Pendley Farms

Earl’s Farm Story and Background
I was born and raised in the North Georgia Mountains on a dirt road in Picken’s County (near Jasper, GA). This was Appalachia with my father working at the Georgia Marble Company and my mother raising the family of four children. We depended a great deal on growing our own food so we all spent a lot of time helping with the gardens and also the preservation of the food. Momma would typically put up over 200 quarts of canned beans as well as many other vegetables. What we canned from the garden harvest was the majority of what we had to eat over the winter. Our spring and summer gardens were very large. We had a milk cow until my early teens and we churned and made our own butter and buttermilk. I love cornbread and buttermilk even today! We also would raise a hog every year for our main meat source.
I knew we weren’t rich, but we never went hungry or even thought we would be hungry because of our reliance on and use of the land. I did dread working in the garden or other chores such as cutting firewood as any young person does but this was part of the life in the country. It was also part of contributing to the family well-being. What I inherited was a strong admiration for nature and especially the wonder of planting a seed and then enjoying the bounty of the harvests later. There just isn’t anything better than a fresh homegrown tomato!

I was the first in my family to attend and graduate from college. I studied Forestry and graduated with the desire to work in the woods and not sit behind a desk wearing a tie! As life takes it unforeseen turns I ended up with a wonderful career with the federal government in Federal Contracting including 23 years with NASA and 8 years with the U.S. Air Force as a civil servant. I did sit behind a desk with a tie on for those 31 total years but it allowed me a great way to provide for my family and to be able to prepare for retirement at age 55. We began the blueberry farm 12 years ago and before that, I had gardens and flowers around the house and on our 14 acres.
Once we started having pick your own harvests with the blueberry farm in 2009 I noticed from my interactions with customers that there were many families that were interested in growing or preserving foods but not too many in today’s world take the time to do this or know how. I was particularly concerned about the younger generations that answered the question ‘where does your food come from?’ with “the grocery store”. So I developed the idea to provide fun farm and food educational classes to small groups to foster a better understanding of how to grow and preserve foods as well as how the past generations did this.

I look forward to providing meaningful and fun outings to Pendley Farms! Although I have scheduled events I will be glad to work with your small group or several family groups to schedule a time at Pendley Farms to better meet your schedule. Since these are hand-on events, each family group leaves with a homemade product. Normal class size should be around 10 people. Depending on the event, size may vary up to 16.
Contact me at pendleyearl@gmail.com or at 256-606-0304.
Pendley Farms provides an opportunity for your family or organization to have a family-team building good time and to learn something at the same time!
Earl