Yokna(patawpha) Bottoms Farm

One of the primary goals of Yokna Bottoms Farm is to promote the development of our local food economy. It is our belief that the we are in an early stage of a fundamental transformation of our entire national food production and distribution system. For us this transition is both beneficial and necessary for the future of our nation and our planet. In addition, we have found the climate and soil in much of North Mississippi is extremely well suited to 9 months of production of quality vegetable without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. Local growers are rapidly learning how to use hoop houses and other techniques for expanding the growing season to provide year-around local produce. Considering that we are surrounded by large urban areas to the north (Memphis), west (Little Rock), south (Jackson and New Orleans) and east (Birmingham), there is remarkable potential for vegetable production to be a major growth segment in our local economy. In addition, there are huge opportunities for large markets at local universities, local school systems, and smaller local communities. The truth is we are surrounded by millions of people who need food. Given the quality of local food and the lowering of relative prices as the cost of oil and food transported over long distances increases, the future of local food is promising. For local markets to develop, however, we need enough established and large local producers to provide a high volume of consistently high quality produce.

For these reasons we are thrilled that there are now three local CSA farms providing food to the people of Oxford and Lafayette County: Woodson Ridge Farm, Old Thyme Farm, and Yokna Bottoms. Three years ago there were none in the Oxford area. All of these farms provide quality food at a reasonable and competitive prices. In addition, all of us are growing and expanding our production as rapidly as possible. While the three farms are engaged in healthy market competition, we also cooperate in many ways and we are working together to ensure that Oxford has a first class farmers market that will meet the needs of all producers and the people of Oxford. We encourage all people interested in local produce and wishing to be involved in a CSA to thoroughly investigate and compare each farm. This competition will make each of us stronger. Each farm offers unique products and services to the community. Old Thyme Farm is a family farm that provides seasonal CSA share options and includes assorted Certified Naturally Grown fruit from established and revitalized orchards along with a wide variety of Certified Naturally Grown vegetables; and, Old Thyme Farm also provides awarding winning heritage breed pasture raised pork as an option for CSA members. Woodson Ridge uses conventional farming practices and labor resources to produce a large volume of produce at a lower cost than naturally grown vegetables. Woodson Ridge also offers two 12 week CSA seasons. At Yokna Bottoms, we are a community farm that provides our CSA members with a choice (we distribute using a “market style” system that allows members to select the exact produce they prefer) of a large variety of the highest quality Certified Naturally Grown vegetables. We specialize, among other produce, in root crops (garlic, onions, carrots, beets, potatoes, and sweet potatoes), 12 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, 6 varieties of okra, 10 varieties of peppers, and fall crops of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. We also now offer home or office delivery in Oxford and surrounding areas. In addition to the three current CSA farms, there are many additional local growers who sell their high quality produce directly to customers and at local farmers markets.

As our local food economy grows, the choices available to consumers will only increase. For now, we want to encourage everyone to shop, compare, and select growers who best meet the needs of their families and reflect their personal values; but most importantly, we want everyone in the Oxford/Lafayette community to buy local!

Yokna Bottoms Potatoes, Onions, and Greens, April 2011

For the past two years we have been trying several different methods to communicate the message of who we are and what we do to the citizens of Oxford and Lafayette County. Nonetheless, we still continually meet people who have not heard of us or who are not aware of what we do. Today we tried a new method and direct mailed 3800 fliers to households in the area. The response to this mailing was far beyond our wildest hope as withing in hours of mail delivery today we have received multiple phone calls, emails, and hits to this blog. If you have called or emailed, please be patient as we are responding as quickly as possible.

For those of you accessing this blog for the first time, please take the time to read through this site as it is full of information about who we are, our history, what we are doing and why, and how you can become involved. If you need specific information or would like an information and registration packet to purchase a CSA Food-share, please email us at yoknabottoms@gmail.com or call us at 662-380-2367.

