No Spray U-Pick Strawberry Farm

Ecosystem Farm grows soil microbes, which allows us to grow healthy, nutrient dense food without the use of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or fertilizers. This year we ran Georgia's only organic strawberry u-pick. We also lost the land we had tended for 3 years, and need funding to purchase and set up our new location in South Atlanta.

Reason for Fundraising

Our primary use of this loan will be to build essential infrastructure and plant strawberries for the spring season, as well as raise funds to purchase the new property before May 1, 2021. Due to delays funding this through FSA, we are engaging our community to crowdfund the capital we need.

In addition to acquiring land, funds will go towards the following expenses:

1. Setting up 8ft perimeter fencing for security. We’ll be using a deer fencing kit with lighting to secure our 1 acre growing space.

2. Bringing in 3,500 yards of compost and organic material. To maintain our no-spray ethos, we’ll be buying in compost, mulch hay and wood chips to ensure plants have the organic material to support a soil food web.

3. Incorporate garlic into the strawberry rows. This is an opportunity to diversify our revenue, and hedge against underperforming strawberries. We will be planting organic garlic and purchasing equipment to make black garlic - of which we’ll be the only suppliers in the area.

Sustainable Agriculture Practices

We are farmers of a diverse soil ecosystem - our plants are simply the product of healthy soil. Using a combination of methods from Dr. Elaine Ingham, Jairo Restrepo and John Kempf, we grow food without pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or fertilizers. Our only input is organic matter while establishing a new space, and inoculations of soil organisms if we identify missing pieces of the soil food web. Our strawberries are treated as perennial plants, and will have a low growing perennial understory to ensure no soil is ever left exposed. As the soil develops in this space, we plan to incorporate additional annual and perennial fruits to occupy different niches in the plant community and provide additional income streams to improve our farm’s resilience.