Category Archives: Economy

Turpentine Afterburn 2023-12-22

Two things I had never seen before: a turpentine catface burning, and a guide metal for a McCoy turpentine cup.

[Catface burning, Turpentine guide, Nail that held the cup, the loblolly pine tree]
Catface burning, Turpentine guide, Nail that held the cup, the loblolly pine tree

This was during and the day after our prescribed burn of December 21, 2023.

Also, this catface was on a loblolly, not a longleaf pine.

And since it was hacked into the tree during the Great Depression, in the turpentining that paid off the mortgage on the farm, in the 85 or so years since the tree had grown out around it, yet left the actual catface exposed. Continue reading

Okra Paradise Farms is disappointed in farmer Bill Gates 2021-06-08

Okra Paradise Farms doesn’t always get into national news, but when we do it’s about Bill Gates.

April Glaser, NBC News, 8 June 2021, updated 9 June 2021, McDonald’s french fries, carrots, onions: all of the foods that come from Bill Gates farmland: Gates does not appear to count his farming investments as the nation’s largest farmland owner as part of his broader strategy to save the climate.

The story goes into some detail about how a few big corporate farmland owners crowd out small farmers. She didn’t go for my comparison to Wal-Mart, and I suppose my comparison to the Highland Clearances was a bit too obscure, but she got the point and backed it up with documentation.

Then there’s this part:

“Shell of a shell of a shell”

Public records suggest Cascade Investments has bought its farmland through a web of at least 22 limited liability shell companies across the country. These shell companies have made it difficult to find out where and how much farmland the Gateses own even for local farmers, like John S. Quarterman, a farmer and landowner who grows okra, corn, squash and other vegetables in Lowndes County on the southern edge of Georgia.

[John Quarterman on his farm in Lowndes County, Ga. Matt Odom / for NBC News]
John Quarterman on his farm in Lowndes County, Ga. Matt Odom / for NBC News

That’s where the Gateses began buying land in 2013 through two limited liability corporations registered to an address in Kirkland by Derek Yurosek, then head of agriculture operations for Cascade.

When Quarterman first heard about Gates’ firm buying land in the area, he began digging through local property records, linking addresses and business records from registered owners to Kirkland-based companies, until he was able to piece together that the companies buying multiple tracts of land in the Suwannee River Basin were all a “shell of a shell of a shell company investing for Bill Gates.” NBC News’ independently confirmed that there were, in fact, shell companies tracing back to Gates’ firm that purchased 6,021 acres across four counties in Georgia.

That includes Continue reading

At Pinevale: South Georgia Growing Local 2017

tractor New location with cooking facilities!

When: Saturday, January 21st 2017

Where: Pinevale Elementary School, 930 Lake Park Road, Valdosta GA.

Event: facebook

Thanks to Valdosta Board of Education for use of this facility at a reasonable rate.

See the web page, facebook event, or facebook community for updates.

Dirt Road Organics Hard at Work in Valdosta 2016-02-24

Proof the elusive Tom Kuettner can be captured. Gretchen Quarterman delivered popcorn from Okra Paradise Farms to Cory Danner and picked up our order yesterday from Dirt Road Organics Buying Club.

Tom Kuettner delivers juice to Gretchen Quarterman

More pictures below.

Continue reading

Growing local for local economy –Gretchen Quarterman on the Chris Beckham 105.9 radio show @ SOGALO15 2015-01-24

Really on the air this morning, and now on YouTube, talking about “quite the event” as Chris Beckham called it, South Georgia Growing Local, this Saturday, January 24th at Pine Grove Middle School, in Lowndes County, Georgia. Five times five: five tracks in five sessions, from soil to planting to cooking and nutrition, including aquaponics by UGA Professor Pat Duncan and local oils by national award winner Clay Oliver. Space still available; sign up now!


Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms (OPF).

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Raising goats. Is it a hobby or a business? –Bobbie Golden @ SOGALO15 2015-01-24

South Georgia Growing Local is also for North Florida, where these goats live.

  • Breeds that are most likely to live in our environment
  • How to market and get some return on your investment

Bobbie’s business is Golden Acres Ranch, between Monticello Florida, and Thomasville, Georgia. Come hear Bobbie talk about her goats at South Georgia Growing Local 2015, this Saturday, January 24th, at Pine Grove Middle School, in Lowndes County, Georgia.

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Small organic farms can (already) feed the world

Research, including studies presented at the conference in Istanbul, is showing that organic agriculture can deliver reliably high yields ”and that organic fields thrive in the face of disaster and duress, where chemical-reliant crops falter. Organic fields, for example, fare significantly better than chemically managed ones in the face of extreme weather, such as droughts or floods.

Anna Lappe, for takepart, 4 November 2014, Yes, Organic Farming Can Feed the World, Continue reading

Roundup bred mutant pigweed

With GM crops come herbicides, which breed resistant weeds. This has happened in about a decade for the worse mutants. We can reverse the problem by reversing the spraying, using plowing, cultivation, and crop rotation instead.

Mark Jeschke wrote for Pioneer Dupont, Crop Insights: Weed Management in the Era of Glyphosate Resistance, Continue reading

Mobile Market at Barnes Drug Store every Tuesday

Today Lowndes County Partnership for Health picked up some OPF red potatoes to sell at their Mobile Market. Next week probably OPF okra. And every week other good vegetables and fruits from other farmers.

Here’s a South Health District facebook post of 10 June 2014:

It’s Tuesday – know what that means? The Mobile Market, full of fresh fruits and vegetables, will be at Barnes Drug Store Downtown Valdosta from 2:30-4:30! They’re there every Tuesday! Come by and see them…they accept all forms of payment.

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Valdosta Farm Days –Gretchen on WALB

Gretchen is at the old Lowndes County Courthouse now, setting up for Valdosta Farm Days, 9AM to 1PM today.

By Colter Anstaetts reported from Okra Paradise Farms for WALB yesterday, Lowndes County farmers ready for “Farm Days”,

Lowndes County farmers will be at the courthouse in downtown Valdosta from 9 a.m.to 1 p.m. selling their crops. This is the fourth year for the “Farm Days” program, and Lowndes County farmers are looking forward to it.

“I’m definitely looking forward to Farm days,” said Gretchen Quarterman, a farmer in Hahira. “It’s an excellent opportunity for farmers, not only to sell but for local people to get local, fresh food. And, when we buy from local farmers we support the local economy.”

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