Village Farmacy and Herb Collector

Commodities

• Additional Plants: herbs

Practices

• Crop Production: varieties and cultivars
• Farm Business Management: new enterprise development
• Sustainable Communities: local and regional food systems, new business opportunities

With the growing interest in herb plants and seeds in the United States and beyond, it would stand to reason that with the proper training and experience, a new farmer or an existing farmer could venture into herb plants and seeds as a cash crop in the state of Georgia. Not much land is needed to produce a variety of popular herbs and the market is available via social media, on retail media networks like Amazon and through collaboratives like the Common Market in Atlanta, GA. Gone on the days when one has to depend on foot traffic to make a dollar.

The Village Community Garden farm project will launch the Village Farmacy and Herb Collector project as a demonstration and training site for herb production and will engage its existing community members and surrounding rural counties and beyond from seed to market. The project also seeks to provide research on herbs that are not readily available in the stores or in Georgia. For example, with the assistance of University of Georgia, Dr. Greg Fonsah planted forty-one banana plants at the farm project to demonstrate that bananas can grow in Georgia. The Village Farmacy and Herb Collector is also interested in growing and cultivating unusual seeds like saffron which is normally grown in the Middle East. However, a couple of people in Vermont along with the University of Vermont seem to be growing the herb successfully.

The Village Farmacy and Herb Collector project will expand our current farming practice to include an entrepreneurial and agriculture business focus ventures focused on herb and seed production as a cash crop. We expect to expand our educational outreach to include business practices needed to make a living with farming. We will experiment with growing herbs three ways - in aeroponic towers, perennial peanuts as ground cover and on raised beds with plastic.

The expected outcome is that minority and under-served farmers can encourage each other through collaborations with innovative techniques, economic growth, healthy living, food security and improved quality of life. Southern Sky Center endeavors to assist minority and under-served farmers to create a livelihood from their land. Encouraging more farmers of color and under-served communities to enter the field of agriculture is the overarching goal of the project. The vulnerable populations of Worth County, Dougherty County and beyond, youth, and new generation farmers and farm enthusiast, food producers and the society at large will be significantly impacted by this project.

For the last ten years, Southern Sky continues to work and expand our reach to new farmers and farm enthusiasts. Therefore, the farm project has gained considerable recognition through the years and we are already training and working with several farmers interested in replicating the Village Community Garden farm project.  As it stands, vegetable growers may consider growing herbs and, they usually think of fresh-market herbs. Fresh market herbs can be grown on large acreages for sales to wholesalers and chain stores or on very small acreages for direct sales to restaurants, farmer’s markets, and specialty grocery stores. Finding the resources for getting started in fresh-market herb production are now readily available with the popularity of herbs and naturopath.

One of the most important cultural considerations for herbs is site selection which has already been selected. The site has good drainage, adequate water supply, and we will utilize black plastic which has been prepping the land for the last two years. Black plastic had the best results for reducing weeds.  Also, twenty-five aeroponic will grow herbs. Ten towers grow the equivalent of 2 acres of food. The aeroponic towers are housed in the hoop house which will also be used for seedling before transplanting. Our partner at 1Dog Ventures LLC will assist the project with herb fertilization as they have an expertise through their citrus production.

The Village Farmacy and Herb Collector project will market the seeds and the herb plants.  There will be a high demand for bedding plants in the spring and the fall. We expect to use our existing hoop house for now because it will produce a variety of herbs including annuals and perennials. The herb plants can be sold in many ways including mail order, specialty shops, nurseries, and spring fairs and festivals.

The key to being successful with herbs is the marketing. There is such a diversity of herbs and herb products, therefore there are many opportunities for all size herb operations. There’s also the opportunity to produce value-added products from the herbs. Because the herbal industry is new to most new and existing farmers, the Village Farmacy and Herb Collector project will utilize the farm and the demonstration site to educate the public.

When harvesting the herbs, planning ahead to identify when to harvest and what needs to be harvested from the plant is pivotal since not all herb parts are harvested the same way. There is so much to learn about herbs as medicine. However, now more than ever, resource information is now available to laymen.  Post harvest handling is also significant to understand in order to not damage the roots and herbs.

Throughout the project, the plan is to adhere to seven industry specific Key Performance indicators for herb farming which is imperative to measuring success. The initial measures performed will be quantitative and will include annual herb yield and sales volume. By tracking annual yield will help with productivity and profitability for the farm operation. It will also allow for any modification and areas of improvement when necessary. Once the product is present to market, quantitative research will measure customer satisfaction through surveys and after sales ratings, sales growth rate, sales volume, herb quality rating and return on investment (ROI).