We’ve had another week of solid production. Just yesterday, Jason and I had a great day in the kitchen, our smoothest, most efficient batch yet. We truly felt like we’re becoming masters of our craft.
Those bottles of Strawberry Lemon Cocktail Syrup are heading for Fresh Harvest, where they’ll be available for customers soon. We’re so grateful for their support and really enjoy working with them.
We also got our first barcodes in, and they look amazing on the labels! Big thanks to Stephanie Luke for working with us to get the design right. This is a critical step for our next venture into retail locations.
Lastly, I dropped off a bottle of Peach Basil Cocktail Syrup for the Flavor of Georgia food contest earlier today. They will announce semi-finalists on Friday evening, so keep your fingers crossed!
But the big exciting news is our recent work with New Communities Land Trust.
New Communities has a long and important legacy in Georgia. Born out of the Civil Rights movement, New Communities has helped Black farmers for decades and serves as a hub for community organizing and healing. New Communities was founded in part by Shirley Sherrod - who has a long history of agricultural excellence in Georgia - and her husband Charles Sherrod - a Civil Rights leader who sadly passed away in October.
You can learn more about the history here and here.
Last year, New Communities -- along with several other partners including Tuskegee University -- received a "climate smart" grant from USDA to plant 1,500 blueberry bushes using a variety of soil amendments and techniques to determine the best way of growing blueberries in Georgia.
Over the next several years, they will test the soil and the plants and provide research for other growers to benefit from and produce blueberries in a changing climate.
The blueberries went into the ground throughout the month of February.
Farmers Jam made a contribution that helped New Communities defray the cost of adding mulch to all of the plants and helped them purchase a tractor attachment which helped make the planting more efficient. The attachment will now be available for other growers in Southwest Georgia to use for future plantings.
Opportunities like this are exactly why we started Farmers Jam and we are grateful to support growers who produce food for their communities in environmentally friendly ways.
We are honored to play a small role in this project, and we very much look forward to the day when we can purchase blueberries from New Communities for our cocktail syrups and jams.
We will share more official communication in the near future in collaboration with New Communities, but we wanted to let you know about this exciting development because each of you has played a role in making this possible. We are truly grateful for all your support, whether it’s attending events, opening emails, sharing words of support, or buying our products. We greatly appreciate it.