DEW POINT FARM IS a tiny little place — a microfarm or a pocket farm, or, if you prefer, a farmlet — in Columbus, Georgia. In all, it’s about .07 acres and encompasses two small fields. We grow food primarily for farmers markets with a particular eye to getting our vegetables on the plates of people who struggle to access fresh food for economic or geographic reasons. WHERE IS IT? In MidTown Colum
bus. Specifically, it’s in the East Highland neighborhood, just outside of the Weracoba-St. Elmo historic district. For locals trying to place it, we’re a few blocks from Hannan Elementary and Buck Ice & Coal Co. Unlike Buck Ice, though, our product is touched by human hands. WHAT DO YOU GROW? Staple market-garden crops: tomatoes, peppers, turnips, collards, carrots, beets, eggplant, green beans, sweet potatoes, and the like. We dabble with dried beans, fennel, herbs for tea, and other crops as the mood strikes and space permits. We like root vegetables because they’re very shelf stable. WHY IS SHELF-STABLE IMPORTANT? Aside from just liking farming, we built Dew Point for two reasons: First, the city (the county! the country!) needs more growers; even farmers will tell you that. Second, we are trying to combat food insecurity in various pockets of Columbus. Among the people we hope will buy our produce are folks who may not have consistent access to refrigerators. For them to consider buying fresh food, that food must be shelf-stable. We want much of our produce to be able to sit at room temperature for a few days, until they have a chance to cook it. CAN I BUY THE FOOD YOU GROW? Yes and please! We primarily sell at MercyMed’s Farmstand Friday market. It’s open to everyone, but also allows SNAP or food-stamp customers to double their buying power. But full-price customers are not taking food away from others who need it. There’s plenty to go around. We should have a booth at MercyMed by early May and will return every week through the fall. Local restaurants also buy our food, including, most-significantly, The Food Mill, whose mission closely aligns with ours. Grabbing lunch from them often means you’re buying our produce. (Also, they make darn good food.) ARE YOU AN ORGANIC FARM? Dew Point is a Certified Naturally Grown farm, which is, in essence, organically grown food without the expensive and laborious USDA organic certification. But, as we had to spot-treat privet and kudzu with chemicals before we started growing, we are considered a “transitional” CNG farm through 2022. CAN I TAKE A TOUR? Let’s get through ‘rona first, but sure. We hope to do annual open-house “farm days” for the neighborhood, with a cookout or somesuch when it’s safer. We also hope to work out field trips for small classes with area schools, but a lack of both parking and bathrooms are two big challenges there. Stay tuned. DO YOU HAVE OATS AND PIS AND CHICKENS AND JUNK? Nope, it’s just too small a space. Also, animals require a level of attention that’s over and above what even finicky crops demand. They’re also troublemakers that rightly don’t like being penned in and inevitably find a way out. The farm’s neighbors have chickens, though, so it sounds like a storybook farm. The neighbors are also beekeepers whose little flying friends help pollinate our crops. DO YOU NEED HELP? From time to time we love to have volunteers help us stay ahead of the weeds. Keep an eye on the website or our page for the whens and wheres. IS THIS A COMMUNITY GARDEN? This is a private farm, and we discourage you from harvesting the food from Dew Point Farm. 🙂 We don’t make a living wage doing this; it’s a passion project. We only aspire to earn enough to pay the bills and then maybe a bit more to compensate us for our time. Operating it as a private farm gives us more incentive to make it successful and to push our yields. The lack of that incentive is why many community gardens wither after just a season or two.
