Happy Earth Day!

It seems rather appropriate to be celebrating Earth Day while so many humans are tucked away in their homes across the globe.

What does it say about us as a species that the natural world is flourishing in our relative absence? From stories of dolphins playing in the cleared waters of the canals of Venice, to sea turtles having successful nesting seasons on empty beaches, and bears frolicking in Yellowstone… nature rejoices as humans recede into the background.

Sometimes, we can look at the world’s problems - pollution, animal cruelty, food insecurity, climate change, etc. - and we easily get overwhelmed. But each of us has a role to play and we need only be responsible for our own part.

There is quote by Gary Snyder that I like that helps me turn to action when anxiety wants to take over. “Find your place on the planet. Dig in, and take responsibility from there.”

So, on this Earth Day, I’ll continue to make my little corner of the world a safe place for wildlife. I’ll keep supporting the farms and businesses that I believe take their stewardship responsibilities seriously. And I will keep doing what I can to make a positive impact on the world around me!

How will you celebrate Earth Day?

I spent the morning doing a little wildlife photography in the yard, I hope you enjoy! (Notice the female Cardinal is missing a foot, but she has adapted quite well!)

For such a time as this

This blog runs a little on the long side of things, but please stay with me to the end!

You may be familiar with the Biblical story of Esther … I won’t take the time to go into it here, but it’s a story that I’ve known since my childhood. The main theme of this particular story is that Esther is in the right place at the right time with the right experience and the right attitude in order to take advantage of an opportunity to save her people, her world.

At one point when she is weighing her decision she is asked, is it possible that you are here for just such a time as this?

That’s a phrase that has come back to me throughout my lifetime, most notably when I was first starting Southern Soil. I had such a seemingly strange path in my life that had taken me in what seemed to be so many random directions and through some very difficult times that were hurtful and frustrating.

Yet many of those experiences are exactly what brought me to that place two years ago that culminated in bringing this magazine to life. Perhaps all those experiences had been just what I needed to be able to do the work that I do today. And perhaps the timing was just right as well.

As I have spent the last two years getting to know many of you through interviews and conversations, I have heard your struggles and gotten to know a bit about how you arrived in the places you are now, doing what it is you do within our food system. I have heard the frustrations and shared the vision and the hope for what our food systems could be.

And during this unprecedented time of uncertainty and upheaval, it seems that perhaps each of us is here for such a time as this.

I’ve had conversations with many of you over our shared concern for the direction of this country and our increasing dependence on industrialized farming systems - heavy chemical usage for produce and the inhumane practices for producing meats - and the high cost of that type of “food” production on our environment and collective health.

It was with a sense of urgency that I started Southern Soil, hoping to help provide a way of educating consumers and encouraging small, sustainable farming operations.

For such a time as this.

Over the last several weeks we have begun to see unprecedented demand from consumers for locally produced foods, we’ve seen Big Ag stumble, we’ve seen small farms step up. Not only here, but all across the country.

For such a time as this.

Seed companies are selling out of seeds as people are turning to their own yards as a source of food and are planting gardens in record numbers.

For such a time as this.

We have a golden opportunity right now while the world is paying attention to what is happening with our food supplies, so let’s not miss it.

Sometimes it feels like the local sustainable food movement here in rural Georgia is more of a dance than a march. Two steps forward, one step back, half a step to the side and do-si-do … everybody switch partners aaaaaaand go back to square one!

Let’s keep dancing, but let’s move it forward this time! 

Farmers, seize this opportunity to connect with your community. They are looking for you, make sure they can find you! It has been exciting to see the ways in which you have embraced ingenuity and found creative ways to pivot your businesses toward more direct sales to consumers. Keep up the great work!

Consumers, as always, support your local food system every chance you get!

For our dear friends in the restaurant business who are struggling, hold on and come back stronger than ever!

As our communities are beginning to see the importance of our local food system, we need to be ready and able to show them that local food can meet their needs, that bigger doesn’t always mean better and that local food produced with care and passion is attainable.

I hope that on the other side of this, our communities have smaller yards and bigger gardens. I hope to see fewer regulations standing in the way of local food production. I hope to see more farmers markets. I hope to continue to see consumers searching for local food. I hope there are more stores that carry locally produced items. I hope that our farmers continue to make sales to consumers a priority. I hope that our independent restaurants are back open and booming with business. 

These are strange times we find ourselves in, but they are also full of opportunity.

Are we here for such a time as this? Is this the moment that many of us have been waiting for when we can help tip the balance back toward more sustainable and healthy food systems?

Let’s embrace this opportunity as a chance to grow the local food movement and let’s continue to grow together!

LeeAnna Tatum, editor/publisher

Immunity as a Practice: building up your body's defense by Jovan Sage

Jovan Sage is a friend and contributor to Southern Soil. She is an herbalist and wellness coach with her own line of products available through her business Sage’s Larder.

For a full list of products, visit www.sageslarder.com

Immunity is a daily practice and what you eat can have a huge impact on your immune system. That daily practice encompasses: staying connected to our bodies, our spirit, our family and chosen community; staying hydrated, rested and incorporating nutrient-dense, immune boosting ingredients.  As I work with clients to help them manage their overall wellness goals these are the things that should rise to the top of your daily practices. 

Hydration

Water, water everywhere… Drink it. On average, men should drink about 3.7 liters (15.5 cups) and women about 2.7 liters (11.5 cups) of water each day. This total is from all beverages and foods consumed in a day. For women, that number should increase when pregnant or breastfeeding. If you get exhausted with plain water you can add fresh mint, berries, lemon wedges or brew a cup of herbal tea. 

