Since she was 4 years old, Margo Candelario has been working in the dirt and learning to farm.
Coming from three generations of Black women farmers, Candelario started Young Female Farmers on three and a half acres in Bishop, Georgia, approximately 12 miles southwest of Athens, in 2006 as a way to teach her three daughters to be self-sufficient.
Candelario lost her husband to a heart attack in her early 30s while she was pregnant with her youngest daughter, Trae. Candelario’s mother, Clarice Scott, moved to Georgia from New York to help raise her three granddaughters.
Scott almost always had a garden and grew food in their backyard in the Bronx. After Scott suggested that Candelario start a garden in Georgia, the idea of developing their land into a farm started.
“This is not something that just happened,” Candelario said. “We started in 2006, but I’ve been doing it since I was 4 years old, but didn’t think about turning it into a business really. And that was because of the tragedy of losing my husband and the circumstances and wanting to create something for my children.”
Scott most enjoys the capacity to be self-sufficient and be able to feed themselves by growing food on their land in Bishop.
“What’s interesting to me, at best, is that when we farm, we can eat, don’t have to go to the grocery store,” Scott said. “And then we can also help other people to eat without going to the grocery store, as long as we plant enough for us first.”
Learning to Live from the Land
Since her daughters have grown up and two have started families of their own, Candelario has been using her farming skills and experience to hold workshops and educate people on sustainable farming practices and the health benefits of herbal remedies and eating organic produce.
I want people to know that if you don’t have an acre, but you have a porch and you have a back deck, you can grow food in a five-gallon bucket,” Candelario said.
During the summer growing season, customers can order freshly harvested produce from the farm and pick it up on the same day.
In addition to their summer produce, Young Female Farmers also sells herbal teas and tinctures, a concentrated extract of plant material dissolved in ethanol, made from native plants on the farm. Their available tinctures include plants like yellow dock, which can be used as an anti-inflammatory, and mullein leaf, which is used to treat breathing problems and sore throats, according to the Young Female Farmers website.
On Oct. 19, 2024, Candelario hosted a “Women, Livestock, and the Land” workshop at Young Female Farmers in partnership with the National Center for Appropriate Technology. NCAT is a nationwide nonprofit organization aiming to advance solutions in regenerative agriculture and clean energy while working to promote healthy communities and protect natural resources.
The workshop brought in people from across the Southeast, and Candelario said she was surprised to see other Black farmers, including some from other states.
“There were people that drove up here for that from Mississippi,” Candelario said. “I was totally shocked. I was excited about it … they wanted to see another Black farmer.”
History of Black Farmers
In the 1920s, Black farmers made up one-seventh of all farm operators in the United States, and today they make up less than 2 percent of all farmers. A 2022 NPR analysis of USDA data found that Black farmers have the lowest approval rates for USDA direct loans and have the highest percentage of loan rejections compared to any other racial group. Over the past century, many Black farmers have lost their land to foreclosure and loan denials from the federal government. According to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, those losses cost the farmers approximately $326 billion in income from that land.
Today, organizations like the National Black Farmers Association are working to educate and advocate for Black farmers to ensure they can access the funding they need to continue and grow in the agriculture industry.
Candelario knows that information is valuable, and by sharing her experiences and knowledge with others, she hopes to encourage a new generation of sustainable farmers. Young Female Farmers keeps its Instagram and Facebook regularly updated with their planting and harvesting plans. On their website, they offer various classes for gardening and food preservation as well as seasonal farm tours open to anyone.
“If you know how to grow your own food and teach others to do the same, this is not something that you gatekeep, you know,” Candelerio said. “Share the information because the more that you know, the more independent you become, then your community is independent.”
Although she isn’t sure if her daughters or grandchildren will continue the family farm in the future, Candelario continues to farm because she wants to educate and teach people the importance of eating off the land and utilizing plants for medicine and nutrition.
“I want people to be self-sustainable if they choose to be, and you can’t do that without information,” Candelario said. “So you need people who are willing to educate and share their experiences with individuals who are interested in growing food, not interested in making money.”
Ashtin Barker is a senior journalism major at the University of Georgia.
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