34 - Piney Woods Farm
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Christa Hein: Hey there, welcome to the Farm Educator’s Roadmap. I'm Christa Hein, former nonprofit girl turned farm education entrepreneur. I've spent the last 30 years creating hands-on programs that connect people to the land, animals, and the traditions that nourish our daily lives.
If you're listening, you probably believe what I do - that farm education is needed now more than ever. Not just on rural farms, but in suburbs, cities, and everywhere in between. In this podcast, you'll hear real stories and practical advice from farm educators all across the country, people who are creating change through their programs in creative and inspiring ways.
Whether you're dreaming about starting your first program, are already knee deep in your own farm education work or are just curious about how others are impacting their communities through farm education, you're in the right place. [00:01:00] Let's dig in.
Christa Hein: Hi, welcome back to the Farm Educator’s Roadmap. Today we're heading to La Grange, Georgia to visit Piney Woods Farm. A hundred-acre nonprofit organic farm, focused on soil health, community impact, and hands-on learning. The farm grows nutrient-dense food using regenerative organic practices and has donated more than 135,000 pounds of fresh food to people facing food insecurity.
But it's also become a place where people come to learn, from soil and composting, to fiber arts, soap making, and traditional farm skills. My guest today is Jessica Breaux, Executive Director of Piney Woods Farm. Jessica's path into this work is a fascinating, from studying opera and performing arts, to stepping into agriculture during a life transition and discovering a deep passion for [00:02:00] regenerative farming, soil biology, and traditional craft.
Jessica, thanks so much for joining us.
Jessica Breaux: Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
Christa Hein: Oh, wonderful. So, I want to start with your story because it's such an unexpected path into this work. You originally studied vocal performance and you were living a very different life before Piney Woods. What did that season of life look like for you, and what started stirring in you that made you ready for a completely different direction?
Jessica Breaux: Yeah. I thought at this time in my life I would be singing on Broadway or at the Met. Those were my original goals when I was a little girl. I went to FSU and Shorter College to study vocal performance, and I was very dedicated to that kind of drive. And then I met a boy, as you do, and fell in love and got married and had babies. And that kind of shifted my whole focus in life. And we moved [00:03:00] to downtown Atlanta. So, I lived a very commercial type lifestyle there for a good 13, 14 years.
And there was something in me that was never settled. I just knew I was very content raising kids and I loved, I felt very blessed to be able to do that during that part of my life. But I just always knew there was something more that I wanted to do, and I loved connecting with people. I always loved to learn about new things. I always loved to do hands-on, some type of something in the arts whether it was just hands-on craft or something along those lines. So, I knew what my interests were.
And as life hit a wall, I got a divorce, and had to have a reassessment of life of, “Who do I want to be”, now that it's not defined for me? I felt like for a long time my life was defined, and so I got to sit back and really think about what are my passions, and what do I love? And I’ve always had a connection to [00:04:00] nature.
And when this opportunity came up to come to the farm, to work here, essentially as more of a manager type position of just making sure that the invoices were paid and, it was a very just kind of entry position. I fell in love with this place and what we were doing and the mission, the connectivity it brought for me, the healing it brought. I came in a very tumultuous time just in history also. So, it was a divorce. I had young children. I do have family close by, so it allowed me the support. That was very close behind when the COVID hit.
So, then we had COVID, we lost my brother soon after that. And so, I was so lucky to be here where I was and able to expand my knowledge because I feel like this place actually rescued me more than anything. It created a place where I could heal. It created a place where I could get my hands in the soil and the dirt and deal with animals and get my [00:05:00] mind off of some of these devastating things around me.
It allowed safe refuge for my children. I saw them bloom in this environment, all they had known was city life. They were born and raised in Alpharetta, Atlanta. A very cosmopolitan type of situation. And here I saw them become healthier. I saw them become more curious. I saw their friendships were a little stronger. Everything about this place I feel like has just helped me to grow, and I want to share that with other people. That's how I got here. And then it's just been a really interesting rollercoaster, fun ride ever since then.
Christa Hein: So, when you first came to Piney Woods, were you already interested in agriculture or did that passion develop once you were there?
Jessica Breaux: The passion developed once I was here. So, once I got here, I started taking some courses at John C. Campbell Folk School up in North Carolina. I knew we were doing some interesting things on the farm, like honeybees, and some [00:06:00] animal fiber arts and that kind. And I wanted to learn how to do some handcrafting skills to develop that. And that got my motor running for the educational side of things, because I saw the community that it built up there. When I sat behind my first spinning wheel and I was sitting beside a woman who would stop and help me and we would talk and it created this amazing community.
