Babe + Sage Farm

Evergreen East

Elm Street Gardens

Forest Grove Farm

Fort Creek Farm

Rag & Frass Farm

Salamander Springs Farm

Sparkleberry Market Garden

Sparta Imperial Mushrooms

The Little Farm

Three Centuries Farm

We hope you enjoy checking out our farmers and we ask that you be patient with us while we get everything up and running! We can’t wait to see you at a future Crop Mob in Middle Georgia!

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!

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.

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!

In addition to being a food procurement miracle worker, Amy is also the Controller at Oglethorpe University. In that role, she gets to take part in some awesome committees, one of which is the Oglethorpe University – Brookhaven Community Garden committee. The Community Garden provides produce to the Suthers Center for Christian Outreach which feeds over thirty needy families each month. Oglethorpe is working on some awesome building projects, one of which is a new Student Center. However, when the old student center is demolished, the Community Garden will have to be moved as it’s right in the line of fire.

To help aid in the cost of moving the garden and then getting it back to producing as soon as possible, Amy worked with the awesome filmmakers of GROW! in order to have a fundraiser screening of the film at Oglethorpe. The filmmakers, Anthony Masterson, will be introducing the film at 7 p.m. and then will be there for some Q&A after the film. However, be sure to come early, because starting at 6 p.m. Farm Burger and The Little Tart Bakeshop will be selling some tasty treats. The event is free, but it would be awesome for folks to make at least a $3 donation to the OU-Brookhaven Community Garden. Come on out and show your support for the Community Garden and enjoy a night of local food and local farmers!

Get your free tickets

Hey mobbers! Just wanted to check in and let y’all know about something fun as well as put out some farmer requests for help. First, the fun stuff:

Southern Living has reached out to us asking to do a piece on Crop Mob in an effort to feature more content about local foods, sustainable ag, etc. We’re excited that they’ll be joining us at the Oct. 1st Whippoorwill Hollow Farms mob. Since the piece won’t come out until the May issue, we might have to pose with an out of season veggie or two or all get close to each other’s sweaty selves for a group shot, but I know mobbers can go with the flow. We still have some spots open for that mob, so join us! We’re working on a fun plan for food…we promise something delicious…

But, until then, we’ve got a great mob planned for Sept. 24th at Bella Cucina’s warehouse; we’ll get details about that event to those of you who are signed up in about a week. Want to help outside of these mobs? We’ve had a few farmers reach out to us for individual volunteers. If you find yourself eager to play in the dirt on a gorgeous September day, just contact the farmers below to set up a time to stop by and help:

• Whipporwill Hollow Farms: Even though we’re going to help Andy out on Oct 1st, he needs a few hands to help him get the plastic up on his hoophouse with a quickness. This would be a great opportunity for some of our Athens mobbers, as the farm is located in Walnut Grove, east of Atlanta. Just give Andy Byrd a call at 770.601.0110

• Patchwork City Farms: Many of you might remember Cecilia from when we mobbed PCF – and that she was pregnant at the time. Well, it’s been several months and – as those things go – we’re about to have a new mini-mobber on our hands. And that means PCF needs a few hands to fill the gap until we find garden tools small enough for the newest little farmer. PCF is located in West End. Interested? Email patchworkcityfarms@yahoo.com to set something up.

• Oakleaf Mennonite Farm: Live in or near East Atlanta? Why not stop by Oakleaf, meet the new farm managers and help out for an hour or two when it fits your schedule? Email oakleafmennonitefarm@gmail.com to set up a time.

The good news first: we had an AWESOME mob this past Sunday at Heirloom Gardens. We got there, hit the ground running, got a mountain of stuff done, had a great time doing it and even got to enjoy possibly our last cool mob of the year (high of 67 in May? Yes, please). The not so good news is that we weren’t able to get enough folks together for a micromob at Whippoorwill Hollow Farms — we understand, we sort of sprung that on you at the last minute, huh? That does mean we may try and reschedule that for this or the following weekend, so stay tuned.

Now for the nitty gritty of what we did with the unbelievably organized and fun to be around Paula at Heirloom Gardens:

• Spread and tilled in aged manure in the tomato field, pounded in 24 fence posts, dug holes and planted 250 tomato plants
• Planted 2,258 plugs of assorted cut flowers, herbs and peppers in houses and fields
• Planted 200′ of field peas and mulched with hay
• Planted 400 assorted sunflower seeds
• Hung tomato hangers and hooked 800 tomato plants in the tomato house
• Pulled out bolted cabbage, chard and parsley in veggie house, put it out to compost in another field
• Raked down and replanted a new crop of veggies.
• Put down hay in the potato field

In Paula’s words, it was “all in all, a grand day!!!!!” and I couldn’t agree more. Not to mention the DELICIOUS food the incomparable Megan McCarthy (of Botanical Gardens chef fame) prepared for us out of Paula’s delicious veggies. Along with some stellar H&F bread, we had everything from technicolor beet spreads, delicious sauteed chard, multiple salads with everything from quinoa to beets and blackeyed peas. There was a unanimous decision that if we could all keep Megan around, we’d have no problem going vegetarian today! Check out her website for more info on her recipes, cooking classes, and general coolness: www.healthyeating101.com.

