Meet Wes & Charlotte of Riverview Farms! We are happy to have Riverview Farms as one of our partners since the beginning of Garnish & Gather. You may have seen their famous grits or meats in many of our meal kits. To learn more about Riverview Farm and their mission, check out a recent interview with them below.
Tell us about Riverview Farms. What is your mission and how did you get started?
At Riverview Farms, we have a passion for growing healthy delicious food and feeding families. Our second-generation farm started in 1975 when Wes Swancy's father Carter purchased the land. In 2000, times were tough and the farm was on the brink. Wes & his wife Charlotte left their chemistry studies at UGA to return to the farm where they started Riverview’s organic production.
Where is your farm located?
Our farm is between Cartersville and Chatsworth, on the banks of the Coosawattee River 1.5 hours north of Atlanta.
What does a typical day on the farm look like?
We're a full-circle operation that as much as possible acts as a self-contained entity. That gives us control over every aspect of production – a difference that shows in the quality of the food we produce. Our animals are bred on the farm and live their entire lives foraging our pastures and woodlots eating the certified organic food that we grow for them.
Produce farming follows the seasonal needs of each individual plant. Our non-GMO heirloom corn is planted in the spring, dried and harvested in the fall, and gently stoneground fresh-to-order every week to make our grits, cornmeal, and polenta.
Your farm is a closed loop ecosystem. Can you explain what this means?
Our farm is indeed an ecosystem -- its own organism. We make all of our decisions based upon the life and fertility of the soil that our farm is built upon. Manure from our animals is fully composted and used to build fertility of our soils. Those soils in turn grow vegetables and the feed for our animals. We don't bring in off-farm fertilizers, even organic-certified ones. We never use pesticides that would disrupt the balance of the pollinators, insects, and soil-based organisms; they're still toxic even if they are certified organic. We as farmers create a balance that doesn’t overextend the production capacity of the land.
What does eating locally mean to you?
Eating locally is a revolutionary act that deepens your roots into the soil of the area that you live in. The food that you're serving becomes more than what's on the plate. It's also about the stories that come with that food. It’s also about minimizing the miles your food travels. Our food comes fresh from our fields to our Atlanta-area customers every week, including Garnish and Gather. Our farm exists to feed people in our area; we never ship our food.
