Local Loan Recipients: South

Whole Foods Market's South Region includes Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Accidental Baker

Hillsborough, North Carolina

The Accidental Baker is a husband-and-wife operation that was started in 2004 in Hillsborough, NC. Jennie McCray and Kevin Mason make their artisan flatbread crackers with premium ingredients, including locally-milled flour. The crackers are currently available in four flavors: Sea Salt, Black Pepper & Sea Salt, Garlic & Chive, and Roasted Garlic & Rosemary. Their products are currently available in our North Carolina stores, but the loan funds will be helping them expand throughout the South.

Eastern Carolina Organics

Pittsboro, North Carolina

Eastern Carolina Organics (ECO) is a farmer-owned marketing and distribution service for 40+ certified organic farmers in North Carolina that was founded in 2004. They help family farmers thrive by improving farmers' access to urban markets and enable consumers to support local family farmers by purchasing high-quality, local organic products.

ECO will using their Local Producer Loan funds to pay for an already-purchased produce cooler which was recently installed. This will help them to improve the quality, quantity, and overall success of the products. 

Sweetwater Growers

Canton, Georgia

Brothers James, Scott, and Dennis Dault have been producing fresh culinary herbs and specialty greens since 2003. As owners of a construction business, Scott and Dennis had the opportunity to work on a greenhouse. It turned out they liked not just the building but the business! They eventually both brought their brother James in and bought out the original owner, turning the greenhouse into a family business.

In addition to their herbs and greens, Sweetwater produces infused oils created with their fresh herbs. Their Infused Roasted Garlic Basil Oil won first place in its category at the 2008 Flavor of Georgia food contest. Whole Foods Market was one of Sweetwater's very first customers, and we continue to support them through purchases and through their loan, which will be used to build two additional greenhouses for live basil.

Check out Sweetwater Growers in our Farm-to-Market blog!

Via Elisa

Atlanta, Georgia

Via Elisa is a line of authentic Italian-style pasta sauces. Owner Elisa Gambino trained in Italy and uses those methods for her production. Her products have been reviewed in a number of regional publications, and she has even been filmed for the Food Network's Road Tasted, in which she showed James and Bobby Deen about making fresh pasta.

Via Elisa was started in 2002; since then, the product line has transitioned from fresh pastas to pasta sauces.

Check out Via Elisa in our Farm-to-Market blog!

White Oak Pastures

Bluffton, Georgia

Will Harris is the fourth generation of his family to raise cattle on his family's South Georgia land. His great-grandfather started the farm in 1886, and the family has been full of cattlemen ever since — although the next generation, Will's three daughters, are cattlewomen! While his father had moved the farm into the industrial livestock model, raising calves to be shipped to the Midwest and finished on grain, Will made the choice in the mid-nineties to transition his herd to grassfed beef production. He considers it a return to the animal husbandry of his forefathers.

Will and his family used the loan funds for an on-farm processing plant which allows his 650 head of cattle to be born, raised, and processed on the same land. Designed with Dr. Temple Grandin, an expert on humane treatment of animals, the plant also means that nearby beef producers now have a more humane alternative to industrial slaughterhouses. Besides being humane and grassfed, White Oak Pasture's beef won the Grand Prize at the 2008 Flavor of Georgia food contest, beating more than 160 new food products!

Enjoy our slideshow profile of White Oak Pastures on the Whole Story blog, or listen to an audio interview with Will Harris on EdibleCommunities.com.

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