Paula even admitted that next time we’re in her neck of the woods she thinks she’s ready for a full load of 50 of us — we’ll show these farmers we know how to help them yet!

Keep an eye out for another try to arrange a Whippoorwill Hollow Farm micromob – we haven’t let a farmer down yet, and we’re not fixin’ to start now. See some of you in Blairsville this weekend; get excited!

This last Sunday was some serious Chicken Love with our Mob at Hope Grows. Now I know where the term “spring chicken” comes from. These girls (and boys) were frisky, friendly and curious — and they were close at hand to supervise our work every step of the way.

With the help of that skillful supervision, we took down an old chicken brooder, repaired a feed house, worked a bit on a new and improved mobile brooder, planted seeds for summer harvest and of course, weeded.

Mobbers came out from Savannah, Statesboro and South Carolina. We think Matthew likely had the most fun, as he got to wield a sledgehammer. The day was beautiful and there was no better place to be or company to be had (and I’m not just talking about the chickens). The love and care that Arianne and Elliott have invested are evident all around you at Hope Grows, especially in those happy chickens. If you’ve never been, it’s well worth the trip — beats Prozac hands down.

The meal was a treat — for the chickens too, mobbers passing them pecans as we ate. Our hosts outdid themselves laying out the welcome mat. Delicious Hope Grows chicken salad was featured, as well as soup filled with veggies from Gratitude Gardens.

Speaking of Gratitude Gardens – they will be the hosts of the next Savannah Crop Mob on Saturday, April 23^rd. Save the date and stay tuned for details.

After our Sunday on the farm, it is clear that Hope Grows is aptly named – after a day on that farm, it is hard not to be filled with hope, for everything. I miss the chickens already.

Check out the photo album on Facebook

March was a good month, people. A wet, but good month. And much like the crops we work hard to help our farmers and urban gardeners tend, Crop Mob is shaking off the cold, really taking root and continuing to grow! Our friends in Savannah had another mob this weekend, we’ve had our inaugural social gathering SpeakEasy, and the torrential rain of last weekend paused just long enough for us to help out at Gaia Gardens!

Our first SpeakEasy was pretty fantastic and brought a whole new Crop Mob crowd out of the woodwork! We gathered to discuss the feasibility of Highrise Harvest Farms (or Dispersed City Farms), but ended up chatting about all sorts of exciting potentialities of groups like Crop Mob. We’ll probably aim to remain more focused on one topic in future SpeakEasys (perhaps topics you submit or vote on?) but in a way it was really perfect for our first: an organic conversation where the topic flowed and everyone got excited about something different. Lots of names and phone numbers were exchanged, a Google group was established, and, as if by some cosmic act of fate, the night wrapped up with a TERRIFIC performance by Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy. Who knew bluegrass/americana with some horns thrown in could be so dang great! And a huge thank you to Farmstead 303 (soon to be Rails Kitchen & Bar) for hosting us and being immensely patient with our tomfoolery and shenanigans. We had a whole lot of fun, and set the bar pretty high for future gatherings. YIKES! (Which of our mobbers have band connections??)

A couple days later many of us woke up in the wee hours of the morning to floor-shaking thunder and frequent lightening flashes. I was afraid that for the first time since we’ve gotten started, we’d have to cancel a mob. But since things tend to work out for our scrappy mobbers, the storms gave way to a steady rain that disappeared into a fine drizzle as we drove to Gaia Gardens in Decatur. It’s a fantastic 5 acres that’s part of the East Lake Commons but run by Love is Love‘s Joe and Judith. It’s a beautifully diversified farm, and it’s great to see a community support something so essential. We did quite a lot of very easy – albeit muddy – weeding thanks to the rain as well as improved drainage (by digging ditches) and some folks hung around to help remove some invasives. Joe gave us a great tour of the farm which included everything from blueberries to shiitakes. And, our culinary hero, Suzi Sheffield brought us some of the tastiest burritos I’ve ever consumed (and even had a vegan friendly option!) along with her fantastic, famous slaw. And we got a taste of Mike’s now commercially distributed mead from Montaluce! (It was really, really good!)

All in all, it’s been a great couple of weeks. We’ll most likely be having our next mob in the Athens area on the 17th – so start calling up your Athens buddies and arranging for a fun, but not TOO fun, evening the Saturday night prior – but we’ll announce the details once we get everything finalized later this week. Plus, we’re about to have a birthday, y’all! Crop Mob Atlanta turns one this month. They grow up so faaast!

More soon, good friends.