Page 24 - Winter 2021

s| AGRARIAN LIFE
Farmington gardener’s motto:
‘Pick today, cook today’
By Brian Wellmeier
The seed of Joyce Bennett’s passion for gardening was sowed at a young age. One year, her parents grew enough turnip greens to fill an entire bathtub.
Since then, Bennett has always planted something. At first, it was mostly daylilies. When her children were growing up, she moved on to vegetables. When she retired from the United States Department of Agriculture, her passion bloomed into a lifestyle.
Every Thursday from June to August, Bennett sets up a tent at the Bishop Farmers Market at the intersection of Old Bishop Road and U.S. 441. Everything the Farmington resident sells under the banner of Shovelbird Acres is naturally grown.
Along the tables, she’s assorted jars of homemade jams and baked goods, including her locally famous blueberry-coffee cake, which she sells alongside crates of just about every kind of vegetable imaginable.
Zach Wood, left, buys a sunflower-filled bouquet from Joyce Bennett of Shovelbird Acres at the Bishop Farmers Market.
PAGE 22 | OCONEE THE MAGAZINE | WINTER 2021
Julia Fechter