Having attended the annual conference of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group last weekend in Little Rock, Doug and Montana have lots to share. We have never be so convinced that our entire food economy is in the early but growing stages of a fundamental shift in how we as a society produce, distribute, and consume food. Over 2500 small farmers, researchers, and suppliers met for three days at the Peabody Hotel in downtown Little Rock. Every session was standing-room only and we are still working to organize and develop plans to incorporate all the we learned at the farm. Of all of the sessions and conversations we engaged in during the conference, we were most inspired by all of the stories of success we heard from people engaged in similar small-scale agricultural production in our region. All across the southeast, small sustainable and organic farms are beginning, growing, and prospering. Following is a list of highlights from the conference:

USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan Talk: Dr. Merrigan, a career-long champion of sustainable agriculture, is the number two person in the Department of Agriculture. According to Merrigan, small sustainable farms while still small in overall percentage of production, are the fastest growing segment of the US agricultural economy. She cited research that for every one million dollars in food sales from small farms using sustainable practices, 13 jobs are created. This is compared to 3 jobs/million dollars in large-scale commodity agriculture. In addition, Merrigan outlined an exciting list of new and proposed federal initiatives to support the development of local food economies. The recent grant received by the City of Oxford to develop a Farmers’ Market, and grants received by local growers for high-tunnel hoop houses (Isis Gardens in Tupelo) are examples of the new initiatives. Many more are initiatives are on the way.

CSA Farm Discussion Session: We participated in a 90 minute facilitated discussion with over 40 farmers from across the southeast who operate using a CSA model. We shared how we price, market, communicate, and distribute our food and learned what many other farms are doing. In the end, we came away with a long list of great ideas for improving the quality and service we provide our supporters who purchase our food-shares.

Mississippi Networking Meeting: Over 80 people from all across Mississippi attended this session!  As we listened to the introductions and people describing what they were doing, over-and-over we said and we could hear people saying, “I never knew there were so many positive things related to local food happening in Mississippi.” Everyone left this meeting with a desire and commitment to network, support, and collaborate to promote our common goals and values. Marion Sansung, and Alison and Mike Bueler from the Gaining Ground Sustainability Institute of Mississippi shared how they have been doing this type of collaborative work and provided many positive suggestions for how we can work with them to continue these efforts. The the enthusiasm, energy, commitment, and knowledge of a group of young people working with the Food Corps left us with tremendous hope and optimism.

It’s the LAST WEEK to get an early-purchase discount on a 2012 Yokna Bottoms CSA Food-Share! Check out the CSA tab at the top of the page!

For questions about CSA please call us at 662 380-2367 or E-Mail yoknabottoms@gmail.com

     As the 2011 Growing Season comes to a successful conclusion with our final CSA distribution the week before Thanksgiving and the Taylor Holiday Parade and Market this Saturday, the Yokna Bottoms Family would like to thank everyone without whom we wouldn’t be here now.  To all of our Shareholders, our Interns, Volunteers, Field-Hands, fellow farmers, chefs, restaurant owners, locavores, Market-goers, friends and family alike, we’d like to extend a hearty Thank You for the love and support we’ve felt during our second season of production here in Lafayette Co.

      We’re greatful for the community we’re part of, and hope to see the 2012 Growing Season develop North Mississippi’s Premiere Farmer’s Market in Oxford.  We also look forward to further serving our CSA Members in new and exciting ways as we lay the foundation for more farmland, increased production, and crops previously unavailable at a local level in Lafayette County.  With our involvement in Gaining Ground, the Sustainibility Institute of Mississippi, we hope to incorporate more sustainable practices on our own farm, and to share these concepts with our community.  Look forward to a myriad of on-farm activities as the season gets underway, including workshops on widely divergent topics ranging from Canning, Drying, and Pickling, Container Gardening, Extending the Growing Season, Local Food Economy, Secrets of the Spice Cabinet, Backyard Poultry, Home Composting, Cooking Classes, and many, many more.

     Please check back regularly as we will be updating our Website weekly with our progress preparing for spring planting throughout this winter.

     In summation, an open letter to our Food Shareholders from Farm Owner and Co-Founder Doug Davis.  Thank you all again.

Warmest Regards,

The Yokna Bottoms Family

Dear Food-Share Holder,

As we come to the end of our second CSA season, the Yokna(Patawpha) Bottoms Farm family would like to express our sincere appreciation for your involvement with and support of our farm.

As of October 31^st, we have distributed 541 points of food per full food-share this season. We distributed food Fridays in Oxford and Saturdays in Taylor 26 weeks in a row. Our level and quality of food production was at the high end of our goals and we are more encouraged than ever that local sustainable food production is a viable economic enterprise for the Oxford area. Based on our distribution and market records, we are estimating that we grew close to 35,000 pounds of food this season on less than two acres of land. All of the credit for this goes to the farmers who grew the food and brought it to distribution and market.

