Dear Farm Community,

It’s a lucky farm that has such a sweet, knowledgeable, capable, motivated crew. As the seasons change, our farmers do too, and we want to keep you connected to the faces around our fields ~ the people putting in the long hours out here growing the most beautiful, delicious, wholesome food around.

The Beaverdam property has a kind of mind-boggling number of moving parts, so keeping the whole operation humming takes a true tag-team dream-team. We hope you enjoyed Antho’s Know Your Farmer 2.0 in the newsletter last week (check out our Instagram page if you missed it!). Antho is the half of the duo orchestrating the pack shed, making sure everything gets washed, packed, and headed where it needs to go, or, in his own words, serving as the farm’s “Flowfillment Manager.”

This week, y’all get to know the other half of the team: Reid, our dirt-lovin’, trail-hikin’, mythical forest creature of a Field Manager.

Enjoy !!!

What is your role on the farm?
I’m the field manager at our Beaverdam Road location. I assess where the farm stands each day and help guide our farm crew through all the work happening in the fields and tunnels. From planting and weeding to pest management and harvesting, I help make sure everything gets to the finish line.

I also take care of all the tractor work on the property: moving compost, mowing cropped-out fields, working the soil, and shaping fresh beds for whatever comes next.

Reid’s Farming Journey
I was fortunate to grow up on a large piece of property in Georgia so I've been interacting with the natural world from a young age. My family always had the classic southern garden growing up but when I was 14 I read an article in Mother Earth News magazine about a new book by Jean Martin Fortier, The Market Gardener. This was my first exposure to small scale organic agriculture and I was sold! I started hand digging 30 inch garden beds in my yard and grew my first crops that year. I spent the next eight years doing a variety of other work and after to moving to Athens in 2023 I started working at Diamond Hill Farm.

What makes you passionate about organic farming?
I love playing in the dirt! :)

Working with the living world and constantly becoming closer to my food and the source of my food is the journey of a lifetime. As a farmer I get to experience that in the realest way, every day.

What do you like to do when you’re not at the farm?
When I have a moment of reprieve from the abundance of work, you can usually find me pluckin’ my guitar, tromping around trying to see something new ( or something familiar, from a new perspective), or practicing yoga to try and heal my body.

Fun fact about Reid
When I was 18 I thru-hiked the entire length of the Appalachian trail with two of my best friends! It took us a little over 4 months, and some of my strongest memories in life are from that experience.

What’s something you’ve done on the farm that you are proud of?
I love working with the soil and would like to think that I have a bit of a knack for bed prep. With our heavy Clay soils here at the Beaverdam Rd property, we certainly face some drainage issues and I'm proud of the work I’ve done over the years to help the tunnels and fields drain in times of heavy rainfall.

What’s your favorite crop to grow?
The two crops that jump into my mind are Head lettuce and Fennel. We grow the best lettuce in the game.

What’s your favorite crop to eat?
Definitely okra and and summer squash!! Sauteed with a sweet juicy farmers market onion in butter. Just salt.

What is a small thing on the farm that you are grateful for?
I love getting to work outside with like-minded people. I think being a part of a team that is working towards a greater goal is a very human need and we have a pretty cool team here.

If you were something on the farm, what would you be and why?
I would be a silage tarp… Very passive but surprisingly effective, if a bit difficult to deal with at times.

What do you think about when you’re harvesting?
Efficiency. Quality. Speed. ;)

In your opinion, what is the best season and why?
The Fall, the Fall! ‘Tis the best season of all! Sweet smelling leaves to clothe the mother for winter cold.

What’s your favorite way to pass the time weeding with other farmers?
I love to let my mind take advantage of all the time and space to run wild. Or flirting with John.

What are your aspirations at the farm?
To create and maintain a space where humans along with every other living creature can thrive and bask in the beauty of existence.

We’re all in the pack shed finishing up a big market harvest and you’re handed the AUX. What do you play?
Everyone would fall asleep but the album which has most marked my time at DHF is Long Cool World by the North Americans.

You’ve got a week off from the farm and no budget limit. What are you doing?
Probably a three day canoe trip, followed by a restaurant tour of NYC, and a good show or two.

What is your favorite thing about Diamond Hill Farm?
The diversity of people, plants and experience is what really stands out to me.

What do you want people to know about our farm?
When you buy vegetables from us you are buying veggies grown by happy, passionate people! And you are making it possible for those people to keep caring for the land that they love.

Summer squash in the CSA this week y’all! If you’re looking for something simple and summery, this Yellow Squash with Tomatoes and Parmesan cooks squash with plenty of garlic and onion, juicy cherry tomatoes, and a shower of Parmesan. It’s quick, savory, a little saucy, and perfect if you’ve got a good loaf of bread to go with it.

For a whole meal, this Roasted Chickpea Ratatouille from Love and Lemons roasts together summer squash, eggplant, tomatoes, onions, and chickpeas, so you get all that peak-summer vegetable goodness with some protein power from the chickpeas.

This Saucy Skillet Tofu & Zucchini takes things in a different savory vegan-optional direction with golden tofu and zucchini in a buttery (“buttery”), lemony, herby sauce that you can pile over rice, pasta, or whatever carb is calling to you. Some solid answers to the eternal August question of “okayyyy but what else can I do with squash though?”

Grateful,
Diamond Hill Farmers

P.S. Fall CSA Full-Season shares will go on sale next monday! Keep your eyeballs peeled!

we grew this 4 u:

join our CSA