Check out our favorite photos from the past week – and then share your photos of a farm, food artisan or farmers market. You might be one of our favorites next week!
Balsam Farms, LLC – Amagansett, NY
Mohala Farm – Waialua, HI
South Texas Heritage Pork – Floresville, TX
East Georgia Produce – Bartow, GA
Burge Organic Farm – Mansfield, GA
The opening sequence of American Meat, a new documentary about the current state of meat production in the United States, asks why modern Americans are so removed from the process of raising and killing the centerpiece of their meals and diets. Millions in the United States who eat meat daily have never killed a cow or a chicken with their own hands or touched a pig or a sheep unless it was already conveniently sliced into bacon or lamb chops. Although this may be the story for most of the carnivores in our country, at the Flying R Ranch in Waialua, Hawaii, customers are intimately connected with the steaks and short ribs they buy from the ranch. Anyone who wants to eat the goats or cattle grazing on the 3,300 acre ranch have to pick and slaughter the animals themselves. The owner, Bob Cherry, laughs heavily and cracks a wide grin as he explains that on his ranch customers have to buy the animal live, then kill it and butcher it themselves. The practice comes both out of necessity and tradition.
Check out our favorite photos from the past week – and then share your photos of a farm, food artisan or farmers market. You might be one of our favorites next week!
Forty North Farm – Semora, NC
Hodo Soy Beanery’s story begins with founder Minh Tsai, who wanted to create a type of tofu that, in his words, “the Asians would eat.” Tsai had a vision to create a reliable, healthy, and unique tofu that people could enjoy. Backed by his passion for tofu that he first experienced from his grandfather in his younger years in Vietnam, Tsai successfully created Hodo Soy Beanery in 2009. Hodo Soy has come a long way from its initial start-up, all thanks to Tsai and the amazing team that keeps the beanery running.
As Mary Ridgon recounts, “All of us receive the same amount of hours in the day. What we do with them is up to us and ultimately defines who we are.”
Shakespeare, even in 1599, knew the great importance of bees in society saying in his play Henry V: “for so work the honey-bees, creatures that by a rule in nature teach the act of order to a peopled kingdom.” This sentiment may seem all but forgotten in recent times, as the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has plagued beehives since 2006. It has caused a dramatic decline in the number of bees throughout the nation accounting for the loss of approximately 30% of hives. CCD is yet to be linked to one specific cause, but it has been speculated that much of it is rooted in anthropogenic sources such as climate change and increased pesticide use.
Shakespeare would be quite disappointed in our “peopled kingdom” if he were around to witness such a profound tragedy, or he might just write a sonnet about it; either way, the loss of bees has some serious implications to society. Being a honey lover, one such concern would be a lack of delicious, gooey, sweet, and wholesome honey. Could anyone imagine a world without honey? (What in the world would Pooh Bear stick his cute little paw in?) Thankfully, we don’t have to trouble our imaginations with that kind of world just yet. I have noticed a common theme throughout farmers markets that leads me to believe bees are making a come back. Local bee stands have been prominent, and proudly selling natural, raw, antibiotic and pesticide free, golden delicious honey!
Check out our favorite photos from the past week – and then share your photos of a farm, food artisan or farmers market. You might be one of our favorites next week!
J Bar L Ranches – Lima, MT & Twin Bridges, MT
Looking out across the patchwork of farms that surround the town of Waialua on Oahu’s North Shore it is easy to see the tension between GMO and heritage crops, conventional and organic farming, and economic versus environmental sustainability that has been written into the landscape. Marching down from the foothills of Mt. Ka’ala are tall rows of GMO corn crashing into lines of organic vegetables and fruit. Their collision is part of the struggle between two different agricultural ideologies that have some farmers trapped in middle.
Do you see something, that doesn’t belong? Jack, the one without horns, is just one of the anomalies you’ll come across at Grove Creek Farm. Located about 20 miles east of Athens, tucked into the Georgia countryside, is a unique couple with a unique vision.
The 300-acre plot has a rich history that has seen the passing of many people and many crops. Arrowheads and quartz flints can still be found on the property near the river which is thought to have attracted Native Americans from the Broad River populations in Athens. The 18th century brought tobacco, which was replaced with cotton in the 1850s. Later row cropping began with the Roosevelt era and fast forward to today, Grove Creek Farm raises grass-fed beef and provides an anthropological farming experience.
The land is laden with short leaf and yellow pines shared with the prettiest cows I’ve ever seen. Conventional wisdom might tell us that livestock and trees don’t co-exist but Dani, owner of Grove Creek, insists there are many benefits to using this system of agroforestry. Silvopasturing is the technique that integrates livestock, foraging and forestry on the same land. These systems are designed for the production of both trees and livestock. The combination is truly beautiful and benefits the soil, livestock, short and long-term returns, wildlife diversity, and water quality.
Dani’s late father Dr. Robert Rhoades, an anthropology professor at the University of Georgia, founded Grove Creek on the philosophy that knowledge from the past should guide today’s principles. Dani is following out her father’s dream to see the land as a classroom to teach students and any interested folks about agricultural anthropology with a hands-on element. The plans are in their beginning stages now.
Part of the farm includes seven historic log cabins that were brought to the property from different locations across the nation. Dani wants to use these to reenact an old way of life. Also strewn about the property are old farm tools that show how farming was done in the years past.
Connecting with the land means connecting with the past. The once overused and degraded soil is slowly but surely returning to its once fertile state – what long ago attracted animals and people to the area. Dani is gaining momentum while maintaining her reverence for her family’s and her land’s roots. This time capsule deserves more than a visit on the internet, if you’re ever in the area, swing by and see what she’s doing with her land.
Winter 2012 Athens, GA Food Warrior
This post is from one of the interns in the Real Time Farms Food Warrior Internship Program. These interns are collecting data, pictures, and video on the growing practices of our nation’s farms, gathering food artisans’ stories, and documenting farmers markets. We all deserve to know where our food comes from!
The Real Time Farms Blog 