And then the more I got into the ag side, and we can talk about our history and how we started as half commercial, half non-profit farm. Then we moved to organic, then we moved to regenerative. So, it's been a progression here on the farm, and as that progression has moved through, it has just ignited this love for ag, for the biodiversity, for nature itself, for the resilience. I mean, the people who work on the land, it's really developed my love for ag. I've always been in the woods. I grew up on the back waters. I used to [00:07:00] say I could be a hobbit baby. I was barefoot running in the woods. So, I've always been surrounded by nature, but I didn't realize how truly amazing it was until I got here, and I got to actually see it in action and how resilient and amazing it truly is.
Christa Hein: Wow. It really speaks to how much of an impact a place can make on your life.
Jessica Breaux: I think so, definitely.
Christa Hein: So I want to ask, you were recently named the recipient of the Rodale Institute Organic Stewardship Award, which is a really big recognition. What did that mean to you, especially looking back at the path that brought you here?
Jessica Breaux: That was a shock. I was just shocked when we were one of the recipients this past year, and honored and humbled, because I knew even though my name is actually on the award, this is a team effort. It is me, it is our Farm Manager, Derek Kelly, who works here at the farm with us, who has put in passion and dedication and love to growing our produce here on the farm, and [00:08:00] creating a healthy environment that we have.
It is definitely due to our consultant, Fred Turner, who was here at the farm who started us on this path. Who saw that the path that we were going, organic, just wasn't really meeting the mark of the nutrient density that we wanted to see in the food, which creates amazing tastes in the food also. And so, he is the one that dived deep into the research. He is the one that went through the Elaine Ingham courses, and figured out how do we actually implement this. Which then allowed all of us to take it to that next level.
I was honored, I was. And then when I started looking around, it makes you stop and look back at the last three to five years that we've really started this journey. There's always something to do, but then when you can look back and see where you've come from, and the steps that you've taken, it's just a little stopping point to say, “Yeah, we've done some good work”, and we're really excited about what's coming down the line.
So, I think that's what it [00:09:00] meant to us. It's just a little respite for all of us to say, “Hey, this is awesome.” And we're really excited about what's coming down the future, also. And just to have support from someone like Rodale, an institute that's been around for so long, it just validated the path that we're going and it spurred us on.
We're just excited. Excited for the recognition for sure to be one of many.
Christa Hein: Absolutely. So that leads perfectly into talking about the farm itself. I want to ask you, because Piney Woods has this really meaningful mission. This a hundred-acre nonprofit, regenerative organic farm with a major focus on soil health and community impact. For someone hearing about Piney Woods for the first time, how would you describe the heart of what you're trying to do there?
Jessica Breaux: Yeah. So, we're a 501c3 nonprofit and we are a certified regenerative organic farm. So, we really focus on making [00:10:00] sure that we are growing the most nutrient dense foods that we can then turn around and donate to our food insecure in our southeast Georgia, Alabama, corridor community. And we have partners that help us get the food to the right people, that's definitely part of it.
But our mission here is to grow the best food that we can. And in doing that I think that we have gone down some different areas here with, we had to have honeybees for the pollinators. With that became something of an interest that we thought maybe the community would be interested in. We had to have the animals for soil health and rotational grazing, we have the cows and the sheep now. And so, with trying to get the land and being good stewards of the land, being good stewards of soil, bio complete soil, biology, and the produce, that kind of developed into what we're calling the Living Land and Wellness Center.
So, we can just allow our community to come down, come into the farm, [00:11:00] slow down a bit, get out of the rush of the everyday life and reconnect to our food. To reconnect to what makes our homes healthy, what makes our bodies healthy, reconnect to biomes that we're not exposed to anymore. You know, just what's in the soil and how that reacts with this. And I think it's really, really needed right now. We're just seeing more of a craving for those areas in life just to learn different ways to slow down, reconnect, and reconnect to people in nature. That's been our mission here at the farm.
Another part of it, too, is the way that we're an experimental farm for other farmers in the area. We have chosen to go regenerative organic. We by no means think that's the only way to farm. We think it takes a village to feed the world, and there are different ways of farming. But for us, we chose regenerative organic, and we love to share that knowledge with anyone who is interested.
Whether it is taking a piece of it, like going to learn about the [00:12:00] compost, and what does bio complete compost mean, and what does that mean for your plants? The health of the plants, the nutrient density of the plants. Or whether you're just interested in coming and learning about honeybees, or growing mushrooms, or the fiber classes. Or whether you just need a central nervous calm down area where you can just come, and breathe in some clean air on a farm, and just have a picnic, and just relax.
