Augusta Locally Grown

  Meet My Farmer: Fishheads Aquaponics Farm Catfish are jumpin’;  aquaponics system pumpin’; growing lettuce out in Sardis will never be the same. Please forgive, Doobie Brothers! We couldn’t help ourselves. Giving a new twist to a classic song just seemed like a good way to celebrate two pretty special farmers: Doug and Lisa Dojan of Fisheads. Six years ago, these two didn’t fancy themselves farmers at all. Doug had been (and continues to work) in construction. Lisa is a former 4 th -grade teacher. Today these two grow lettuce in a pristine, all natural, indoor system that produces more leafy greens than they ever imagined possible. In fact, Doug projects that they will grow at least 20,000 pounds of lettuce for sale to the local community in 2018. And they do it all with the help of 700 catfish. Aquaponics is a system of agriculture in which fish waste supplies nutrients for plants to grow. At Fisheads, the fish are raised in an area separated from the lettuce. Filtered water from th

  RADIANT ACRE FARM & GARDEN Jun 3, 2019 Meet My Farmer IT’S MEET MY FARMER MONDAY! City girl meets farmer boy: falls in love; trades in her office-job high heels for manure-kicking boots; never looks back. This is the storybook version of Jana Smith’s life at  Radiant Acres Farm and Garden . But anyone who’s grown food in the South knows better than that. Start-up farming in Georgia would be challenge for any modern American to choose, let alone a person who claims she’d “always been the indoor girl in my family.” You wouldn’t know this upon meeting Jana today. Ponytailed and sunkissed, she grows, harvests, delivers and displays crates of gorgeous veggies, herbs and eggs at market like a seasoned pro. Jana literally glows when she talks about gardening. “It’s amazing to learn how it all works together. Companion planting, natural pest controls, medicinal herbs.” She gets giddy about the luffa gourds she’s got planted for the first time this year. Even more so about her long-term g