Eating For Immunity

When thinking about vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that support the immune system you will want to include: vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc and selenium. The South is well prepared as beans and dark leafy greens are essential to building a healthy body and immune system. Greens are very high in calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorous, zinc, and vitamins A, C, E, and K. They’re also packed with fiber, folic acid, chlorophyll, and many other micronutrients and phytochemicals. Black beans, black eyed peas, chickpeas and kidney beans - these are loaded with iron, magnesium, potassium, B vitamins, and soluble fiber. 

As a firm believer in kitchen table medicine I encourage people to raid their cabinet and fridge for healing herbs and foods. For example: sage is antimicrobial, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory herb that great for sore throats; thyme is aromatic herb that helps release excess mucus; garlic is good for stimulating your immune system. Add in some delicious broths packed with immune boosting onions, garlic, mushrooms, ginger, herbs and spices. For those who are interested in additional herbal support for immunity you can check that here. 

Fermented foods play a great role in supporting your health and dressing up your dinner plate. So break out that jar of kimchi and sauerkraut, drink that bottle of kombucha or eat that bowl of yogurt with local honey and dark berries (also immune boosting). 

Unpopular but important note, alcohol and sugar can suppress your immune system. 

Stress + Sleep 

This is definitely the time for deep breathing, for thoughtfulness and also compassion - with ourselves and with one another. Finding ways to reduce stress, center and ground ourselves is a big key to our full health. It’s important to take the time to reflect, meditate, or simply make quiet time for yourself. Exercise is a great way to blow off steam and keep your body healthy. Keeping a gratitude journal and writing down five things you’re grateful for each day can keep your spirit healthy. Find ways (6 feet apart or virtually) to stay connected to friends, family that keep you grounded, inspired or filled with laughter

Jon Jackson on Stewardship and the Value of Life

Jon Jackson is a decorated Combat veteran who served as a US Army Airborne Ranger. He founded STAG VETS, Inc. in 2014 and Comfort Farms in 2016 to assist homeless veterans, veterans in need, and veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury. For more information, please visit their website!

We are stewards of this amazing land and due to aboundance it's easy to forget that what we consume was once a living breathing thing. We have a responsibility as stewards of this land to not only give back... but to also return and restore the dignity to the food that we consume.

To our farmers who work tirelessly to produce the best quality food, to our chefs who pay attention to carrying on the dignity and honor to the center of the plate ... But most of all... To the animals themselves... Life is constantly a transfer of energy going back and forth to sustain... "Life"...and the best way we can honor and respect the food we consume... Is to go out and do something amazing in this world.

Remember... Our Livestock gave it's life for us to live and progress in this world. To simply consume and not transfer that energy into something useful is a waste.

We cherish life. And it's emotional to transfer our livestock so that we can sustain life. It's the one reason we ensure that they live the best possible happiest life they can to the end.

We know that those who support us... Understand our mission.

It's deeply entrenched in the warrior code that most of us Combat veterans have had to endure... When we see the value of our own lives cheapened through death.

This project through the Spirit of Captain Kyle A Comfort has given us a new understanding on how we look at loss to sustain life. We bless our food for a reason and it's in this reason that we succeed in life. Thanks for your continued support.

A Teachable Moment

While the coronavirus is no joke, I don’t want to add to any of the hysteria.

But I do think this current situation offers, at the very least, an excellent opportunity to evaluate our level of preparedness - as a nation, region, community, family, individual - to face a major disruption in our supply lines. 

Since it’s what we do around here, let’s focus on food.

If your community was cut off from an outside food supply, how long could you feed yourselves? Once the grocery store shelves and freezers were emptied, from where would your supply of fresh food come?

Do you have a source of fresh meat near your town or in your county? Fresh vegetables? Fruit? 

If a global, national or regional emergency kept you isolated from other sources, how would you feed yourself and your family? How about those in the community who are vulnerable?

These questions aren’t meant to add to any hysteria or to assume that we are headed to that point due to the coronavirus. But this is a good time to start asking those questions of ourselves and our community.

There are dozens of reasons why healthy, vibrant local food systems are important, including everything from the environment to animal welfare to personal health. But food security is one that also tops that list.

Perhaps this is the right time to help your community see the importance of supporting a local food system by shopping locally. When times are good, we can easily view local food as a niche market, a novel idea, something we can throw a few dollars at from time to time. 

But when times get really tough, our lives could very well depend on the vitality of that local food system. If we don’t support our local farms now, they very well may not be around when we need them most.

Investing in 2020

It’s that time again!

Time for a new year, new beginnings, resolutions, goals.

It’s not just a new year, it’s a new decade - the twenties! What are you hoping for as we go enter into 2020? Have you made your resolutions? Set out an agenda? Decided on a game plan that will move you forward toward your goals?

I stopped making new year resolutions a few years ago, having never really experienced much success with the custom. 

But I did start a new tradition that I have found to be much more effective.

Instead of coming up with a list of things I plan to do or not do in the coming year, I choose a word. Just one word for the year that helps me focus on making positive changes. Past words have included: “proactive” and “collaboration”. 

For 2020, my word is “investment”. 

Since they say that hindsight is 20/20, I want my future self to look back at the 2020 me and be grateful for the choices I make this year. 

The great thing about choosing a word to encapsulate your goals for the year is that it can be applied to personal and professional decisions.

I hope this year will be one in which many seeds are planted into our local food system. I want to see communities come together to build a better infrastructure for sustainable food production. I hope to see consumers buying into their local farms and businesses supporting one another, creating stronger local economies. That’s an investment worth making. 

When we invest in local food, we invest in a cleaner environment, healthier bodies, stronger communities and wealthier economies. Let’s make wise investments in animal welfare. Let’s invest in a safer future with fewer diseases. 

Let’s dare to imagine the significant impact of our combined investments into our local sustainable food systems!!! 

Thank you for being a part of this community in 2019 and let’s keep growing together in 2020!

Happy New Year!

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!