's also a way to give kids some language to describe food. I think that's a lot of what we miss about food is we just eat it to be hungry in the car on the way to soccer practice; we don't talk about it.   

But if we can have those conversations—let's say we're tasting a radish—and if we have that conversation of “what do you like about it?” “Oh, it's crunchy…” “I like crunchy things too!” It's crunchy like a carrot. That is a really fun part of this radish. Questions like: What else do you taste in it? Oh is it too spicy for you? Is this one less spicy? Is this one sweeter? With these, you can kind of hone in on what exactly what you like or dislike. Is it the spiciness that isn't your favorite, or is this one not crunchy enough? Maybe this apple is too mealy. It just helps create a lot more of this gradient between I don't like it, I do like it. There are all of these things in between. All these different preparation styles, all these different textures, and the way that you talk about this vegetable. And there are all these different ways to describe the taste and the texture in these gradients. "It's not my favorite, but I would try it again," to "That is my favorite, I love it."  

Can you give us an example of an exercise you use with your students?   

We like to do a mindfulness exercise from the book “Before We Eat” by Pat Brisson.  

In our classes, we do three different contemplations before we eat. The first contemplation is that this food is a gift of the earth, sky, sun, and rain. Amazingly, it started as a small seed, and then this soil and the sun and the water and the air all came together to create this carrot? That is cool. And when you can get kids just amazed at that miracle, that's already pretty incredible.  

Then the second contemplation is, "As we sit around this table, let's give thanks, because we are able. To all the farmers we'll someday meet that help grow this food we eat." The second part of the contemplation is not only is it amazing that it came from this little seed and grew up into this thing we can eat, but also “let's take a moment of gratitude for all the humans that have something to do with this getting to your plate. Someone planted this and cared for it and harvested it and packed it up and took it to the farmers market, then someone purchased this for you and brought it home, and someone prepared this.”

Then the third contemplation that we do with our kids is that this food will give us the energy to be more loving and understanding. And if we can get that big idea across, that this food will give us this energy and it will help us be our best selves that makes a lot more sense to a lot of kids than the concept of “healthy” eating.  

Can you share a story from your work that profoundly impacted you?  

If I had to pick one, I think one of my favorites is the story of when we grew kohlrabi. Because we just got these seedlings donated from Nicholas at Crystal Organics Farm, who has always been so generous to us and our school garden. He'd bring us all these seedlings, and some of them were labeled. We misplaced the label and we had no absolutely any idea what we were growing, but we put this thing in the ground and watched this vegetable grow for weeks. And it grew this massive purple and green bulb right at the base. Every day we'd go out there and look at this thing, and all the kids would be like, "Miss Mobley, what is that thing?" And I honestly had no idea. I was not kidding with them, I just actually didn't know.  

 We spent all these weeks just asking questions about it and wondering about it and wondering what's inside. Each of us made a prediction about what was inside, and we wrote all these stories on it, it was cool. Because some of the kids were like, "Oh when we cut inside all these little aliens are going to come out, and this is their spaceship."  

As the kohlrabi grew, we couldn’t figure out what it was. I ended up having to facetime my Dad, who is a gardener, one day with one of my second-grade classes. I was like, "All right dad, we've been watching this thing grow for eight weeks. I don't even know how to Google what this thing is. I don't know how to figure out what it is, I genuinely don't know what it is." So I held the thing up to my dad, and he was like, "Oh, that's kohlrabi."   

Anyway, the thing that stood out to me about this kohlrabi is when it was finally time to cut it up and see what was inside and taste it, there was just this amazing intense curiosity about this thing. And that stuck with me—building intrinsic curiosity and excitement in our food.

We always do some fractions or data about our class. That day, we took a poll and asked, "Who has ever tasted kohlrabi before?" And of course, it was zero out of 28. No one even knew what this was. Then we asked how many kids tasted it that day. Twenty-seven out of 28 of my kids tasted it that day, which was incredible. That was good for us. Even that jump just goes to show the big leap that curiosity can do.  

