Folks, we’ve had a weird, wild month out here at the farm as I’m sure everyone has.  We’ve dealt with some of the more typical adversites like crop disease, abnormal weather patterns, injuries and exhaustion, etc. My good friend Will Rucker reminded me recently that farming is more or less perseverance and that’s true now more than ever. Whether my perseverance comes from stubbornness or stupidity, I’m not sure but its probably some combination of the two.  Being isolated on a small family farm in a single story home certainly hasn’t made the rigors of farming any easier.  We’ve definitely became agitated with one another at times.  After the initial acclamation period I think we’ve adjusted to our new reality quite well. I feel closer to my new family than I have before, particularly my two step children, Lillian and Jonathan. I like to joke that we’re living in a modern Little House on the Prairie. The good news is our one-year-old daughter Edie has been happier than ever with her big brother and sister at home all the time. I’m not sure how Sarah and I would have been able to operate our business and take care of her without their help.  Edie herself has been a great source of joy and laughter during an otherwise tense and unnerving time.   

Outside in the garden, we’ve also found some new and unexpected help from some old friends.  My good friend from high school, Nate Tinsley, has been pulling some long hours in the field as our newest farm hand. Nate’s career as a Nashville musician is on hold for the moment but before the lockdown he was set to go on tour with the rising country music star Ashland Craft. He’s a pretty awesome singer and guitar player but these days he’s honing his skills with a rake and a hoe. Hopefully the country music scene will be back in full force soon enough and he can write a bunch of songs about growing vegetables with us. Here he is with our friend Drew planting tomatoes in the greenhouse.  

I’ve also had a ton of help from my good friend Jack Nunnery.  Early this year we built several new peaces of infrastructure for the farm including a new post-harvest station and a pump house for our new well.  Jack’s been driving tractors since he could ride a bike so its been especially helpful having him around to help run the big machinery out here.  We also get help from our friend Sam Beasley who was an intern two years ago and comes back to help when he’s not studying at Furman and making beautiful artwork.  These are just a few of the people who make this whole mess work.  We’re so lucky to have the friends, family, and neighbors who help out and support our little farm.  

As for the vegetable selection, our first CSA is shaping up to be a nice box of produce. The first round of cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower seem to be falling victim to a soil born disease, but the kale, spinach, collard, iceberg lettuce, and pea shoots are performing beautifully.  My friend Nathan from Growing Green Family farm is going to be contributing some delicious radishes and Turnips as well. Our featured item is of course our Strawberries. This is the first season I’ve grown them for our farm and I can barely contain my excitement.  Watching Edie pick and eat these things straight out of the ground has been the most gratifying and affirming moments moments of my life.  I never imagined that I would be raising such a healthy and beautiful child in this setting.  Even amidst the hysteria of the moment and the struggles of being a parent and a farmer, I look at her and it’s pretty damn hard to complain.  

All best, get ready for your first CSA share coming next week!

George

Dear Shareholders,

Good afternoon from Reedy River Farms. I’ve decided to start keeping a regular blog in attempt to get closer to our customers and supporters near and far. I’ll try to keep those interested in the know about what’s happening here at the farm and what we are planting and harvesting.

Just to give a brief introduction for those who aren’t familiar with us, my name is George DuBose and I’m the owner and operator of Reedy River Farms. My family and I grow vegetable produce for the Greenville area market. My wife and business partner, Sarah DuBose, grows cut flowers under the trade name Sassafrass Flowers. We live and farm here on our five-acre property in Easley, South Carolina. I have two awesome step-children named Lilly and Jonathan and Sarah and a I sweet little one-year-old daughter named Edie. We also have a blue pit bull dog named Debra.

It’s been quite awhile we’ve planted for a full CSA season. Last year our daughter, Edie, was born right around New Years and we decided to take a year off from our CSA program to focus on raising her and readjusting to life as a farmers and parents. Sarah and I took on some contract work growing for our friends at Topsoil Kitchen and Market and commercial landscaping respectively. This year we’ve decided to jump back into farming full time and growing for the Downtown TD Market and hopefully about 30 families in our CSA program. We’ve also chosen to grow a wide range of crops rather than focusing mainly on high value crops like baby greens and cherry tomatoes. We’re now making a concerted effort to offer more products of sustenance like potatoes, winter squash, onions, full size tomatoes, and roots like carrots and beets. We think our customers and shareholders will be very happy with our new lineup. By now we have sown our first plantings of carrots, beets, spinach, beans, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, Swiss chard, iceberg lettuce, and leeks. This week we will be transplanting tomatoes, peppers, onions, and eggplant.

It’s been a habit of mine to refer to our CSA purchasers as Shareholders rather than simply customers. Given the direct nature of the relationship between farmer and end consumer in a CSA program, I feel like “Shareholder” is more appropriate. In essence, when you buy a CSA share, you are investing in our farm season. By providing us with necessary capital, we are able to purchase things like seeds, compost, fertilizer, and seedlings. Your dividends are issued in the form of fresh, delicious produce every week during our harvest season.

Being a dad is by far the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Watching Edie grow up on our farm has brought me more joy than I ever thought possible. Having her has also given me a new sense of pride in my trade as a farmer that I didn’t anticipate. I believe now more than ever that the job we’re doing out here is important and necessary for a sustainable future. Amidst all of the fear and uncertainty caused by the Virus these days, offering clean and healthy food to our community still sounds like a pretty good idea. We hope you think so too.

Thank you for reading and as always, thank you for supporting our farm.

-George DuBose