Summer Son

If Daniel Parson had to use pesticides or herbicides—even the organic kind—to grow his produce, he wouldn’t be in the farming business. Fortunately for Upstate locavores, Parson’s two-acre farm in nearby Clinton (on land owned by the Farmhouse Bed & Breakfast) is a model in sustainable agriculture, not to mention a gold mine of heirloom, chemical-free vegetables—hand-selected for their texture, flavor, shape, and color.

Parson, just 35-years-old, got his start farming by simply being interested in the environmental aspects of food growing. “I started out as sort of a preservationist,” he explains. “I love to go hiking. I just wanted to lock land away and never do a thing with it.”

Though he still thinks there’s great value in preservation, he came to realize “we need stuff for our lives, and we need a way to do that without hurting the environment. That’s where (my interest in organic farming) started,” he says.

So, after graduating from Clemson in 1998 with a degree in biology, Parson went to work for an organic farmer in Dawson, Ga. “I wanted to learn to grown my own food and ended up with a career in it,” he says, chuckling. A few years later, he returned to Clemson to earn his masters degree in plant environmental science, which is when he found himself managing the student organic farm.

Now, eating locally, sustainably, and organically is mainly about enjoyment for him and his young family (though it has garnered him praise far and wide: He regularly addresses state and regional groups, and he was named the 2009 Georgia Organics Land Steward of the Year).

Divided into eight quarter-acre blocks, Parson’s land system hinges on using cover crops (think rye, Austrian peas, and buckwheat) instead of chemicals. “There’s a bunch of organic pesticides I could be using, but I choose not to. It’s a whole different mindset for me,” says Parson. “For conventional growers it’s hard to switch over. For me, it’s easier to just come from that. I never had those tools in my tool kit.”

Now, in addition to working with cover crops to improve his soil conditions, he’s learning how to use them to correct pests. Fields of buckwheat become a beneficial attractor, luring pollinating honey bees, bumble bees, and wasps to his fields. In fact, he just received a grant from the USDA to study beneficial insects. He travels the southeast talking about how pests are affected by growing things like buckwheat. “Now, this is my chance to say it works, because I’ve actually counted the bugs.”

Getting your hands on Parson’s produce is particularly rewarding this time of year, though you won’t find him at the downtown Greenville Carolina First Saturday Market. Shares of his Community Supported Agriculture program are still available for purchase and feature peppers, eggplant, squash, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, broccoli, beets, potatoes, cabbage, garlic, onion, okra, cucumbers, and fennel, to name a few. The focus of Daniel’s farm production is variety, and of the more than one hundred varieties available through the course of the remaining 14-week CSA season, dozens are heirloom types.

He also supplies Stella’s Southern Bistro in Simpsonville with bushels of freshly harvested veggies, which can be found in a variety of the eatery’s menu items. His tomatoes, including Sun Gold Cherry and Cherokee purple varieties, will also be the featured dish at Slow Food Greenville’s upcoming Tasting Dinner, scheduled for this weekend at downtown’s Ristorante Bergamo.

“Lots of growers will tell you they eat the (leftovers). I eat the best stuff,” Parson says. “When I have that perfect vegetable that comes out of the field, that’s going home with me. It’s about enjoyment. Knowing where it comes from. Knowing who grew it. That’s what it’s all about.”

Slow Food Fundraiser
Daniel Parson’s heirloom tomatoes will be the featured menu item at Slow Food Upstate’s upcoming Tasting Dinner fundraiser, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 25, at Ristorante Bergamo, 100 N. Main Street, Greenville. For ticket availability or more information about the event, visit www.slowfoodupstate.com.

To inquire about purchasing a share from Parson Produce, visit www.parsonorganics.com or contact Daniel Parson at (404) 452-4321. The CSA runs through November 16, and weekly shares can be picked up at the farm or through Upstate Locally Grown (upstatesc.locallygrown.net).