Atlanta's first urban organic farm! Wheat Street Garden

Rashid Nuri (right), with Eugene Cooke his CFO (Chief Farming Officer)

volunteers and staff

55 raised beds sit on concrete pads of the former low income housing project

On a vacant lot in downtown Atlanta where low income housing projects once stood, Rashid Nuri, Visionary, Urban Farmer and Educator is realizing his dream of an urban organic farm. The 4 acre site is leased from the historic Wheat Street Baptist Church. The vision for the farm includes 100 fruit trees, vegetables, beehives and flowers, bringing beauty and much needed fresh food to an area that could be described as a food desert. The farm will provide, not only food, but also educational and work opportunities for the neighborhood.

The seed money for the project was provided by the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation and the EPA. Since the groundbreaking on December 5th, in-kind and monetary donations are helping to keep the project going and expanding. There's still lots to do.

If you'd like to help contact Rashid at: admin@trulylivingwell.com

"To me farming is really an art and the people that do it the best are at heart poets."

Skip Glover, farmer.

Jenny-Jack Sun Farm, Pine Mt, GA

Layers, Hope Grows Farm, Sylvania, GA

Tim, Oakleaf Mennonite Farm, Atlanta, GA

Jenny-Jack Sun Farm, Pine Mountain, GA

Riverview Farm - Ranger, GA.

Success!!!

go to grow movie website

GROW! Kickstarter Fundraising Project!

GROW! movie Kickstarter fundraising campaign

Spread the word, share the love!

We're into our final stretch of filming and now we need a little help. So far, with the support of a few friends, our film has been self financed. We're looking to raise some funding for post-production costs - all the things we can't do ourselves, otherwise we wouldn't be asking.

We've launched an on-line fundraising campaign at Kickstarter and we're asking for your help.

Kickstarter is an online platform for crowd funding creative projects.

Kickstarter is all or nothing: if a project does not reach its stated funding goal within the time chosen, no money changes hands.

We have set our goal at $10,000.00 and the duration at 30 days.

Time is up on the 31st of October at 11:00 a.m.

You can see a trailer and find out all about the project here,

http://kck.st/aziHjS

On the site there are easy links to attach to your Facebook, Twitter or however else you choose to communicate these days.

If you are inspired and able to donate, great, if not, could you pass it along - we would be eternally grateful.

Thanks,

Christine and Owen

P.S. If you would like to make a tax deductible contribution, let us know directly and we can make that happen.

Beautiful words from a Farmer

"If you love food, then you've found a friend. If you desire food that's been thoughtfully raised with heart and soul, then you've found a farmer."
Toby Fuller of Pappy's Creek Farm

Sunrise at Bethesda Organic Gardens, Savannah, GA

Reid Archer, the farmer in charge of 4 acres

Cattle fencing

Awhile back we did a posting about the documentary film we're working on about young, organic and sustainable farmers in Georgia called GROW! We post a lot of our photos on the GROW! movie blog, but since we can't post all of them to that site, we've decided to post some of the shots here.

Bethesda Home for Boys believes in a strong practical work ethic for their students, and to that end they have a small cattle operation, video production facilities and last year added the 4 acre organic garden. Reid Archer and his wife Caroline, run the farm which has a small CSA and an on-site Farm Stand.

On Assignment...

Oh those west coast hipsters

DIY Fall 2010 published.
"Two photographers compose their '50s home..."
Photo: Anthony-Masterson
Writer: Lisa Mowry
Styling: Annette Joseph.

Click for issuu viewing


This is that infamous "flooded out" shoot from last year.
FOR FLOOD BACKSTORY GO TO POST 9/21/2009

Hot, young farmers

Arianne and Elliott shared a video they made which was inspired by our recent visit to film them for GROW!

Relinda Walker, Southern Organic Hero

Relinda returned to her third generation family farm on a mission. Motivated by her passion for food, an interest in agriculture and the desire to be part of a healthier food system, she set about to shake things up. Besides farming, she spends her free time educating, mentoring and as the President of Coastal Organic Growers. To find out more about Relinda go to Walker Organic Farms.

Douglasville, GA.

Field Washing Vegetables with Cory Mosser

A handy hint from a young organic farmer

Morning at Serenbe Farm

Who Grows Your Food?

Lorri Mason is a "suburban-urban-style" farmer in Douglasville, Georgia. Her farm, Stems n Roots, consists of 64 raised beds, 8 chickens and some bees.

Assignment: GuestBook-Atlanta

Atlanta Botanical Gardens.
(Cover: Aquatic Plant Pond)

(Chihuly fountain)











Assignment from WhereTraveler.

It's Harvest Time!!!

Serenbe Farm

Urban Farmer, Local Hero, Truly Nice Guy

K. Rashid Nuri is an Urban Farmer and Agri-Educator farming on two donated plots of land within the city of Atlanta. Since 2006 his farm known as Truly Living Well has grown about 10,000 pounds of food annually. Besides growing food, Rashid has helped to grow new farmers through his tireless efforts as a mentor and educator.

Crimping at Love is Love Farm

Last year, Joe Reynolds' crops were destroyed by flood waters rushing over his fields. The waters also took with them valuable top soil. This year, to protect the farm from losing topsoil in the event of another flood, and to help rebuild the soil, he is using no-till practices.

We were out filming Joe and his interns for GROW! and he asked us to put together this demo video to share with other farmers.

Moore Farm, Woodland, AL.

GROW! The Movie

For those of you who have been following along, you probably know about FARM!, our first documentary about young farmers in Georgia.

We filmed it on a Flip Ultra in 2008. It was an official selection of the 2009 Rome International Film Festival and also showed at the EcoFocus Film Festival in Athens. Thousands of people have seen it online and at various private screenings. It is also part of the permanent collection of the Centro Internazionale Crocevia in Rome.

That was two years ago and a lot has happened to our original farmers since then. Along the way, we've also met more new young farmers. We picked up a Panasonic HPX170HDP2 camera. And we decided to make a new film, bigger and better than the last one. It's called GROW!

There is a burgeoning agricultural movement taking place in Georgia. GROW! provides a look at this brave new world of farming through the eyes and minds of young, new and seasoned farmers, their mentors, enablers and community supporters.

Because our food system is broken, our hope for GROW! as with FARM!, is to encourage more young people to take up farming, to offer a good argument for people with land to turn it over to young farmers and for communities to support these endeavors.

Anybody who appreciates the value of good wholesome food grown close to home, who cares about our food supply and the future of farming will want to see GROW!

We will be posting photos, film clips and updates as we go along. Stay tuned and GROW!

Sara Jane Dancing

Coles Lake Dairy, Carrolton, GA

Last fall we visited Mark Stevens and Daniel Young and their herd of Saanen, Nubian and La Mancha goats at their beautiful dairy farm. The girls are well taken care of and happy and each has a name. Their cheese is amazing.

Thoughts on Healthy Eating

Words of wisdom, from an organic farmer... Sometimes when we are out filming for a particular project, we are given some special beautiful moments. Stan is new to farming. Here he states, rather eloquently, how he came to it.