Food for Thought: Small Town Farmers Still Exist

Doug Reynics

Sixteen-year-old Michael Meschi isn’t cut from the same cloth as many kids his age. I met Michael and his mother, Amie, on a recent airport ride to the airport. On the way, I had a chance to chat with them, especially about Michael’s love of farming. When I started following him on Facebook, I realized the depth of Michael’s passion for farming, and wanted to sit down with him for a deeper discussion.

While driving to Ellijay a few years ago, Michael became fascinated by the many farms he passed in North Georgia, and decided that he wanted to be a farmer. He began reading everything he could find on the subject, hundreds of books and several thousand articles, as well as talking to hundreds of farmers, covering all the different types and methods of farming.

In December of 2020, Michael decided to try his hand at farming, and found a former horse pasture in Decatur to plant. When Michael began planting the land, only a small garden was being grown there, and several people had previously tried to farm it without much success. Now almost every foot of usable space is under cultivation. A walk through the produce section of the grocery store inspired his choice of crops. Michael grows “traditional southern crops” during the summer: corn, okra, squash, field peas, green beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. During the winter, he grows collards, turnips and mustard greens.

Michael believes the key to a successful home garden is fertilizer. “Fertilizer is something that I do not skimp on,” he says. “Lime, potassium, gypsum and nitrogen are a farmer’s best friend. Putting the correct rates per acre can take you from an average crop to a record breaker.” He also advises taking care of your soil; this winter he plans to spread about sixty trailers of horse manure and ten trailers of chicken litter around the farm.

Michael recommends having a well-developed plan for soil and crop preparation before you start planting. “I already have probably fifty different things I’m going to do next season that would have benefited my operation this year - from plant population per acre, to the trellising and weed control ideas for my tomato patch.”

But most importantly, Michael tries to keep his hard work fun. “I sometimes get so caught up in what’s going on at the farm that I am unable to think about anything else and just truly relax. A good friend of mine told me to work hard but take the time to relax, too - go fish for an afternoon sometimes and don’t burn yourself out.”

Michael sells his produce from a stand at his garden farm in Decatur, not far from Tucker. You can follow Michael’s adventures in farming and when his farm stand is open on Facebook (MWMProduceFarm).

Doug Reynics is a longtime Tucker resident and self-described “foodie.” Many know him as “Doug the Driver,” who provides rides to and from both the domestic and international airport terminals. (To date, his service has provided 1,650 airport rides!) If you have a food story or question you would like to see him write about, email him at dougthedriver1@gmail.com.

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