There's bite-sized pieces of this farm, I think, for everybody. Or you can come and be like the rest of us and run down these rabbit trails and just want to know about everything. I get that, too. I'm that person.
Christa Hein: So, one of the things that really stood out to me is how much food the farm has donated. More than 135,000 pounds donated to your community. Can you share a little bit about how that works and who you're serving?
Jessica Breaux: Yeah, so that's actually outdated on our website. We're over 150,000 pounds.
Christa Hein: Oh, my gosh.
Jessica Breaux: Yeah, we're excited about it. [00:13:00] So our main growing tunnels, we have 30 by 200 foot tunnels, and we have six of those that we grow out of. So, it allows us to grow quite a bit. There is a minimum of 10,000 pounds each year that comes out of those tunnels, and usually we're overshooting, that's our goal. And we usually meet that and exceed that per year.
A lot of these are bulk items that we can feed our community with that are desperately needed. Squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, the produce that is actually becoming very hard to obtain at grocery stores. We know the prices that we're dealing with now. And to call it regenerative organic, the price of that just… and so we want to be able to provide the best that we can for the people who need it most. And I love working with our partners like Feeding the Valley, La Grange Personal Aid. We call them, it's in the cooler, they come that day, they load up as much as we can give them, and it's usually truckful’s, it goes out and it [00:14:00] goes through their system, their programs, and they get it to the people who need it most.
One of my favorite programs is Feeding the Valley who is under the umbrella of Feeding America. They have a Food as Medicine program where you can sign up through a doctor. You get recommended for someone, for example, who has diabetes, and they can go through this three month program, and they get free food, they get food that's been made into little meals. And then they get an education of how to either cook food in things like a microwave that they might have available, and so they can use this for their ultimate health.
So, a lot of our nutrient dense food is going directly to those who medicinally need it the most. And so, it's been amazing to see. We've gone out in the community a few times to some festivals and just give away food, and the shock that it's free, number one. And then we get into conversations about how to cook the food or how to grow the food. And so not only are you giving away something that [00:15:00] is nutrient dense and meaningful for health, it connects people, too. Nothing connects people more than sitting down for a meal together.
And a lot of the churches come and get it, and their food drives, and their hot meals, and everything that they give. Just hearing stories of somebody coming in off the street and getting a hot meal on a cold day. Is there anything better than that? For someone who has to think about that every day of, “Where's my next meal coming from?” It means a lot that we get to be a part of that.
Christa Hein: Yeah. So, with the amount of food you're donating and the size of the farm, I imagine there's a lot happening behind the scenes to make that sustainable. What does the funding model look like for Piney Woods?
Jessica Breaux: Yeah, so we are funded mostly through grants and contributions. So, we're very grateful for anything that the community can help support us with, and our mission, and what we do.
Christa Hein: So, many farms talk about regenerative agriculture, but Piney Woods is deeply committed to it, even through certification as you mentioned. For listeners who may not be [00:16:00] familiar with the term, what does regenerative farming actually look like on your land?
Jessica Breaux: So regenerative farming, you have to be organically certified first. Then you can go into the regenerative farming side of things, and that just means pretty much nothing can be input into the land from outside, except for natural materials like minerals, like gypsum, and some other things that you can't mine on the land. But everything is a closed loop process. You are producing everything on the land that it needs.
So, it starts with our compost. It starts with soil. We tried to bring in soil and use soil, but we couldn't find soil that was bio complete. And that means it has all the microorganisms and the fungi and the lifecycle that you need for that plant to sustain life and sustain it at its peak. So, we started producing our own compost.
We started doing research into the microbiome and how to grow it here. We've [00:17:00] had a lot of success with our Johnson-Su type of composting that we're doing. Our vermiculture - we have an extensive worm flow through reactor and vermi system that we're using as inoculants and to make the soil healthy. Our leaf mold, which is supplying us with a fabulous fungi for our soil to boost that. So, it's a lot of research.
We then take it, we've gone through microscope masterclasses, some of us here on the farm, me included. We have to test it, we have to put it under the microscope. We look at the microbiome, we look at the microorganisms, we make sure there's no bad actors in it. Then we know that we can put it out. And so that is just a small example of that closed loop process of, then it goes into we try to make sure that we have no till. That's another huge aspect of the regenerative farm.
