Whew! After all of the rain last week, we wound up postponing the Double B Farm Crop Mob. We are working with Farmer Brady to set a new date as his broken leg has greatly hindered getting farm work done and he really needs our help! We’ll let the awesome folks who signed up for the original date will have first choice before we open it up to the public. Look for that post in the next week or so!

So, up next on the menu….Global Growers. Global Growers Network connects international farmers who now live in Georgia to agriculture, by growing good food, training farmers, and creating economic opportunities. They work primarily with metro-Atlanta’s refugee community, made up of people who have been forced to flee their home countries due to war, genocide and persecution. Many were farmers back home. They have some big tasks lined up for us to complete, including erecting a shelter over their wash station, setting up cables for drying onions and garlic, preparing a flower bed in front of the farm, digging drainage trenches, and weeding. If you have a wheelbarrow, forks, or shovels, please bring those along. They have supplies there, but they like to have them freed up for their partner farmers. Oh, and the food, whoo boy, Global Growers is going to whip up a yummy farm salad and Kevin Ouzts from Spotted Trotter is grilling up some yummy chicken! Come ready to work and bring your appetite!!

Since Global Growers works with people who have fled their home countries, they keep the location of the farm confidential. In general it is located near Covington Highway and Hariston Road (20 minutes from East Atlanta on I-20 or 20 minutes from Decatur if you come straight out Covington Highway). The physical address will be sent to the confirmed attendees.

Hey all!

Hope you’ve enjoyed your down time from Crop Mob because now it’s time to WORK! We’ve got two mobs lined up for y’all two weekends in a row and we want to fill every spot! So here’s the skinny…

Sunday, April 28th we’ll be helping out at The Lionheart School Garden in Canton. The Lionheart School is a fantastic school for children with autism and other challenges of relating and communicating. We’ll be doing everything from creating beds and mulching walkways to possibly some bigger jobs like installing irrigation or building out the wash station. Get ready to do a little bit of it all and then share a delicious catered lunch together. Our awesome mobber Kevin will be leading the charge, since we’re counting on folks like you to jump in and make Crop Mob a community-driven organization. This will be a good sized mob, but we’ve had some eager folks ready to get dirty, so be sure to reserve your spot soon. (If you’ve got extra shovels, hoes, or picks, please bring them along.)

The following Sunday, May 5, we’ll be heading east for a little get away to Oxford, GA to help out Farmer Brady of Double B Farm. He broke his leg and needs our help to stay on top of farm chores now that spring is in full force! As much as we love our monthly get togethers, Crop Mob is really here for occassions like this when farmers need us most, so let’s be sure to fill all 15 spots of this one. Plus, Farmer Brady has sweetened the deal with talk of roasted pork shoulder, potato salad, farm greens and iced tea. He clearly knows the way to a mobbers heart.

So y’all get yourselves signed up and we look forward to seeing you there!

Photo credit: PepOmint

Sooooo – as some of you might have heard, we had to reschedule the Sun Dog Farm overnight due to freezing temps and generally ill weather for strictly outdoor work. Don’t worry, it’ll still be chilly on our return, just not quite frozen. We’ll be holding it the 16-17. Our apologies to those who signed up but can’t make the new date. We hope some of you that weren’t able to make it before can make it out this time!

Alright folks, the wait is over. Our first mob of 2013 is upon us and it’s going to be a super fun overnight mob. Our very first mob was for Sun Dog Farm when they were just getting started out in Douglasville. Now they’ve got their very own farm and we’re going to help them get it ready for an amazing growing season! And, in a beautiful twist of fate, they bought Hugh Lovel’s property where we have had previous, wonderful overnights!

So, if you would like to learn a lot about biodynamics, work hard, pit your strength against some unruly bamboo, and have a great time hanging out with other mobbers, then come on up to Blairsville March 2 & 3. We’re thinking it’d be easiest if you eat a big breakfast before you come and bring a sack lunch for when we need a break to hang out and eat. We’ll provide both a vegetarian and meaty chili for dinner and a fun oatmeal bar for breakfast – feel free to bring sides, fixins, dessert, whatever you’d like to contribute. Plus there are some GREAT barbeque spots to hit on your way back into town.

