EliYahu Ben Asa | Atlanta Harvest

EliYahu Ben Asa

Atlanta Harvest

Ellenwood, Clayton County

When you arrive at Atlanta Harvest, the farm stand immediately catches your eye. The stand proudly displays a photo of the Ysrael family who own and run Atlanta Harvest and two other farms in Dublin and Griffin. Inside, people can shop on Sundays through Fridays from 11 AM - 5 PM for freshly grown produce, meat and dairy products, and other items sourced from local and black-owned businesses. “My initial inspiration for the farm stand was that we needed a place to sell in the city. Before, we were growing in Dublin and selling at farmers markets. That was the original idea behind purchasing Atlanta Harvest,” said EliYahu Ben Asa who owns and operates the farm.

When we last checked in with Atlanta Harvest, we covered their journey from leasing land in Jonesboro to acquiring the land they currently farm in Ellenwood. With the help of a Food Well Alliance grant, the family was able to make a down payment on the new property. Aside from some fruit trees and muscadine vines, the site was a blank canvas, allowing them to transform the space into their vision for Atlanta Harvest. However this also meant undertaking a lot of infrastructure projects. Over the course of three years, they’ve made a lot of progress, including the construction of the farm stand and garden beds and the installation of a drip irrigation system, all from scratch. “One of the biggest things about the way we work is we’re always expanding, always growing,” said EliYahu, who just finished helping his family build a 90×30 chicken coop on their ranch in Griffin. For EliYahu, balancing all aspects for the farm–from planting and growing to harvesting and building–is key and he’s always looking for ways to improve.

The family’s next project is building a brick and mortar store to replace the current farm stand, and they are sourcing logs directly from their land to make the frame. A new Food Well grant will help cover costs for the store. It will be a place where they can sell their own produce, but also help bridge the gap between other local farmers and consumers. “I want to turn this space into a place where farmers can send their produce so they can focus on farming.” EliYahu also hopes the farm stand can become a destination for people to get their household staples in addition to food. “If I can get people to pass Walmart on the left and Kroger on the right and come here, that’s for sure more value for their experience.” Eventually, he also wants to build a nursery and greenhouses so that they can start doing plant sales.

“It's hard to find organizations that believe in your business so much that they will stick with you through it,” said EliYahu speaking on the support Food Well Alliance has provided. “Nothing that we have today could have been done without that support. We’re grateful for donors’ help, you know, and all the other contributions–be it physical, emotional, spiritual–that have been passed on through this process. They’ve helped the business and individuals in our family, so it means a lot.”