Earlier this week we drove out to Reidsville to visit some of the farmers of the Piedmont Progressive Farmers Group, a co-op of farmers in Caswell County and neighboring counties. We’ve been bringing you eggs from these farmers for a year now, and this summer we hope to have their vegetables, including sweet corn!
The PPFG co-op helps disadvantaged farmers by promoting sustainable and diverse farming through education, training, technical assistance, and marketing. Members meet standards to ensure healthy and quality products, such as keeping animals on pasture. Being part of the co-op helps the small farms market their goods; the board looks for opportunities, and the farmers can market as a group with a larger supply and more versatile offerings.
Our first stop was George Hill Farm, where Kent and Deborah Williamson raise some of the chickens whose eggs we sell. Outside the henhouse, hens and roosters pecked at insects in the grass and climbed over the stumps littering an overgrown hillside. Some of them followed us during our tour. Goats, sheep, and donkeys grazed in a pasture. Kent’s grandpa bought the land in 1953 to farm tobacco, and Kent was born there. He left for school but returned in 1999 and began reworking the farm. He now has 155 acres, plus 80 that he rents, for the chickens and cattle, sheep, and goats for meat, as well as hogs that he sells to his cousin’s barbecue joint. Debra also has a pet peacock, because “Beauty is a part of farming.”
Kent told us about the PPFG co-op’s plans for a facility the farmers can use to process their goods. It will have cold storage areas, a produce washing area, and equipment for cleaning and candling eggs (i.e., looking for cracks), among other things, which will save the farmers a lot of time. Currently, they’re working on a feasibility study with NC State, and a Tobacco Trust grant will pay for the building. The co-op made this assistance possible.
Kent drove us down the road to his neighbor Michael Graves’s farm. Michael and his mother Lucille put aside their chores to show us the chickens, who had the run of a grassy yard with trees and henhouses. The nesting boxes were under a hoophouse, which Michael also uses for crops. His grandpa’s farm is across the creek, and his father’s is next door. They raised beef, hogs, and tobacco. A lesson they learned during the depression was that farmers and their animals can starve, too; Michael takes that to heart, raising a garden and supplemental feed for his chickens. He likes the idea of adding nutrients to the chickens’ diet. “I truly believe that if you can raise it, and it’s natural, and then eat it and pass it on, it’s better than you taking a pill,” he says. “So anything we can add to increase the quality of the egg is better for us.”
Our last stop was Tonya Pennix’s farm, Anders Farm. Behind her house, Tonya is growing rows of corn and other crops on her uncle’s land. Tonya and her husband used to live in Durham, where she worked at the Farm Bureau. On weekends they’d drive out to the farm to help. When her husband suggested moving back, Tonya decided to quit her job and pursue farming, which she’d recognized as her passion. Her children love vegetables, and she wants to help more families in her community eat healthily.
Tonya wasn’t sure how she would sell her products, but then she attended the PPFG Farm Day, one of the co-op’s outreach efforts, and learned about the co-op’s work. After joining, communication with Weaver Street led Tonya to plant the corn, which we are always struggling to find locally. “It’s a family farm, and that’s something we take pride in,” Tonya says. “It’s all about sharing and having healthy and natural products.”
The PPFG co-op is working hard to keep farmers on their land and to provide opportunities in the rural communities northwest of Hillsborough. They’re using their collective knowledge to secure funding, improve their farms, and find new possibilities for sales outlets. Kent shared that since Weaver Street Market has begun selling their eggs, the co-op has gotten more membership requests, and the Durham Co-op has recently started carrying the eggs as well.
Many of you met Kent, Michael, Lucille, and other PPFG farmers at the Co-op Fair last fall, and we hope to have more opportunities for you to engage with them. Help us support this group of local farmers!