Since it’s an overnight, we can’t take as many folks and are limiting it to 15. We’ll be in the beautiful adjacent retreat center, Bird’s Nest, so we’ll be indoors (unless you opt for an outdoor bed) but bringing a sleeping bag and pillow would be a great idea. Be sure to bring all the essentials for a night out – toiletries, towels, extra clothes and instruments if you play. We’ll have a grand old time and can’t wait to see you there!

Click Here to Register!

Thanks to some awesome people in Augusta, Crop Mob is expanding a bit more in the state. If you would like to stay in touch with what’s going on there then make sure to join our email list.

Crop Mob at East Georgia Produce

Come volunteer a day of work at this “eco-ganic” veggie farm. Bring your work boots, gloves, water bottle & sunscreen! Augusta Locally Grown will provide the picnic meal made with East Georgia Produce veggies and ham.

Work: 12:30pm-5:30pm

Farm picnic: 5:30pm-7pm

Click Here to Register!

Hey Mobbers! We were so glad to see some of your smiling faces at Wrecking Bar on Sunday. It was a drizzly day, but we bested the weather with warmth, beer, merriment, darts, corndogs, and great conversation. We talked about a bunch of great stuff and had the pleasure of lots of new faces who were there to learn about Crop Mob for the first time! Can’t wait to see all of you, old and new, at a mob soon (the first one on the schedule is an overnight March 2 & 3, so make some room on your calendar).

We discussed a handful of things, but chief among them was ways for mobbers to be more instrumental in running Crop Mob! Here’s what we’re thinking: those of you who would like to be more involved and have a mob or two under your belt, let us know if you’d like to “run a mob” one month. We’ll assign you a farm (based on what farmer has reached out to us for that month) and help coordinate food, but we need volunteers to help run things at the mob, help the farmer, organize folks, etc. It’s really pretty simple, and a great way to get more folks involved. If you think you might be interested, shoot us an email letting us know what month you might be interested in (or just that you’re available, if you’re more or less flexible) and we’ll start getting this thing run by the people who make it happen – YOU!

We also discussed that in addition to periodic smaller mobs, we will also post when farmers need ongoing help both in our emails as well as on Facebook. So be sure to check out our Facebook page often to keep up with the latest and find a time to volunteer on your own or bring a few friends along. We also hope to work on a map showing where we’ve mobbed as well as a better way to organize carpooling – though that might tie into the whole checking our Facebook page part!

All in all it was a really great day! Thanks so much to everyone for coming out and a huge thank you to Chef Terry and the wonderful folks at Wrecking Bar Brewpub for treating us so well. We’ll have to do it more often!

Current Volunteer Opportunities:

The folks from Enota Mountain Retreat have a beautiful 4 acre growing space and need help. While we’ll probably have a huge overnight mob there later in the year, they’re needing some folks to volunteer this upcoming weekend and are happy to put you up and feed you for your hard work. It’s a pretty sweet way to enjoy a mountain getaway – esp in this cooler weather. If you’re interested, please contact Haley Hebert at sewitgrowit@gmail.com.

And now, we’re making good on our promise and having a PARTY! Mark your calendars for Feb 10 from 3-5. We’ll be having a shindig at Wrecking Bar Brewpub in Little 5 Points to celebrate, chat, and generally have a good time. We’ll also talk a bit about planning for this year and a potential new model for mob management (don’t worry – it’s fun!). The event will cost $10 (plus ticketing & payment processing costs) which covers some seriously tasty farm-to-table food from chef Terry Koval (you might remember him from a past mob…if you were there, you surely remember his pimento cheese). Plus there will be a cash bar available and, if you’ve never been, Wrecking Bar brews their own very tasty beer.

It’s going to be an awesome time – and please spread the word to your other Crop Mob buddies or friends you’d like to involve. Please reserve your spot by Feb 5th so we can give Wrecking Bar an accurate headcount. Can’t wait to see you there!!

