The South has long been known for its love of the finer things in life, like sweet tea, mama’s cooking, the great outdoors… and of course, football. As the weather begins to cool off and everyone holds their breath waiting for the first signs of fall to blow in, football seems to be the topic on everyone’s mind and discussions about who is expected to win the weekend game is the topic on everyone’s tongue as well. Whether it’s Friday night football in a high school stadium or Saturday tailgates on the lawn, us Southerners are known for our love of football and the boundless energy, enthusiasm, and passion we Read More
Each and every seed is brought to life the same way at the beginning of our Spring season, but we never truly know what the season will hold for those individual seeds. They are nurtured and nestled and nudged along until time for them to be transplanted into the soil anywhere from 7 to 60 days old depending on the product. From there, it’s all up to Mother Nature and a Sovereign God.
Much like first-time parents with a newborn baby, there are so many hopes and dreams and plans we have for these seeds. Like those same parents, we don’t always control the outcome despite our best efforts to Read More
Brenda Palomares has been working at Southern Valley almost as long as it has been in existence. She references her time here with statements such as, “I came about 3 months after *Kirk passed” and “*Pam was pregnant with *Courtney when I first met her.” Those statements point not only to the length of her tenure here, but also to the closeness with which she has worked with the Hamilton family over the years.
Brenda began her time at Southern Valley in 1988 when she first worked here for one season. She then came on full time in 1989 and spent her first six years here in the fields helping Read More
The war room. The bullpen. The place where the magic happens.
Each of these terms has been used to describe the sales office at Southern Valley over the years, and I’m certain many more which aren’t suitable to repeat in print. Within the offices at Southern Valley, the sales office is in a league of its own. While everyone else more or less has their own space, they have what you might call an open floor plan (Read: everybody all up in everybody else’s business) with two rows of 4 desks facing each other. I spent my first year at Southern Valley sitting in that sales office and can honestly Read More
Spring season.
Those two words are spoken throughout the office all year long with layers of meaning delving far beneath the surface. Sometimes they are uttered with dread. Other times with a level of excitement or intensity. No matter how the words “spring season” roll off the tongue, we spend all year bracing for it, preparing for it, and gearing up for it. At the end of the day, we ultimately love it.
For the general population, spring tends to represent longer daylight hours. Afternoons and evenings spent working in the yard. Fresh air and warmer temperatures. Flowers blooming and grass needing to be cut. Working on that summer tan Read More
I’m really not an HGTV kind of a girl. Too many options and possibilities in the design and housing world and too little money and know-how in my world. However, I’ve recently gotten sucked into the world of Chip and Joanna Gaines and their hit TV show, Fixer Upper. He’s funny and good looking. She’s beautiful and talented. Her wish is his command; his every word gives her the giggles. They are the perfect combination of beauty, brawn, brains, and banter necessary to entertain the average American viewer. Many nights I find myself in awe of how willingly he works to bring her designs to life. Never mind that he Read More
We say often around the farm and on our social media platforms that we are a “seed to shelf” company – meaning that we literally handle every step in the life of our product, from the time it is planted as a seed until the vegetables are delivered to the store – or restaurant or wholesaler’s – shelf. Hence, “seed to shelf.” Generally, what we tend to talk about most in the seed to shelf concept is the span of time when the vegetables are in between the seed and the shelf – that is, the growing, picking, and packing of the vegetables.
On a brisk January day, Austin Hamilton outfitted in his typical t-shirt, faded blue jeans, work boots, and seed-company-supplied-cap, stands alongside four John Deere tractors and twenty hardworking employees discussing what takes place during the twenty or so days of laying plastic in our South Georgia fields. It is during these winter months each year that one-third of Southern Valley’s fields are shimmied under straight rows of black plastic in preparation for the coming growing season.
As we enter the week of Thanksgiving, we pause and realize just how much we have to be grateful for. Here are a few things for which we are grateful this year.
1. Family
As a family-owned and operated business, there is no way our farming operation would be in existence without our family. From cousins and uncles to children and grandmothers, we’ve got some of each working here at Southern Valley. We are so grateful for our immediate family and our extended family who work with us – and support us behind the scenes – as well as our work family formed through our employees and co-workers. We love that Read More
If you’ve flipped through a newspaper, turned on the news, or scrolled through your Facebook or Twitter feed recently, you’ve likely heard of the current salmonella outbreak involving cucumbers from Mexico. Rest assured this recent outbreak has not escaped our notice, or the consumer’s notice. We have been asked multiple times over the last few days how this affects us and our cucumber production. The response to those questions isn’t a simple one.
Although we grow cucumbers year-round, our current cucumber production is based out of Georgia and Tennessee. The recent outbreak, of course, stems from Mexico. Yet, starting in November, we will be providing customers with cucumbers out of Read More