By Kayla Stroud, Communications and Events Specialist
The Georgia Agricultural Wellness Alliance was established in response to the prevalence of mental health challenges experienced by farm families and communities, which was revealed, in large part, through a joint study conducted by Mercer University School of Medicine’s Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center, the Georgia Foundation for Agriculture and students in the School of Medicine’s Rural Health Sciences Ph.D. program. GAWA’s focus is all of Georgia’s farming communities. In this issue of For Rural, we spotlight Calhoun Produce in Turner County.
For Sheila Rice, co-owner of the family-operated Calhoun Produce in Ashburn, farming has always been more than a career. It has been a lifelong commitment rooted in family tradition.
“I’ve done this all my life,” Rice said. “When I was little, my daddy always had us on the farm doing something. I used to have a little notepad when he was selling butter beans, and I would act like I was his secretary when I was seven or eight.”
Rice’s parents started the family’s butter bean business in 1982. Since then, Calhoun Produce has grown from a small operation into a 330-acre destination for fresh produce and family fun.
“Our main crop is butter beans,” Rice said. “Then we started adding strawberries and peas maybe 30 years ago. March through May is strawberry season, with kids and families coming out, and we do beans June through October. Then the summer is for the other vegetables.”
The farm also offers seasonal agritourism attractions, including its popular corn maze and flashlight nights in the fall.
“We do a lot of ag education,” Rice said. “You go through our eight-acre corn maze at night with a flashlight. There are trivia questions that help you find your way out. Even with a map, it is not easy — it is like an escape room.”
The farm’s reach extends far beyond the local area. Each year, thousands of students visit for field trips, including more than 6,000 children in the spring and another 4,000 this fall.
Rice takes pride in offering visitors an up-close view of where their food comes from.
“You are coming to the farm, you are seeing your crop growing, and you get to pick what you are going to eat,” Rice said. “It is not in a grocery store, it is fresh from the farm. We guarantee a fresh product, and we stand behind it. Even our ice cream, while it may not necessarily be healthy, is fresh. It is made with our strawberries, and so is our lemonade.”
Calhoun Produce also features family-friendly activities, including the honeybee house, a narrated wagon ride with farm animals, a playground and educational exhibits.
“We teach the kids about animals and bees. We would not have crops without honeybees,” Rice said. “They get to go in and learn and taste fresh honey. They get out in the field and see the honeybees on the plant. They learn not to be afraid of them because we have to have bees to have food.”
Rice’s family remains fully involved in day-to-day operations.
“My daddy is 83 and still on the tractor every day, and that is fine because that is what he loves,” Rice said. “My brother and I run the place now, and my daughter-in-law and grandbaby are here, too. It takes everybody.”
With the farm wrapping up its fall events, Rice said the focus now shifts to planting strawberries and preparing for the next season. Farming requires months of planning and labor, she said — often more work than many people realize.
“We love what we do, or we would not do it,” Rice said. “It is 24 hours a day, but it is worth every minute.”