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