Farm Tours
(This listing is not really a grower, but it is enabling our Farm Tour volunteer, Marc Tissenbaum, use of our website to take reservations and add information about our 2008 monthly farm tours and work days.)
Please join us as Athens Locally Grown hosts five monthly Farmer for a Day tours. Each month, participants will visit a different sustainable farm to gain insight into some of the low-impact agricultural methods used in our community. They will also be able to match faces and names with farms that provide fresh, chemical-free goods to Athens area markets, restaurants, and individuals.
In addition, the farmers will receive some much-deserved recognition while getting a little help and potentially picking up a few new customers.
All in all, it will help individuals create an even stronger sense of community in Athens, GA.
One Saturday a month from May through September, we will meet at our host farm at 10am. From 10 to noon, participants will get to see first-hand what goes into producing their food by helping with small, fun and interesting projects the grower will have prepared. We’ll then have lunch (free for all volunteers) followed by a full tour of the farm.
Each tour is limited to 35 participants on a first-come-first-served basis. You can sign up here at the Locally Grown site while you’re shopping, or if you have additional questions you can contact Marc Tissenbaum by emailing farmerforaday@gmail.com
Directions will be provided and carpools will be organized for each individual tour.
The list of farms and dates are as follows:
- Nature’s Harmony, May 31
- Dancing Sprout, June 21
- Roots, July 26
- Cedar Grove, August 23
- Backyard Harvest, September 21
- Boann’s Banks, October 18
To help you choose a tour that interests you, here are place descriptions, mainly in the farmers’ own words:
May 31, Nature’s Harmony (Elberton)
We are a new, sustainable farm located in Elberton, GA, about 2 hours east of Atlanta, operated by Tim and Liz Young.
In 2006, we joined a growing movement of people who have grown tired of the industrial system. Like you, we wanted to know where our food comes from, be assured that the animals lived freely and happily as long as they are alive, and be assured that no growth hormones, antibiotics or chemical fertilizers are used anywhere. Unfortunately, there aren’t many farms like that in Georgia, so we set out to start our own on 72 acres of pasture and hardwoods.
We specialize naturally raised grass-fed beef, pastured poultry and eggs, rare-breed free foraging Ossabaw and Berkshire pork, heritage turkey and pastured lamb, and offer these delicious products to customers who want to buy local where they can see how their food is grown. We believe in total transparency, so anyone is invited to visit our farm and see how the animals are raised.
June 21, Dancing Sprout (Athens)
Set on 15 acres in east Athens, Dancing Sprout Farm provides locally grown vegetables and cut flowers. In our first year of production, we are focusing on delivering quality products using sustainable, all-natural growing methods.
July 26, Roots Farm (Winterville)
The Roots Farm works to provide food that nourishes both body and spirit while caring for the land and the Earth that sustains us. We strive to bring people together in fellowship and learning and celebration. Our desire is to cultivate connection through four areas of focus: food, ecology, education, and community.
August 23, Cedar Grove (Stephens)
Cedar Grove Farm, located in Oglethorpe county near Stephens, GA, is a family run operation. Jay and Marlene Payne and son Dylan are working with the goal of building a sustainable, organic farm to provide healthy, fresh, great tasting produce to the locavores in the Athens area. The farm is a 95 acre tract with currently 3 acres in garden and includes the family home, a small pond and the remainder in pasture and woods held under a Georgia Conservation Use Assessment.
The garden continues to be a work in progress with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables grown year round plus fresh eggs from a small flock of free ranging chickens. The selection of produce is tailored for the local Saturday morning Athens Green Market and Athens Locally Grown internet co-op including basic favorites such as salads, greens, tomatoes, okra, beans, squash, spinach, zucchini, eggplant, strawberries, figs, raspberries, melons, etc., etc. A couple of peoples’ choices in our first several years at the market were the fresh shelled black eyed peas and butter beans. An asparagus bed has been planted that will produce a first harvest this spring and a hoophouse has been put into operation for growing a variety of salads, spinach and arugula through the winter.
September 21, Backyard Harvest (Lexington)
Backyard Harvest has been providing the Athens area with sustainably grown produce since 1995. We are located on 18 acres in Oglethorpe County with about 4 acres in fruit, vegetable, herb and cut flower production. Join us and learn how we grow tasty treats in our Backyard.
October 18, Boann’s Banks (Royston)
Boánn’s Banks is a natural farm in Franklin County, Georgia. We specialize in growing heirloom and open pollinated vegetables and eggs from day range poultry. During the growing season (roughly May 1 through October 31), our produce is available through the Athens-area Locally Grown cooperative and occasionally at the Athens Green Market at Big City Bread (on the corner of Meigs and Finley) on Saturday mornings from 7:30 to 12:30.
We practice sustainable agriculture, which means applying only natural fertilizers and pesticides, and using techniques that conserve soil and water quality. The result is food as nature intended: fresh, full of nutrients, and produced without harm. We are not USDA certified organic, but we do not use any methods not allowed by the organics standards. As of January 1, 2004, our farm is Certified Naturally Grown.
The plants we grow are those preserved from generation to generation that your grandparents and their grandparents enjoyed. They were bred over the years for their taste and natural resistance to pests and disease. They’re nothing like what you’ll find at the grocery store. The chickens we raise are a variety of breeds from the nation’s leader in poultry breed preservation. They won’t lay uniformly sized pure white eggs, but the eggs they lay will be the best tasting eggs you’ve ever had. They’re fed only natural grains and the greens and bugs they hunt for themselves.
There you have it. These area farmers are providing an increasing share of our local food supply. Please do you part to help them expand by participating in one of these tours and buying Locally Grown foods.
I hope to see you there. And again, please contact me if you have any questions.
Marc Tissenbaum
farmerforaday@gmail.com