Georgia Magazine - June 2010 - (Page 36)

Well preserved The Stewarts turn a time-honored survival tactic into a sustainable enterprise BY DEBORAH GEERING NICHELLE STEWART From sweet berries to savory greens, all sorts of foods find their way into jars at the Stewarts’ farm. 36 www.georgiamagazine.org PHILLIP VULLO S tep from Tim and Nichelle Stewart’s broad front porch into their busy household on any spring or summer evening, and you’re bound to catch the earthy aroma of cooked sugar or a sharp tang of vinegar wafting from the kitchen. Most days, Nichelle has a pot of fresh-picked berries or homemade relish simmering on the stove, ready to be sealed into a neat cluster of half-pint jars collected on the dining room table. What has been a habit for several generations has recently turned into a small family enterprise. Husband Tim has planted the Stewarts’ rambling property (and some of their neighbors’) in Free Home, in Cherokee County, with an amazing array of berries, tree fruits and vegetables, which he tends with a blend of scientific curiosi- ty and nurturing passion. Cheyenne, 14, and Jeb, 6, pitch in with the daily picking (along with a fair amount of impromptu snacking). The Resourceful Tim and Nichelle Stewart grow and preserve their Stewarts sell their own food at their home in Cherokee County. rolling harvest, fresh as well as freshly preserved, to area come from a long line of self-suffirestaurants, at the Cherokee Fresh cient homesteaders. They only Market and from their home at their recently began to explore the idea of new produce stand, which Tim built selling some of what they grow and with help from their oldest son, preserve. “I’ve always canned; my family’s Justin, 20. “I can 750 to 1,000 jars in a year,” always gardened and canned; Tim’s Nichelle estimates. “We probably sell family has always farmed and 80 percent of that, and the rest I pret- canned,” Nichelle says. “When I got involved with the Cherokee County ty much keep.” They’ve recently renamed their Farm Bureau Women’s Committee a home/business “Rockin’ S Farm” after few years ago, some of the ladies Nichelle’s insistence that they said, ‘Nichelle, why don’t you come pass on Tim’s first suggestion, to a farmers market?’ I hadn’t thought “Lazy S Farm.” Funny, sure, about people not having [their own but just a tad too ironic for preserved food].” So she set up a table under the Nichelle. “I cannot put ‘lazy’ down big canopy at Cagle’s Dairy Farm— on anything, because we are the location of the Cherokee Fresh Market—to sell her goodies. Her NOT that,” she proclaims. This is somewhat of an inventory includes everything from understatement. The Stewarts berry jam basics to exotics, like peach-habanero jam, to chow-chow are truly rockin’. Between shifts on the and pickles. For her family, she even preserves production line, preserves soups, stews and cooked Tim tends to his crops venison and beef. Through the farm bureau, she and keeps up his skills as an auto body repairman, while teams up with other members to Nichelle monitors a school teach classes in the recently resurgent bus route for special educa- art of food preservation. Nichelle and tion children, teaches a pre-K fellow bureau member Liz Porter of class and runs day camps at Buckeye Creek Farm also pool their her home during school pesticide-free produce for delivery to high-end Atlanta-area restaurants, inbreaks. Both Nichelle and Tim cluding Bacchanalia, Rathbun’s, Muss GEORGIA MAGAZINE http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - June 2010

Georgia Magazine - June 2010
Contents
Viewpoint
Mailbox
Picture This?
Georgia News
Calendar
Currents
Special Energy Report
Winning Reader Stories
Honorable Mentions: More Vacation Stories
Georgia on a Budget
Around Georgia
My Georgia
Georgia Gardens
Gardening Tips
Georgia Cooks
Cookbook of the Month
Snapshot

Georgia Magazine - June 2010