This is Farm Life in Yucatan

It’s mud, slick as snot and sticking to your boots.

It’s work days from sunrise to sunset.

It’s riding fields and supervising farm labor.

It’s farm life. And it’s not unfamiliar to Austin Hamilton.

But this is farm life in another culture.

It’s carrying out everyday tasks in a different language.

It’s living in an on-farm apartment with his wife and child.

It’s eating food that is foreign and unfamiliar.

This is farm life in Yucatan.

Austin Hamilton, his wife Ashley, and their baby girl Lila, are the next generation to call the farm in Yucatan “home” – even if only temporarily. Only thirteen years old when Southern Valley bought the land in Yucatan and began to develop it, Austin grew up in a home where he watched his father make the sacrifice of traveling to Yucatan for weeks at a time to oversee the farm’s needs. Following the same trends of sacrifice and leadership his father has set for the last three decades – which is more than the whole of Austin’s life – when the need arose for additional leadership in Yucatan, Austin stepped up to the plate.

“He mentioned one day that it would be ideal to have someone down in Yucatan for the season, so I asked him if that should be us. We talked about what it would look like for us to move down there with our then 10-month-old and made the decision that this was for the good of the family farming operation,” says Ashley Hamilton. “It was what needed to be done to keep the farm moving in the direction we wanted it,” says Austin.

Needless to say, Kent and Austin’s families aren’t the only ones who’ve made sacrifices over the years. Multiple other family members and friends have sacrificed along the way to come alongside Southern Valley and help it become a success. It all goes back to who Southern Valley is as a company – family owned and family grown.

“I grew up helping my dad on the farm–riding the tractor with him, going to work with him–that’s how it goes in a family farming operation. Stepping up to the plate and doing what’s necessary for the good of the company – even if inconvenient for the family – is also what it means to be a part of the family farming operation,” says Austin.
 

Unlike many farming operations who have multiple growers elsewhere, Southern Valley is its own grower, packer, and shipper. We don’t have a separate grower who oversees the product grown in Yucatan…it’s under the same leadership, ownership, and supervision as our farm in Georgia.  That means it’s under the leadership, ownership, and supervision of the Hamilton family and all that that entails. In this case, it entails moving to Yucatan to make sure the family farming operation continues to thrive.
 

Austin says, “We’ve been very blessed over the years and are just extremely grateful for how far we’ve come. I consider it a privilege and an honor to get to help farm my family’s land and provide food that feeds the nation.”