After our plane landed in Cancun, we drove for miles and miles and hours and hours through absolute nothingness. And when I say nothingness, I’m not exaggerating.
Shrub. Shrub. Shrub. Little itty bitty town. Jungle. Trees. Shrub. Stand-alone store. More nothingness.
For hours.
And just when we thought things couldn’t get any more full of nothingness, without warning the one lane road we were riding on turned into a pothole-riddled path. A dirt road would have seemed a luxury compared to the non-stop bump-bump-bumping and nausea-inducing-swerves we encountered over the next half-hour on this patch of a “road”. On and on into more nothingness we bumped and bounced and swerved.
At one of Read More
The word “family” encompasses all that Steve and Valda Mathis have been working for and with over the years. “The sense of family seems to draw us all together,” says Steve as Valda nods along stating, “Everybody wants to see the family unit succeed. Everybody’s working for the same goal. We always used to say ‘everybody get behind and push’ and if you ain’t gonna push, you need to get out of the way cause we’re trying to get to a certain point and we’re all pushing to get there.” She says it with her signature feisty tone and matter of fact attitude – the kind where you know Read More
Here at Southern Valley, when we use the term “family farm” we mean it in the most literal sense possible. For instance, what we aren’t saying is that we are a farm that operates like a family – although as a family farm that is, of course, inevitable. What we aren’t saying is that we are a group of small family farms combined to make one large farming operation. What we aren’t saying is that we were started by a family one day many, many years ago and are now corporately run. There are no hooks and gimmicks here. When we say “family farm” we mean it. Literally.
The family 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
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
I grew up in the same community as Southern Valley, but working here has been an eye-opening experience and I have learned things about the operation I could have never imagined. Here are the 5 things that make Southern Valley different from your typical farming operation.
1. We are female-owned.
Wanda Tyler-Hamilton and her granddaughters Kaylee (left) and Courtney (right) own more than 50% of Southern Valley making it a female-owned company.
Even though we started as a four-man farming operation, as three of the original four members either sold their part or passed away, the remaining ownership defaulted Read More
As we meandered and snaked our way up the mountains passing acres of rolling nothingness, my summer vacations spent in my grandparent’s beloved mountains came back to me and for a brief moment I felt as if I were headed towards another Smoky Mountain vacation. Rest assured, I was not on vacation. We were instead headed up the steep mountain road to the Southern Valley farm in Tennessee.
I had heard many stories about this farm and the people who lived there and spoke using typical Appalachian phrases such as “You’ens” and “Yall’ens” and I was pretty pumped to finally be meeting them. These people, also known as the Henderson Read More
One thing I absolutely love about being employed at Southern Valley is the constant creativity and innovation we use in our farming operations. Those in both management and leadership roles are forever thinking outside the box in all aspects of the operation – from growing and harvesting products to fulfilling the demand for workers and their housing. The latest design and development of worker housing in Tennessee is a prime example of this Southern Valley innovation.
As our farm in Tennessee grew and labor needs increased, it quickly became apparent that we were going to have to provide more permanent housing for the workers employed there during the summer months. Read More