The Localvore Movement: Behind the Scenes at The Dirt Farmers

I drove down Wesleyan Drive, right in the middle of Macon, Georgia- just a stones throw from the “new” mall. A stones throw from one of the best examples of commercial consumerism is where a movement is taking place.

 

Pull up the driveway and park in the front yard with several other cars, and walk to the back. There’s a bustle of activity going on as people walk around bundled up with warm clothes in pairs with clip boards, buzzing like bees around a hive. I was warned to make sure I wore thick socks and a fleece- it could get cold in there and the Farmer might forget to give me a heads up. I had a knit cap in my jacket pockets just in case.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How did I get here? It’s called…. I opened my big ol mouth a while ago. As per usual. And told Joe at The Dirt Farmers I was interested in writing a piece here about what they were doing. And then life caught up and I get busy. And then there was a note in my Dirt Farmers CSA box:

 

 

 

 

Whoops. Time to make it happen.

 

So this is how I found myself a little bit out of my element, watching everyone scurry around with clipboards- filling boxes. It was packing day.

 

 

 

 

Joe came to greet me, and walked me around the farm. The plans are massive here. Did you know Bibb County has no farms? No farms in Bibb County. How far we have come from the 1940’s, when this patch of land The Dirt Farmers now sits on was originally planned out as a farm. Back when the government paid subsidies to families to farm their own produce and chickens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s plans for a children’s garden here- something that kids can come out to and learn about. So they can see where their food comes from. Joe tells me he’s had kids tell me they think Kroger is a farm.

 

So, how did Joe become so passionate about this? Where did it all begin?

 

He tells me, to paraphrase, that there’s a dirty little secret about commercial agriculture- many times, farmers have one patch of land they farm for themselves…. and then they’ve got what they sell to consumers. But let’s back up a bit.

 

Joe is unassuming, he’s not out to promote himself, and in the days of using one’s own persona to promote a cause or product (guilty- right here and now) even his Facebook profile photo doesn’t show his face. It is the cause that he gets behind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I went to The Dirt Farmer’s headquarters, for lack of a better term, Joe told me how this first became his passion. He worked in food service, and many times would get to go to these commercial farms. Big and expansive- you could see beautiful produce as far as your eye would carry you. And it was on impulse that he reached down to take a bite of that beautiful produce before someone brought him to a screeching halt: that was not for immediate consumption.

 

Why? It had been sprayed with pesticides, and would be sold to the consumer. There was another patch down the way that the farmer would eat directly from.

 

Now, why would we do this? Why sell a product to a consumer that one cannot enjoy straight from the source, because it’s been genetically modified or sprayed with pesticides?

 

This is where the journey began. Joe, out of his home, buying up items from local farmers and delivering them in simple red sacks to the first round of subscribers. It has evolved from that first round of believers, people who wanted organic, locally sourced items but perhaps couldn’t get to the markets- two nearly 300 subscribers who place their orders online and either pick them up from drop off points or have them delivered to their doors.

 

 

 

 

 

Mine comes to my door.

 

It can be easy to take for granted how it gets there.

 

And so I found myself, walking the farm acres and learning about future plans- and then in the room with multiple coolers and stacks of fresh produce. It was truly beautiful.

 

I think Joe might be slightly amused to hear me describe it as such, the person who he texted saying: ” Be sure not to wear your Prada heels to the farm!” (Sidebar: I wish I had Prada heels!)

 

But it really was beautiful. And slightly overwhelming. Luckily, I was paired with Moriah Lavender, someone I have known since our days at Stratford together. And she explained that what we were doing was taking each persons orders and making sure they have everything they need in their box. Two person teams would double check each box, load it with the appropriate veggies (meats and dairy would be placed later), and then place the box in to groups in the coolers.

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty much everyone there is a volunteer, and Joe is quick to acknowledge that this venture would not be possible without them. Volunteers and people who believed enough to make all of this, ahem, “grow”. It is truly a community driven effort.

 

One thing  I really enjoyed about packing day was getting to learn just how much attention to detail happens in this endeavor- and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Joe lives and breathes this ventures 24/7, whether it’s promotion on social media (which he does have help with), pulling orders from online, and coordinating delivery. Then there’s the future plans. Turning the farm in to a place where you can visit and let your kids see how a farm works. Working with restaurant owners to sell the products, marketing directly to consumers, educating the general public, more and more and more.

 

 

 

 

 

The localvore moment (or locavore) is one that has been gathering steam in Athens and Atlanta and Savannah for some time now- it’s just really starting to hit Macon. With The Dirt Farmers and farm to table restaurants such as Grow, more people are starting to know what this is. It’s all about eating food as close to the local source as possible. Which makes sense, right? It’s a hell of a lot healthier for us- as is evidenced by even large commercial farmers keeping their own, separate, plots for their own use.

 

I will be going back to experience more- and to let y’all know more- and I will also be attending the Georgia Organics conference in Athens at the end of this week. The biggest take away I can give y’all right now is this: my Dirt Farmers orders are generally in the $20-30 range bi-weekly. This time, it was $60. That’s greatly due to volunteering that day and seeing what many of the items I wasn’t familiar with looked like, and listening to other volunteers talk about how they cook them. The possibilities were suddenly endless.

 

Can’t wait to tell y’all more!

 

Love to all y’all,

 

Molly