You want to keep that soil as healthy as you can. It's a living, breathing microorganism. We have to [00:18:00] think of it as life. It needs water, it needs to not be exposed, you have to have cover crops. So, if you start thinking of soil not as dirt but as something living, then you start treating it as something that you have to take care of. Just like your cows, and your sheep, and your chickens. And so once you do that, then the plant can almost take care of itself. We've had a lot of success. We do not put any type of pesticides, fungicides, anything in our plants ever, but because that plant gets to be as healthy as possible, because it has the microorganism foundation, it can fend off its own diseases and its own pests.
And then you learn, you don't plant the plants so very close together, because powdery mildew can come in. Just like we get sick if we're all put in together with someone with the flu and then it spreads through. You just treat everything as living beings and you have to respect it. And you don't push it [00:19:00] so hard for your own benefit, you let Mother Nature do what it's going to do, and boy, she does a much better job than us growing the produce. If you have a tomato nowadays from a regenerative farm, it tastes just amazing and the flavor that we get off of a really healthy plant, it can't be beat, it can't be reproduced in a lab.
We don't know what we're doing half of the time when we destroy our soil and our dirt. It's hard for us to create chemical components to compete with what Mother Nature actually already does. And so, that's just a small taste of it. It goes so deep and it's when somebody asks me that, I'm always like, “How deep do you want to go?”
Christa Hein: You put it in such great terms for somebody who is a beginner, to understand if they can think of that living system, and think of their soil as a system, that's a great starting point for working in their own garden, their small farm, their large farm.
Jessica Breaux: [00:20:00] Exactly.
Christa Hein: So, I want to move into your educational programs.
Piney Woods has grown into a place where people also come to learn, not only get great food. Let's talk about how that piece developed. When you first stepped into your role, how much of the farm was focused on education, and how has that evolved over time?
Jessica Breaux: Yeah, when I first got here, it was solely focused on the ag, on the nonprofit side of things. When I went up to, like I said, John C. Campbell, after that first year of being here, I just knew something along those lines had to be brought back to the farm. I've always been more interested in connecting people, and I've always wanted to invite people in to come see what we're doing. And whenever somebody has visited us, they've always been fascinated. And I've been fascinated by what direction they go in, because everybody has a different kind of focus when they get here. And so that's always interesting to me. What are you interested in? We could talk about a lot of different things. [00:21:00] So that's how it evolved.
We started very small. I would go up and take a few classes. I started a lot in the fiber arts, in the spinning, weaving, knitting, natural dying, just because it was something I was interested in. And then I would come down and teach a small class and see who was interested. I was very nervous at first. I didn't know if anyone would even want to learn. I've always thought maybe I'm the oddball out and I'm the only one interested in this. And I learned real quick, there's a lot of really neat oddballs out there like me who want to come and learn.
And so that led into different interests. And I try to connect it with what's going on at the farm. It has to have some connection to what we're doing. Even soap making, which is a little bit of a stretch, but we use the botanicals here on the farm to make a lot of our natural chemical free soaps. And then I can tie that into the regenerative aspect of it as the home is a regenerative place, too. You want to try to make it as healthy as chemical free as you can. We've been talking a lot about [00:22:00] microplastics now. It's just in the vernacular. Everything that we do and grow.
And the farm to table movement. So, we can produce some amazing produce that we can then come up and do cooking classes. I have a chef that comes down and teaches home style Italian cooking, and it's just farm to table. And I always love to show up, about five o'clock, at the end of class when they're all sitting down to have this homestyle meal and they're all getting together. And so, I just magically show up when it's dinner time. It's always wonderful.
And so, it's been a progression.
And then we had this pole barn on site, and we decided that if we close that in, we might be able to create an amazing educational center, which we call our Discovery Center. And so, within that space, we were able to fit a commercial kitchen, a multi-use work room, and then a wet room on the other side. So, we have a space that we can go and do different types of classes in, which has been [00:23:00] wonderful to add to the farm here.
Christa Hein: So, is that Discovery Center, the Living Land and Wellbeing Center?
Jessica Breaux: Yes, so the Living Land and Wellness Center is what we've officially called it this year. I had a hard time tying in all the different activities here. How do we tie that into one definition? And to me, it's all about wellness. And it's under three pillars of: health, connection and regenerative nature. And if I can tie it into those three, then it's a class we want to teach here at the farm.
And the programs that we have, it's more like instead of just calling it knitting, I always think of it more than just a class of knitting. It's a craft therapy. It's a way for people to connect. You're using left and right hemispheres of your brain, you're actually developing different parts of your brain. It has been proven to stave off things like Alzheimer's, people who knit and craft and do these handy work. [00:24:00] So I'm trying to teach people, it's more than just a class, it's actually a wellness center.
