Meet EliYahu Ysrael, a New Yorker turned Georgian when his father felt a draw to the state in what EliYahu describes as a “divine calling”. EliYahu is a 2nd generation farmer whose family operates Local Lands Organically Grown Gardens, a 40 acre farm in Dublin, Georgia, as well as Atlanta Harvest, which will be relocating their Jonesboro farm to Ellenwood in the coming weeks. A little more on that later.
I spoke with EliYahu about his journey and inspiration to get into farming. He told me he owes it to his father. That “divine calling” his father had years ago lead them to create an organic farming paradise and bring their passion to Metro Atlanta with an additional farm that would serve the Jonesboro community and create access to healthy and fresh foods. EliYahu and his family did it right, but that also meant it was a labor of love. Local Lands Organically Grown Gardens in Dublin, GA had nothing on it when EliYahu and his father first acquired it. He told me they rented a room at a local hotel at first, then eventually got a camper to be able to stay on the property. They then got the greenhouses built, the barn, and finally the houses. The food that they grow, such as peppers, figs, squashes, lots of heirloom products, japanese eggplant, and asian cucumbers to name a few, grow on about 20 acres. The rest of the land has orchards and animals spread throughout it creating a wonderfully diverse eco-system that nourishes each other.
EliYahu and his family were then taking their freshly grown and picked produce to the farmer’s markets around Atlanta. This helped them create relationships with chefs and gain a loyal following among residents in the metro area. They then were lucky enough to find a location in Jonesboro where they could build a nursery for seedlings and open a farm-stand in the parking lot where they could sell meat, teas, coffee, jams, jellies, honey, seedlings, fruit trees, produce, soil, compost, and more to the community, as well as provide an access point for information on all things farming. EliYahu says they want to teach people and be a resource for them and bringing access and information to the people is the first step.
This thinking ultimately lead EliYahu and his family to start a non-profit called Cultivating Humanity. According to their mission statement, the 501(c)(3) seeks “to decrease incidences of food insecurity in the Clayton county and Metro Atlanta Areas through dignified partnership and educational opportunities for the community at large”. Through Cultivating Humanity, Atlanta Harvest can donate food and raise money for organizations in the food movement to increase accessibility for farm fresh food. Members of Atlanta Harvest also provide classes through Cultivating Humanity on various subjects. Some classes are about learning how to farm, others are on learning how to use produce, learning how to raise animals, learning how to can vegetables and more. The key is to educate and provide information to anyone who is interested. As EliYahu told me, this is his passion in life and as long as there is someone with a question, he will be there to answer it.
We then turned our discussion to the hot topic of the year, the coronavirus pandemic. EliYahu’s father has a background in marketing and business and when things started looking questionable back in early March, he started taking the steps to change their model so they would be ready to adapt. The CSA program became more robust and they had to start doing deliveries. They changed the functions at the farm and the scale of production in order to increase it so they could service families in and around Atlanta. Having this perspective in the beginning allowed them to stay afloat and continue to service the communities. However, things are far from what they were before. Their restaurant business has drastically decreased, the classes that they were offering had to pause as they figure out how to bring them online or whether they can have them at all. The farm was also a popular school trip option for kids where they would get tours of the farm and receive hands-on learning, of course this stopped as well.
Despite the chaos and the rapid changes, there is still growth and opportunity. EliYahu and the team at Atlanta Harvest are preparing for their move to the Ellenwood farm location as I write this. They are thinking of inviting people over to help them build up the property so they can learn and really be a part of the process, and then every time they pass by they can say “hey, I helped build that”. The new location will also have a storefront that will sell other Georgia grown produce and Georgia made goods. EliYahu describes this as having a “co-op vibe”, where customers will be able to find products made from around the south and be able to support other farms, all in one place.
EliYahu and the team at Atlanta Harvest are ready to go and his optimism about the future is palpable. He hopes the new farm will be ready and growing by the Winter and they will continue to be a source of fresh food and farming information for the community. As our conversation wound down, EliYahu told me that sometimes people have a defeatist attitude about having their own garden, or they say they have a black thumb. He tells them that doesn’t exist, they just had questions they didn’t have answers to at the time. His job is to help people and that is why his father put him on the earth.
If you are interested in volunteering at Atlanta Harvest you can visit their website https://atlantaharvest.com/ or email team@atlantaharvest.com. You can also reach them on Instagram or Twitter @atlantaharvest or on Facebook.
If you want to learn more about their non-profit you can visit http://cultivatinghumanity.net/