The daily operations of the farm began the 2011 season under the leadership of Daniel Doyle and Taylor Murchison, progressed through the summer with Taylor, and ended the season with the arrival of Montana Stovall, his partner Anne Marie Herrington and their children Indigo (2 years) and Malakai (10 weeks). Taylor is enrolling at the University of Mississippi fulltime in the spring and Montana is going to be the Farm Manager next season while Taylor will continue with the farm in a supporting role. In addition to Daniel, Taylor, and Montana, we have many farmers without who’s hard work we could not have been successful; these include our three interns (Dakota Kolb, Lauren Harrelson, and Ann Marie Schott), twenty work-share farmers from around the country and world—Sean (Ohio), Tori (Massachusetts), Vince (Iowa), Collum (Ireland), Michael (Ireland), Hali (California), Erin (California), Lou (Quebec), Thomas (France), David (Alabama), Nick (Pascagoula), Keeli (Pennsylvania), Jami (New Jersey), Alex (England), Alexe (France), Nicolas (France), Trish (Missouri), Erica (Texas), Paul (Texas), and Ron (Georgia)—and numerous volunteers and part-time farmers (See list in the forthcoming Annual Report). 

In closing, we sincerely hope that you will continue to support the farm with a purchase of a 2012 food-share and encourage anyone interested to also purchase a share. As part of our vision of creating strong communities, Yokna(Patawpha) Bottoms Farm is committed to being a transparent organization. We are preparing a 2011 Report that describes our vision, goals and organizational philosophy, provides an overview of the 2011 season, and discusses our opportunities, challenges, and needs as we move into the future. We hope to have this ready to pass out at our bonus distributions. When you receive your copy, please take a few moments to read through the report and know that we welcome any questions, comments, concerns, or recommendations you may have.

Kind Regards,

Doug Davis

Owner and Cofounder

Yokna(Patawpha) Bottoms Farm, LLC

Each Saturday morning, the Farmer’s Market in Taylor, MS welcomes patrons from all around North Mississippi into its glorious green space, Plein Air.  The vendors in Taylor are as diverse as their wares, and you won’t find a better venue for local organic produce, meat and shrimp, home grown music, and crafts made with love and care.

Our friend Kerry (right) at Poultry in Motion Farm serves up farm fresh eggs, organic veggies, homemade breads, and and endless array of creative canned goods.  Annie, (below, top) the local apothecary, serves up homemade herbal remedies, tinctures, and oils.  She is an encyclopedia of plant knowledge.  Michelle (below, bottom) from Cypress Lake Soaps crafts some beautiful and aromatic soaps, and our pal Brad at Old Thyme Farm is keeping us full and happy with his local organic pork and veggies.

And there are so many other great craftspeople and farmers to shower you with their love and yummies!  So join us this Saturday from 8-12 for this joyful cooperative market.  It’ll be a toe-tappin’ good time!

This Week’s featured food: Okra!

It’s mid-July and our fields are overflowing with great vegetables!  We are scurrying to keep everything weeded, harvested, watered, and generally happy.  This work is difficult, hot, and never-ending, but it is also tremendously rewarding.  It is sacramental.  We can feel the basic elements of sustainability working through and around us to create something out of almost nothing.  Our long hours and hard work are gratified by truckloads of beautiful, fresh heirloom tomatoes; firm cucumbers, melons, and squash; and plentiful beans and peas.  We are overjoyed by the ability to see a tiny seedling mature into a plant that can produce enough food for a family, and even more overjoyed by the potential for sharing our food with our community, thereby legitimizing what was formerly just a dream of sustainability and cooperation.  We are so proud of our farm and its bountiful spread.  Stay cool out there, and viva las locavores!

Fun in the Sun(flowers)!  Our neighbor James is growing a field of sunflowers just north of our fields. This is a wonderful treat for all of our bees and for Dakota.

Summer is soon to be officially upon us, and our fields are bursting forth with blackberries who come to celebrate with us. Ripening by the minute, these berries bring us a sweet treat with a just a touch of sour to remind us of balance, to sit poised somewhere in the middle if possible.  The summer season officially begins on the summer solstice,  when, for one day, we turn closest to the sun as we will be all year, before beginning the journey away from the sun again.  And, just like the sun, now is the time for the blackberry to shine, to be the star of the show, to brighten your life and nourishing you with life-giving goodness.  

We would love to share our blackberries with you, and we welcome you to come and pick from our fields. Just let us know when you would like to come, and we will be happy to work something out with you.

We also invite you to come celebrate the Summer Solstice with us at our drum circle next Tuesday, June 21, from 8:30-10:30pm. The blackberries will be right there waiting for you,too.

–Amanda Margolis