Our 11th Issue Just Published!

We just published our Holiday Issue for 2019, the last issue of the year and the 11th issue published to date!

This issue was a lot of fun for me to put together and I hope that comes through to the readers as a joy to read!

Be sure to check out this latest issue. In this special Holiday Issue of Southern Soil, we want to help you out during this season of entertaining, hosting and eating! 

We asked three of our local chefs - Executive Chef Nicholas Wilber of The Fat Radish Savannah, Executive Chef Francisco Jimenez of Halyards Restaurant on St. Simon's Island and Pastry Chef Nicki Griffin of Pacci Italian Kitchen + Bar - to provide us with a dish they might serve at a holiday meal and give us some insight into making those dishes shine! 

We also take a look at sustainability through a bottle of rum! Find out how Richland Rum is so much more than an enjoyable beverage (and get some bonus cocktail recipes too). 

Rebekah Faulk Lingenfelser shares one of her Some Kinda Good recipes that's great for a party. 

We wrap up this year's series on native plants with the useful elderberry! Thank you, Coastal Plain Chapter of the Georgia Native Plant Society for your wonderful contributions to our 2019 content!

In the kitchen with Chef Francisco Jimenez

And be sure to check out product spotlight for gift ideas from the farm that just might surprise you! Hunter Cattle Company, Genesis Moon Soaps, Watermelon Creek Vineyard, Southern Swiss Dairy, LLC, The Hancock Farm, and H.L. Franklin's Healthy Honey.

It has truly been an honor and privilege, not to mention a lot of fun, to get to share the stories of so many farmers, chefs and food advocates of our local communities over the past two years. Getting an insider view of this important food movement toward greater sustainability.

Blue and I really enjoyed our visit to the Richland Rum distillery.

I started Southern Soil in 2018, for very personal reasons. I felt alone and isolated in my desire to find foods that were grown without chemicals and meat products that came from animals allowed to live their out their natural behaviors and were treated humanely. I wanted to connect with others in Southeast Georgia who shared my values.

I also wanted to encourage, not only other consumers like myself, but also the farmers and producers and purveyors of the foods I wanted to buy. I wanted those people to know that they are not alone either. There are others out here supporting those choices, sacrifices and efforts!

I have big plans for Southern Soil and we are still a long way away from the possibilities that I envision. However, it has been so encouraging to begin to see some of the ways that Southern Soil is having an impact on our local sustainable food systems. Helping people connect with others of like mind, facilitating links in the sustainable food supply chain, encouraging farmers to keep fighting the good fight, and educating consumers on the importance of their food choices.

I’m looking forward to 2020 and another year of bringing you the stories of our local food systems! Please share Southern Soil with others and help us spread the message. If you have a business, please consider becoming an advertising partner.

Let’s grow together!

LeeAnna Tatum, editor/publisher

Passion, Purpose, Persistence

Sometimes it’s good to be reminded about the purpose and mission of Southern Soil and why it is I do what I do.

The Ferguson family of Hunter Cattle Co. being “placed” by Tara. :)

Today was one of those days.

I spent the afternoon at Hunter Cattle (just outside of Brooklet), learning more about the Ferguson family and their wonderful farm for an article I’m writing which will be in our upcoming issue. I’m already quite familiar with this farm because they have played a huge part in my own personal food journey.

My venture into local and sustainable food all got started because of my passion for animals and concern for animal welfare. The day that I became aware of the atrocities of our meat industry in this country is the day I began looking for local alternatives and found two farms nearby that were producing humanely raised meats, Hunter Cattle and Savannah River Farms. I became a loyal customer and have never looked back!

So, it was a special joy for me today to be back at one of the farms that helped get me started on this journey more than 10 years ago.

Sharing my own passion as a consumer for food that is grown and raised in such a way that takes care of the animal and the environment (and by extension our own health) and sharing the stories of our local food systems and the people behind them is the reason I started Southern Soil.

As anyone who starts a new business can attest - it ain’t easy. It is, however, easy to get discouraged, easy to lose sight of the big picture and easy to question whether it’s all worthwhile.

So, days like today are important. Because it’s good to be reminded that when passion meets purpose and is driven by persistence … great things can happen!

I’m looking forward to great things that we will accomplish as a community of producers, consumers and advocates of local food produced sustainably.

Let’s grow together!

A big THANK YOU to the Hunter Cattle family for hosting me today! And a shoutout to Tara Ruby who did the photography for this upcoming article (the photos in this post are mine, you’ll have to wait for the issue to publish to see hers!) :) Be sure to check out our Issue #4 when it is published later this month which will feature family farms and kids and agriculture. Until then, check out some of these fun photos from the farm today … all that cuteness and some hard work too!