You are creating balance in your life, overall wellness. So, you have your craft therapy and hand work. You have your healthy living at home. You have regenerative farm education, farm to table, cooking and preserving. We have a kid and youth program, which is very near and dear to my heart. And then we have festival and community, because we need our community. We need to be connected to everybody. So those are where our focuses are on the farm right now, this year. And we're just trying to pull it all together under one heading of the Living Land and Wellness Center at the Discovery Center.
Christa Hein: Can you share a little bit about your programs for youth? The summer camps or your farmer for a day programs.
Jessica Breaux: Yeah, I love it. They're so much fun. I love these kids that come on our farm and grow, like, right before my eyes. So, our summer camp, it's about three weeks long right now. And [00:25:00] we have ages anywhere from about six or seven, all the way up to 13 in the camp. They're all together, they're all learning. And I love watching the older kids take autonomy and take that all in, and just the younger kids looking up to them. And they really take that with responsibility and are looking after the younger kids. The younger kids are looking up to the older kids during this camp. So that good peer pressure, that good kind of, connectivity is amazing to watch.
And then within those camps, each one has a theme. So, one would be a forager for a day, or one is farm to table - learning how to cook, one is preserving. We had mushroom inoculation come in, and we'll have experts come in. Or they'll take a section of the farm and go learn all about worms. And so they'll go in and look at the flow through reactor, and some of the worms had jumped out. So, we were all saving the worms and putting them back in the flow through reactor, because what the worms do for the farm [00:26:00] and the amazing job that they do. So anywhere we were going, they were trying to save the worms to bring them back to the reactor.
So, that connectivity with each other that I think is important. The connectivity of getting out of screen space which has become part of our kids. I have kids myself, it's hard to get them out of their screens. Especially when schools, they have to use them, I understand, but they need that time away from that, so that they can develop other skills. They can develop coordination. They can develop their love of nature.
It creates a lot of respect, too, when you're going out and you're feeding animals and you learn that you have to respect these animals, because if you don’t - a chicken, if you kick at it, will turn around and chase you. I had one child learn that this past summer. All the way down to, they are our responsibility. If you don't water that animal in August, he will suffer. And how do we make sure that we are taking care of things that we are responsible for and good stewards of in the land?[00:27:00]
And then just letting them germinate plants and watching it grow. For them to go down and pick vegetables that you might in the past have to fight for them to eat. Where if they go pick it, and they cut it up, and they cook it, it's like you can't keep them from eating it. They have ownership over that, they’re proud of it. I was surprised one of our teachers wanted to make goat milk yogurt with blueberries that they had picked. And I was like, I don't think some of those kids are going to eat goat milk yogurt. And they loved it! They were just eating it, because they made it, they had ownership over it.
So, those are just some of the programs that we have. It's summer camps, it's farm to table, it's farmer for a day. So, the focus is different, but I think the theme across the board is how do we allow our kids to have ownership? How do we allow them to connect to one another, connect to the land? How do we allow them to slow down? I know parents, we talk about our schedules that are so packed and [00:28:00] crazy. How do we allow the kids to slow down, too and just enjoy running through a field and eating outside?
They stay outside most of the day. If it's raining or it gets really hot in the afternoon, we’ll come in for a little bit. But honestly, they're outside most of the time and they love it. They just really do. We did our first full summer camp last year, and I'm really looking forward to it this upcoming year.
Christa Hein: And I just love that full circle learning that you're giving them to grow the food, to prepare it there, to taste it, but then that knowledge that what they're helping with is going to people in need as well. What an amazing feeling.
Jessica Breaux: And we help each other in the camp, too. So, you know, if you have such a wide swath of ages, you are going to have those that are more capable than others. So, it's teaching, okay we're giving to our community, but we also help each other. It's really lovely to watch.
Christa Hein: Absolutely. So, Jessica, for those listening who are building or dreaming about their own programs, [00:29:00] you didn't come to this with a formal teaching background. What helped you grow into that role with confidence?
Jessica Breaux: Oh yeah, the confidence part was hard. I definitely had big imposter syndrome my first couple of years coming here. I went through the AGL, the agriculture school at UGA leadership program, and I was surrounded by some amazing people in ag who had dedicated their lives to it.
