Entries by Emilie Ritter

Designing a Coffee and Avocado Alley Cropping System

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This video case study takes us on a tour of Jason Mraz’s family farm in San Diego, California, where he is growing both specialty coffee and avocados in a single integrated alley cropping system. Combining multiple crops into one system creates synergistic inter-specific relationships that improve both crop production and the environment. In warm climates […]

Avocado Production 101 for Southern California

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In this video, organic farmer Scott Murray covers all the basics of growing avocados in Southern California. Scott discusses how to establish a new planting, irrigation, nutrient management, weed management, pruning, scaffolding, harvest, ensuring effective pollination, and varieties appropriate for Southern California. For more information on how to grow avocados in Southern California, reach out […]

Willard Tillman

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Willard Tillman directs the Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc. His hardscrabble and humble beginnings taught him a work ethic and the art of hustle. He gained a sense of principles from the people he was exposed to and stayed away from trouble and troublemakers. He undertook various entrepreneurial endeavors, but when his grandmother became ill, […]

Shakera Raygoza

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Shakera and Juan Raygoza started  Terra Preta Farm in Edinburg, Texas, 14 years ago, and they have accomplished a lot while staying connected to the local community. Their farming journey has not been easy, but they have overcome obstacles through hard work, networking, and constantly adapting to consumer markets and nature.  Terra Preta means dark soil […]

Ruiz Family

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The Ruiz family operates a socially disadvantaged Hispanic/Latinx family farm, Products from Paradise. While father Salvador Ruiz is the primary farmer, everyone in the family helps with the work.  His daughter and son help with logistics, delivery, and acquiring new stores to carry their products.    Salvador’s farm story began in Mexico, where his father and […]

Precious Williams

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Precious Williams is a farmer advocate and small-scale farmer who operates a half-acre farm from her home in Ashdown, Arkansas. She has been helping farmers for many years and decided to get back into farming as time progressed. Her understanding of the value farming contributes to the community at large came from her childhood when […]

Natasha “Jonelle” Roberson

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Just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Jonelle Roberson purchased 18 acres of land in Blythe, Georgia, with the intention of creating a living space for her family. With the onset of COVID-19, she was inspired to produce enough food to eliminate her family’s dependence on grocery stores. As it turned out, growing and managing the garden […]

Kigwana Cherry

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Kigwana Cherry has been growing vegetables with his family since he was a child. Eight years ago, he began to develop an urban farm at his home in Augusta, Georgia. His back yard includes roughly ¼ acre of production space where he raises chickens and grows crops in raised beds. He practices what is referred […]

Jason Puryear

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Jason Puryear of Meadville, Pennsylvania, got his start in the food world through the restaurant industry. As relationships with the farmers in his area began to grow, and the number of small farmers started to dwindle, the idea of producing vegetables started to take hold. Eventually, Jason began attending farmer training programs and it was […]

Grace Brown

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Grace Brown is the founder of Uncle Paul’s Agritourism and Education Farm in Tyler, Texas. She started gardening in grade school, at her boarding school garden. Historically, her family did oyster farming in the ocean and also raised vegetables. She restarted farming in the backyard and founded Uncle Paul’s Agritourism and Educational farm after demand […]