I felt like that day showed the impact of having a hand in growing something and watching it grow. The willingness to try something brand new was just through the roof. Not only that, but their interest in trying it again! We don't always get data that good. But that day showed me what an impact these exercises can have. 

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To learn more about Tending Our Common Ground, visit www.facebook.com/TendingOurCommonGround and instagram.com/tendingourcommonground.. To learn more about Community Farmers Markets, visit https://cfmatl.org/.

Jenna is also a frequent photography contributor with her beautiful images of farmers, farm to school happenings, farmers markets, and much more via Jenna Shea Photography.

Caroline Croland is the Fundraising Coordinator at Georgia Organics. To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit www.georgiaorganics.org and follow us on Instagram @GeorgiaOrganics, Twitter @GeorgiaOrganics, and at www.Facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics. 

It's Time to #TurnipTheVolume! Welcome to October Farm to School Month!

Welcome to October Farm to School Month 2020! We at Georgia Organics can’t wait to celebrate the wonderful turnip with you, our Farm to School family.

Let’s #TurnipTheVolume!! …Can you dig it?

If you haven’t signed up yet, don’t worry, you can still register at bit.ly/turnipthevolume throughout the month of October to receive our abundance of FREE resources and start planting today. And don’t forget, these resources are curriculum-based for in-school use, but they’re also perfect for parents looking to engage their children via at-home learning!

The pandemic has disrupted the learning and back-to-school rhythm for students across Georgia and our nation, increasing screen time and stress. We sincerely hope these resources provide students with time to get outside or get into the kitchen to engage with delicious, healthy, home-grown, and farm fresh foods!

Here are some examples of the available resources for Farm to School month, and, if you haven’t already, join us by registering at bit.ly/turnipthevolume! Below, you’ll also find details on our weekly webinars and weekly social media giveaways!

OCTOBER FARM TO SCHOOL MONTH 2020 WITH GEORGIA ORGANICS: TURNIP THE VOLUME! (CAN YOU DIG IT?)

Here are some of the FREE resources, recipes, videos and more you’ll receive when you sign up for October Farm to School Month at bit.ly/turnipthevolume!

FACT SHEETS

Kids of all ages will gain a whole new appreciation of this humble root vegetable through a variety of fact sheets on topics such as growing turnips, turnip varieties, history, nutrition, and more! Fact sheets available in English and Spanish!

RECIPES

The brilliant Chef Asata is joining us for another exciting October Farm to School Month and shows us so many yummy ways to enjoy the turnip! Get ready to #turnipthevolume in the kitchen with some amazing video tutorials and printable recipes!

LESSONS

Our team has developed over 40 curriculum-based lessons—made for early care, grades K through 12, and Special Needs—that cover all things turnip! Learn how to grow, craft with, and taste delicious turnips while covering subjects from STEM to grammar to the arts.

ACTIVITIES

Feeling a little stir crazy? Get up and have some fun with turnips today! These activity sheets will keep up the turnip fun for the whole family.

WEEKLY WEBINARS

Tune in and #turnipthevolume with Georgia Organics every week! Via our online learning platform, Good Food for Thought, you can join our Farm to School team and friends as we engage even further with October Farm to School month resources and help you get the most out of our resources! To view the full schedule and register for these FREE webinars, visit https://gfft.georgiaorganics.org/virtual-events.

And tune in to our recent Good Food for Thought webinar kick-off October Farm to School Month and reviewing all of the great resources:

SOCIAL SWEEPSTAKES

We want to see your turnip fun! Tag Georgia Organics on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter using the hashtag #turnipthevolume for your chance to win weekly prizes, including a grand prize at the end of the month! Weekly prizes will include gift cards for Farm to School materials, face masks from our partners at Georgia Farm Bureau and Farm to School books.