So that confidence had to come a little bit later of just getting in, doing. I think, don't just sit there and talk about what you want to do, you have to get your hands dirty. You have to make mistakes, and being humble enough to ask a lot of questions. And then surrounding yourself with people who have been doing it longer than you, who are better at it than you. Don't worry about getting in and looking like a fool. If you're worried about it, call me. I'll tell you all my stories of falling down, getting back up, failing. I call it failing up. Because it's [00:30:00] amazing. You'll learn more from those kind of times when things didn't work out quite the way you wanted them to, than if you got everything right, right out of the gate.
So, I think we do really well as educators of talking about it and studying it in books, but sometimes not as well as just getting out there and getting your hands dirty and doing it. Because of the fear of that, not doing it a hundred percent. Sometimes you just have to get out there and do it.
Figure out some programs that might help you. There's so many, especially with the internet out there, you know, I'm not totally against screens. I think there's some amazing programs through the internet, through your podcasts, listening to people who are a couple of years ahead of us that just have some amazing wisdom to share.
And then figuring out in your little corner, in your little world, what do you want to share? What can you do? What do you want to give back to the community? What do you want to teach? And just going for it.
Christa Hein: So, as you've developed these programs, I'm curious what you've learned about designing classes so [00:31:00] that beginners feel comfortable and supported.
Jessica Breaux: Yeah, I've been really surprised at how nervous people are to start something new. I think that's really shocked me. And so, what I really focus on is allowing people to come in at the level that they feel comfortable at. So, you can take a, I call them my baby beginner classes, and I nurture them when they come in, every single one to a person. Usually, if you're coming in for a beginning spinning class or a beginning composting class, most of them come in and tell me what they can't do. “I'm not going to be good at this, or I can't do this.” And I get the privilege of within the next two, three hours, or day, or whatever weekend class that we're there, to watch them grow in confidence right before my eyes, which is really fun to watch and see.
But knowing that, knowing the trepidation most people come in. Especially these things are not taught anymore, these handcrafted type [00:32:00]
educational, you know, so it's a very uncomfortable feeling for most people. I allow to have beginning classes. I allow you to take series, whether you can just take one or you want to take a four-part series. And even I have taken classes where I've dipped my toe in and I'm like, “Ooh, this is not for me. I'm just, I'm glad I experienced it. I have no interest in learning more.” That's great. I just love that you showed up and you tried. And then there are other times when I've taken a class and I've fallen head over heels, and I just want to do that all the time. So, then we have these series where you can come and explore that deeper.
And I think knowing that and knowing people are coming to learn from you at different interests, different levels. Not everybody's going to be obsessed about it as if you're teaching it, you love it, right? So just meeting people where they're at, I think, has set expectations for me and help me meet people and then allow them to love it. And welcoming them like they’re [00:33:00] family. Just really, if you come here, I want you to feel welcome and comfortable, and I want you to feel like you can ask me anything. There are no dumb questions. There are no mistakes. There are just learning opportunities, right? So, I just want people to feel very comfortable and confident coming here.
Christa Hein: What great advice. Before we go, if people would like to learn more about Piney Woods Farm or follow what you're doing, where can they find you all online?
Jessica Breaux: Yeah, our best connection is through our website. So, it's pineywoods.farm, F-A-R-M. And then we're on Instagram at @Piney_Woods_Farm_GA, and we're on Facebook - PineyWoods Farm. So yeah, come see us in La Grange. We'd love to see you!
Christa Hein: Great. Jessica, this has been such a beautiful example of how a farm can nourish both land and community. From regenerating soil, to feeding families, to teaching people skills that reconnect them with the natural world. [00:34:00] Thank you so much for sharing your story and for all the work that you're doing at Piney Woods Farm.
Jessica Breaux: Oh, thank you. This was wonderful.
Christa Hein: To our listeners, if something from today's conversation sparked an idea for how you might teach, share, or create connection through your own work, I hope you'll follow that thread. And if you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love for you to follow, leave a review, or share it with someone who would enjoy it, too.
Until next time, keep teaching, keep giving back to the earth, and keep helping people discover their own connections to the land.
Christa Hein: Hey farm educators. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Before you go, I've got something special for you. If you're ready to build a farm education program that people are excited to book, grab my free guide, Five Simple Steps to Growing an In Demand Farm Education Program.
It's packed with the same steps I used to grow my own farm education business, and it'll help you get noticed, attract clients, and make an impact. [00:35:00] Just head over to www.farmeducatorsroadmap.com/fivesimplesteps to get your free copy. It's quick, easy, and will make your programs irresistible. I can't wait to see what you create. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
