In more ways than one ! B : Yeah ! ( laughs )
It ’ s a special thing to go back to a legacy like that . And what inspired y ’ all to expand the garden across the years ? T : Well , we like experimenting . And I also like things very organized , so when I plant something , I tend to plant a lot of it on one area . ( Our plots are about 30 feet by 35 feet , by the way .) While we wanted to try many different things , we also wanted to be good stewards of the land and take care of the soil by rotating our crops . So , to be able to grow all the different things I wanted to grow , we needed more and more plots .
One result of that expansion was your CSA ( Community Supported Agriculture ) program , wherein y ’ all offered boxes of fresh produce delivered weekly to local customers . Could you tell us why y ’ all began the CSA , and why y ’ all discontinued it in 2020 ?
T : We were growing a lot more produce than we could eat , simply because I loved experimenting with the garden so much . B : And it ’ s surprisingly difficult to give produce away . You ’ d think it ’ d be easy , but it ’ s not . T : You ’ ll hear people say all the time , oh , I ’ ll come pick it up , whatever – B : But they wouldn ’ t . T : Folks don ’ t realize some produce needs to be harvested quick or it ’ s not going to be any good . For example , okra gets tough if you leave it on the stalk too long . So , yes , we had a tough time giving it all away , and we decided to run another experiment . I know that CSAs are popular and successful in certain regions of the country , especially around big cities , up north , in California . I wanted to test and see if such a program could be successful down here , where so much of the economy turns on largescale agriculture . It ’ s a completely different customer base than , say , Athens or Asheville . B : We started it and it went really well . We did it three years , almost four years , and we sold out al-
38 MoultrieScene JANUARY 2022