Today we’d like to introduce you to Ilana Margulis and Zach Richards.
Ilana and Zach, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We started growing food together in 2015, in north Georgia, where Zach was interning on a Permaculture farm in the mountains. I (Ilana) drove up to visit him and see what all the hoopla was about, and from the moment my feet touched the ground, I became consumed by the lush vegetation, the fresh air, butterflies and bees dancing in the air around us, and the beautiful family that was raising their daughter in such a haven. (The 360* mountain views didn’t exactly underwhelm, either!)
I had just graduated from GSU, and I was still in that what-to-do-with-my-life headspace until that weekend. Zach was finishing his degree in Horticulture, and the 2 of us decided right there that this was the lifestyle we wanted for ourselves, and although we had strictly been friends for several years, we serendipitously decided then and there that we wanted to build that life together.
It was like one of those magical movie scenes when the wind is blowing the leaves in a spiral around you, and the music elevates, and you both feel like you’re floating, and you know that something seriously momentous is happening. Those story-book moments never really happened to me, but there was some serious magic in the air that weekend.
So now here we are, 3 years later, both working full-time to run our own farm on borrowed land, plotting & scheming our next big adventure (we’re getting married in October), and making big moves toward purchasing our very own forever farm. As hard as the work has been, both mentally and physically taxing, it’s been worth every bead of sweat.
Our goal is to optimize our systems to the point where we are able to maintain the operation by working no more than 50 hours a week. This is entirely possible, and we’re already heading in that direction. We aim to provide a model for new and small farm families, who want to effectively start and run an operation on less than 5 acres of land (we are currently cultivating around an acre of a 2.5-acre field), with non-permanent infrastructure, and fully capable of economically sustaining the family and business while regenerating the soil and feeding the ecosystem.
Has it been a smooth road?
Let me put it this way. We are first-generation farmers, so neither of us really knew what lay ahead when we decided to take the plunge. There have been so many adjustments we’ve had to make, regarding just about everything from going out to eat whenever we wanted, wearing clean clothes on a regular basis (and for the whole day), sleeping in past sunrise, and enjoying evenings, weekends, and summers off of work/school.
So that alone was a big bumpy part of the road — developing the habit of cooking at home for almost every meal, becoming comfortable with ending the day semi-covered in soil, sweat, and fish emulsion (if you don’t know, don’t ask), waking up at an hour when even some flowers are still sleeping, missing out on fun nights with friends, and spending weekends working at farmers markets or catching up on field work instead of traveling to music festivals.
And all of that doesn’t even touch on the tireless crop planning, infrastructure designing and building, field clearing and replanting, harvesting, designing efficient systems for everything from irrigation to washing & packing, developing relationships with restaurant clients, diagnosing crop failure, mitigating erosion, jumping out of bed in dead Winter at 10:45 PM because we’re not sure if we covered the carrots or not, and the weather forecast is now predicting snow…
There are so many reasons why people quit farming. I have had nightmares about poor germination, irreparable deer damage, pigweed invasions, and a plethora of other farm horrors. But the fact that, in the face of every potential agricultural adversary, we continue to move forward and choose to learn from each mistake, tells me that it’s all been the easiest choice we’ve ever had to make. There are so many factors that could so easily deter us from pursuing our dream, but they don’t stand a chance against our determination.
Besides, it turns out, we love cooking at home. We’ve never felt healthier, stronger, or more gratified with any lifestyle choices before farming together.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a small, family farm, whose focus is primarily on growing food for our local, metro-Atlanta community. We maintain a small farmers market presence, but we grow mostly for our local chefs. These folks are artists, and we get really stoked, knowing they’re using our crops to create their masterpieces!
We specialize in salad greens, small root vegetables, and other veggies you can mostly eat raw. Zach always tells people, “You brush your teeth to keep your mouth clean, so you eat a salad to keep your guts clean. Fresh veggies are like toothbrushes for your insides.” In addition to salad mixes and seasonal veggies, we also grow a small production of ornamental flowers, which both provide a beautiful landscape and lots of fresh pollination stations for our winged insect friends.
We are probably best known at markets and restaurants for our salad mix, but we also love growing unique, specialty produce that our chefs love to work with. A real point of pride for us is the efficiency of the systems we’ve implemented at Levity. Just the 2 of us run the farm, with a weekly volunteer and occasional (but very gracious) friends who stop by to help out with a project or two. In order for the farm to succeed, we have to depend on proper systems, which will be unique to any operation.
What sets us apart from most of our fellow metro-Atlanta farmers, is we don’t focus primarily on markets. We don’t offer a CSA. Our main efforts are targeted at restaurants and local chefs. Markets are great, we love our community and getting to spend a few hours a week with our fellow small-business owners and DIY entrepreneurs, but for our 2-person operation, we have decided that the model of a restaurant-farm is appropriate.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Atlanta is an AWESOME city for just about any business I can think of. There is such diversity of culture, geography, you name it, but it’s particularly great for anyone seeking to develop an agriculture business. Our city is the first in the whole nation to appoint a Director of Urban Agriculture, who works to increase opportunities for urban farmers, build and maintain networks for farmers to engage with one another, and connect farmers with government resources that might have otherwise seemed unattainable.
There are organizations like Georgia Organics, Community Farmers Markets, and Food Well Alliance, to name just a few, whose sole purpose is to enrich the opportunities for local farmers and encourage and inspire enthusiasm and appreciation for the great work of environmental stewardship and distribution of fresh, healthy food throughout areas of need.
We also are fortunate to have a strong network of Atlanta farmers, who, in the few hours when they’re not toiling at their own farms or trying to catch up on any sleep they can spend their energy hosting events and meetings to provide support for their fellow agriculturalists. Establishments such as SoulShine Permaculture-Inspired Preschool and Afterschool and Community Farmers Markets’ Outreach Program mean that Atlanta’s youth is exposed to the concepts of growing food and homesteading, which foreshadows the next generation being even more agriculturally enthusiastic than we are.
So, yes, yes! A thousand times, YES! Atlanta and surrounding suburbs are a great place to start a farm. There are areas where land is very pricey, and I definitely acknowledge that we have been graced with a rare opportunity to farm affordably in Alpharetta, but there are also many neighborhoods with affordable lots that are ready to be converted into viable grow space. Rooftops, backyards, even shipping containers are all great places to get started growing.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.levityfarms.com
- Phone: 770-380-3146
- Email: levityfarms@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/levityfarmsatl
- Facebook: facebook.com/levityfarms
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