Weekly winners announced each week on Tuesday. Georgia residents only. By participating, you consent to Georgia Organics featuring your photo on Georgia Organics marketing channels. This giveaway is in no way endorsed or sponsored by Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. Giveaway ends 11:59 p.m. on October 31.

STAY TUNED AS WE CELEBRATE FARM TO SCHOOL MONTH UPDATES ON SOCIAL MEDIA!

WE CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOUR #TURNIPTHEVOLUME FUN!

Farm to School Spotlight: A Conversation with School Nutrition Manager Larry Jackson

By Caroline Croland 

The COVID-19 pandemic shines a blinding spotlight on the indispensable role that schools play in our society. An ecosystem of dedicated individuals, from teachers to faculty to administrators keeps our youth learning, growing, and fed.  

Georgia Organics would like to take a moment to spotlight a school nutrition manager who is committed to integrating fresh, nutritionally dense, delicious local food from Georgia farms, and their very own school garden, into the cafeteria and classrooms. This dedicated individual leads the day-to-day operations which keeps Furlow Charter School children nourished throughout the school year. 

Today we are honoring Larry Jackson, School Nutrition Manager of Furlow Charter School.  

Larry Jackson, School Nutrition Manager of Furlow Charter School

“Larry Jackson is one of the hardest working, most loved and lovable school nutrition managers in the state of Georgia...maybe the country,” says Kimberly Della Donna, Georgia Organics Farm to School Director, whose eyes light up when I mention his name.  

Della Donna first began working with Jackson in 2017, right after our Farm to School team added the Platinum level to our Golden Radish awards.  

“He told me that Sumter County would be the first to win the Platinum award that year. They did, and they've won the Platinum Award each year since. Larry has played a critical role on the Furlow Charter School Farm to School team, made up of school and nutrition leadership, teachers, and community members. The team works together to create a comprehensive farm to school program where every grade has an outdoor learning garden,” Della Donna recalls.  

Additionally, the school nutrition team recently added a FoodCorps Service member, who helps teach gardening lessons. An innovative fundraiser with a local coffee roaster and Georgia Organics member Cafe Campesino, "School Grounds" provides financial support to the program.  

The National School Nutrition Association, recognizing Jackson’s exceptional efforts, awarded him Southeast Region School Nutrition Manager of the Year Award in 2018.  

“Larry is an ambassador of goodwill and school food in his community, ensuring that all his students eat well, learns about their food and nutrition, and enjoy themselves. I'm privileged to know and work with him and I'm inspired by his passion for community service,” says Della Donna.  

We sat down with Larry via Zoom to talk to him about his life, his work, the effects of the pandemic, and his passion for school nutrition.  

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Larry, tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your role as a school nutrition manager. 

I've been school nutrition now for seven years. Before that, I was the Assistant Director of Food Service at the local hospital here for 35 years. I have almost 47 years in foodservice. School nutation is completely different but I love it. I wish I'd have spent my 35 years here as school nutrition manager, I absolutely love and wouldn’t go anywhere else. It's just a pleasure being on this mission for school nutrition. 

I'm married with seven grandchildren. The smallest one just turned six—she’s my baby. I've been married for 35 years to an RN. She's head of the dialysis clinic here in Americus. They inspire me every day in doing this work.  

COVID-19 has upended business as usual for schools with the closures earlier this year and the questions around re-opening schools this fall. How has the school nutrition program been operating through these closures? Were you still able to reach students?

Yes. I was a part of Sumter County’s summer feeding program, which operated throughout the school closures in the spring. We had three schools participating in the program. Some of those kids do not have enough to eat. You do have to get up early in the morning but I didn't mind! When I saw those smiles on those kids' faces, it was a powerful experience.  

I made sure they got all the needed components in there because I'm a nut about making sure they get their fruit and their vegetables. This is something my grandson always notices. He says, "You must work at a school cafeteria, Grandad." I say, "Yes I do." 