Your Loving Mob Bosses

Photo credit: MauraNeill

Our last mob at Viewpoint Health was a really fantastic outing. Farmer Bilal, aka the Hipster Gardener, has done an absolutely unbelievable job transforming a dreary, patchy bermuda grass landscape into a lush, thriving garden that wraps around the entire facility. We helped get the back of the property ready for winter with a formidable layer of cardboard and mulch as well as started to amend soil with compost and clear out what will eventually be a wetland garden. AND we were spoiled by a delicious meal from Homegrown to share. Trust us, this is NOT the last time we’ll visit Viewpoint. In fact, we’ve already started chatting about a large mob there in Spring…

And now, for our next, much anticipated mob – and quite possibly our last mob of 2012 – we’re returning to Bella Cucina next weekend to help with their onsite garden. You probably know Bella Cucina for their fantastic products sold at places like Whole Foods or for their very yummy restaurant Porta Via in Highlands, but either way, you’re in for a treat when you join us in East Point at their manufacturing facility. Alisa, the brains behind the operation, always spoils us with the best lunch and a tour of the facilities, so it’s certainly one you won’t want to miss. And Farmer Maggie will direct us in getting the garden ready for even more planting next Spring.

We’ll need some mobbers to bring along shovels, hoes and wheelbarrows if at all possible – the more we’ve got, the faster the work goes. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Click Here to Register for the Next ATL Mob!

One of the perks of mobbing in Georgia is that, for the most part, we can mob year-round. You really can’t beat fall, though, for being the perfect mobbing season. This past weekend we had a lovely time at Cedar Hill where lots of folks came out for their very first mob ever (yay!) and helped begin the process of sheet mulching garden areas to reclaim them from the dreaded crabgrass and restore nutrients to the soil. It was a great day followed by a delicious meal – and we look forward to seeing all the new folks again soon.

So – exciting news! Crop Mob Atlanta is taking the world by storm in the next few weeks, as we’ll be making an appearance on PBA’s This Is Atlanta as well as having a small mention in the November issue of Southern Living Magazine. Tune in on PBA 30 October 20th @ 8:00pm or October 21st at 9:00PM to see coverage from our time at Andrew Crawford Ironworks, Burge Organic Farm and more. Many of you remember our Southern Living shoot at Whippoorwill Hollow Farm. Rather than make a feature piece, we were mentioned in the Southern Traveler section in the article “50 Reasons We’re Thankful to be Southern” as #18: Because We Like a Little Dirt Under Our Nails. Check em out if you feel so inclined!

Our next mob is swiftly approaching and will be right in the heart of Decatur. We will be helping install a garden at the View Point Health facility, a behavioral health center for teens. A little different than our average mob, this is sure to be a great and meaningful outing. Plus, we’ll be enjoying lunch from Homegrown GA which is sure to be delicious! This will be a small mob, so snag your spot today!

Click Here to Register for the Mob!

Photo credit: life is good (pete)

Hey there, mobbers. Hope you’re finally enjoying a respite from the heat of summer. As things cool down in the lowcountry, we’re going to be firing up plans to keep Crop Mob thriving in the Savannah area.

If this is your first time hearing about Crop Mob in Savannah, a little background is in order: we’re a group of volunteers committed to helping promote a clean food system by volunteering our labor on sustainable farms, school gardens, community gardens and more. Sustainable growing, by definition, requires more labor – and that’s where we come in. You don’t need to have a lick of experience to participate and it’s a great way to help local farmers, learn more about environmentally-friendly growing techniques, and get to know like-minded people while weeding beds of asparagus, harvesting squash or helping put up a hoophouse. We meet once every month or so on a Saturday or Sunday, work together for a few hours, and share a meal together. It’s that simple. And it’s wonderful in its simplicity.

As many of you know, the mobs thus far have been organized by some super stellar people. As it often happens, people’s lives are changing with moves and such, and we want to make sure Crop Mob Savannah grows. And what better way to ensure people get and stay involved than to have a time to celebrate and get to know one another better? That’s why we’re having a party!

Darren from Fiddlehead Pizza in Bluffton has very generously offered to open his restaurant up exclusively for Crop Mobbers on Sunday, November 4th from 3:00 to 5:00 PM. Come enjoy some appetizers, get to know about Crop Mob, and maybe discover a way you can help keep the group growing into next year.

While this is a completely free event, please register via Eventbrite so that we can maintain a headcount. Tell your friends and anyone you think might be interested. The more the merrier!

Click Here to Register!