Nothing beats in-person learning, of course. We're starting some distance learning and some in classrooms. It fills my heart when I get to see students and they say, "Hey Mr. Larry. I can't wait to eat!" That’s what brings joy to me when little kids recognize you and know that you're helping feed them. Granted, I don't do it by myself but that just amazes me when they still know your name after six, seven months we've been out. It just blows me away, I love it. 

What inspires you about this work?  

Developing relationships with my scholars (we call our students scholars) and parents. My years in hospital work cemented my belief that food is medicine, so I love seeing kids develop in their relationship to food.  

I love doing activities that help kids get excited about food—even if it’s just putting a bit of food coloring in some applesauce and watching them get excited about the color change. I love hearing their feedback—if they like something or if they don’t. If they don’t like it, we're going to see what we can do about it. We want these kids to eat, not just look at food. I always say, “feed your mouth, not the trashcan!” 

I do what we call table touch. I go out there and sit down with those students, sit down with a class, and taste food with them. Or I sit there and ask them questions. I love to go out and mingle with them and see what their thoughts are. 

I'll talk to the parents as they are driving up, picking up their kids to pick up or go to school. I go out there to the parents and say, "Excuse me. I'm the manager of the cafeteria. I'd just like to know if you have any problems, have any questions you want to ask me." And if they tell me my child doesn't like this or like that. I tell them, “well let me see what I can do.” So I like to be transparent as much as I can. 

I am inspired by the feedback I get as well. They dedicated this year's yearbook to me, which that's been a rare occasion that a cafeteria worker, it’s usually it'll be for teachers. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that would happen. I said, "Oh my God." They say a man ain't supposed to cry but I was a crying man. 

Do you have any guidance or words of advice for parents or fellow educators on how to connect with students?  

I like to tell people about my personal experience being a type 2 diabetic because that is what taught me about eating right. Eating right simply makes you feel better. I love sharing my journey with people.  

I always connect with my scholars and parents and ask them to reach out to me directly and talk about what they are eating at home. I go to PTA meetings, school board meetings, and parent meetings. I can ensure that they eat a good school meal here but want to ensure that they are taken care of once they get home.  

Can you talk a bit about your experience of being an advocate for Farm to School programs in Georgia? How has Georgia Organics impacted your work?  

Georgia Organics always has so many tools that you can use. I never get too old to learn anything. I have enjoyed going to your annual Conference & Expo. Every time I come home from one I can’t wait to share with my team, "This is what I learned at Georgia Organics. This is why they're doing this. This is how they're doing farm-to-school." 

I also love getting to connect with and talk to farmers. We have invited farmers to come to our school and our schools to give talks. I appreciate what they're doing. They're going through a lot. I appreciate what it takes to get up every morning and milk a cow. They show kids how milk doesn't just pop up in that container. There's a process to go through and those kids are always fascinated. "Okay. I see the while milk coming out there but where are the chocolate cows at?" 

We also love the support we get with our gardens. It is amazing doing taste testing for the kids. They go out and do a little gardening and then whatever they plant, we bring it in there. We can't feed the whole school but we'll bring that class in and we'll cook it and let them taste it. And you'll be amazed. The Golden Radish is really, that kicked off to me the farm-to-school approach and we are so thankful for all the active learning the kids get to do out in the garden. 

You can learn more about our Farm to School programs by visiting our website. Be sure to sign up for October Farm to School month for free lessons, activates, and recipes. This year’s theme is “Turnip the Volume: Can you Dig it?” and features lessons for pre-k through high school.

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To learn more about Furlow Charter, visit www.furlowcharter.org/ and follow on social media at www.instagram.com/furlowcharterschoolfalcons/ and www.facebook.com/FurlowCharter/.

Caroline Croland is the Fundraising Coordinator at Georgia Organics. To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit www.georgiaorganics.org and follow us on Instagram @GeorgiaOrganics, Twitter @GeorgiaOrganics, and at www.Facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.