[Music]
first of all I’m honored Thank You
Russell for having me to come and speak
and I do apologize if the picture
presentation does happen it is powered
by a PowerPoint and I apologize for that
but there aren’t any there are no bullet
points it’s just pictures in case you
get bored and you can stare at that
instead of me I will also go ahead and
say that I definitely made a C in public
speaking at Clemson so just preparing
you for that so really they asked called
and asked me if I wanted to do this and
asked if I wanted to come and kind of
talk about Greenbrier and kind of what
brought us to Greenbrier and kind of
what got us started so Greenbrier has a
farm is about a 300 acre farm and Easley
as the address but we’re in a little
town called Dacus Ville it won’t give us
a pulp post-office so we are easily for
now but a little town called Degas ville
about 20 minutes from town going
straight out highway 183 and we do
certified organic produce we do pastured
pork and grass-fed beef we also do a lot
of events weddings corporate events
parties dinners that sort of thing so
quite a few things going on at the farm
and we stay busy with it for sure so
kind of the story of the farm and how it
got started really is it was started by
my aunt and uncle Joyce and John Palmer
and they it was my mom’s sister and they
bought the land in 1988 and they they
were living in Degas ville they were
doing horses at the time Morgan horses
and showing them and they were living on
a farm a little ways away from the land
that we’re on now and my uncle bought
the land to develop it he was actually a
contractor and I was building schools
and banks and that sort of thing and
bought it to develop it put houses on it
and along about that same time that
happened he purchased the land he was
diagnosed with a rare form of kidney
cancer and at the time they were kind of
high-flying really doing their thing
business going crazy and it really kind
of made them take a step back and say
what is life really about for
are we gonna stay in this fast lane are
we gonna slow down and after a little
bit of time and taking the horses over
to this land and riding him on there he
kind of fell in love with that piece of
land it was the original 75 acres that
he had bought there and they decided to
build there and kind of scale back on
life in general and decide to kind of
start doing a little bit of farming on
the side and scale way back on the
construction and the things and just to
kind of enjoy life for what it is
because at that point he didn’t know the
days were semi numbered for him was a
rare form of cancer not really a lot of
cures there at the time and or not cures
but you know treatments and that sort of
thing so at that time he was going to
Duke University and to do treatment of
kind of a experimental treatment I guess
and the doctor started talking to him
about diet hey maybe you should try to
think about what you’re eating and they
brought up the word organic and
grass-fed meats and you know keep in
mind this is in like 1989 and people
look at you funny when you said organic
back then it was not like today so it
was a situation where they kind of
decided that hey this doctor knows what
he probably knows what he’s talking
about a little more than we do let’s
give it a shot so they started cutting
it they stopped feeding corn to their
animals and started going grass-fed
there and started trying to source
organic food and started to live that
lifestyle and it really rubbed off on me
a lot so kind of at the same time I was
you know elementary middle school age
and I grew up in a cul-de-sac I was
riding bikes and playing Nintendo I did
not grow up in a farm family at all but
my mom would ship me off to the farm
once they got kind of going and had cows
and things to do and baling hay they
would ship me off for about three weeks
every summer to go stay with my aunt and
uncle at the farm and I really loved it
I went out there and wood bale hay and
work with everybody it was working there
zero pay involved just you know I would
say what do I get paid to say the meal
that she ate tonight and the roof over
your head you know pat on the butt could
get you back to work
but mapa was a hard-working man I
learned a lot of lessons from him but
anyway I’ve just really kind of enjoyed
that working together with a team to
accomplish this physical task and at the
end of the day you can sign your name
to it and you know barely eat dinner and
fall asleep you know before you even
make it to bed I just really enjoyed
that and at the time it was back brained
it wasn’t front rating I wasn’t thinking
to myself man I really enjoy this I want
to be a farmer one day I was just being
a kid and enjoying the fact that I was
there instead of running around the
streets in the neighborhood where I
lived I just really enjoyed that and so
time went on I went through high school
and pretty much every summer was going
out there and then I went off to college
and kind of did my thing there and I
actually started out at Clemson pre-vet
because I thought I wanted to be a large
animal vet because of the cows and
things that were going on at the farm
decided I wanted to socialize a little
more than I want to go to vet school and
ended up graduating with a different
piece of paper altogether but anyway so
I finished Clemson it was kind of and
started working for a local food
distributor called pya/monarch at the
time since been bought out by u.s.
foodservice but I was selling groceries
which is kind of kind of ironic so along
comes 2007 my wife and I are living here
in downtown Greenville we had a little
bungalow in North Maine doing our thing
and I was working and she was working
for a local marketing company and my
uncle finally the cancer finally got him
I got that got the end of him and in
2000 September 2007 he passed away and
along the same time I was kind of laying
in bed every night going you know I was
probably 28 29 30 years old writing this
time and I was and not this please don’t
let this offend anyone but I was like I
can’t do this nine to five thing for the
rest of my life is this really what it’s
supposed to be like the same thing from
here forever and I really struggle with
it so at the same time that my uncle
passed away and my aunt had hired a farm
manager because she wouldn’t think she
realized is because always handled the
finances that sort of thing is that this
farm that they had started it was fun it
was a hobby farm it cost money it cost a
lot of money every month to run and so
she was like wow I didn’t realize that
and I’ve got to figure out a way for
this thing to become profitable so at
that time she hires a farm manager just
a completely different guy hired him off
the street and I was still kind of doing
my
and wishing I could be that guy but
didn’t never said anything I didn’t want
to be the greedy nephew that you know
it’s like hey I wanna I want to come and
take care of that
she hired another guy and over the
course of that next year I could just
see that she was getting taken I mean
she was the guy was sitting in the
office playing solitaire hey we’ll go to
market next year we’ll grow something a
couple of things here and there but you
could just tell that things weren’t
going well and I could see the stress
with my aunt cuz we had kind of gotten
closer again since my uncle had passed
away so anyway at that time in late 2008
my wife Amy had lost her job and it was
she was working for a real estate
marketing company and obviously real
estate was not doing real well in 2008
so that was at about the time where I
finally brought it up to her and said
hey I think we need to make a go at this
I think that we need to put a business
plan together make a go of it and see I
don’t know I grew three squash plants
this summer that sounds about right
you know that’s because that’s about my
experience that what it wasn’t farming
at the time so anyway really we decided
hey let’s put a business plan together
and presented to my and see what happens
and we did and she bit and said yes
please thank you you know we worked out
a deal where I’d come and work for work
for her for a year and try to make a
thing profitable if it was and we could
take it over from there and kind of the
rest is history on that end but we so
Amy and I started we went out there
busted our rear ends had absolutely no
idea what we were doing and had just
kind of tried to grow a little bit every
year it was kind of tough because it 300
acre farm it’s kind of hard to just oh
we’ll just kind of grow slow and see how
this goes like no you have to utilize
that cost and everything that goes into
that big piece of land almost
immediately so my wife Amy decided there
was a barn there with a kitchen in it
and I said she said I don’t want to go
to work I want to work here and so she
decided she was gonna take over that
portion of the business and try to do
some events and in about late 2009 we’ve
been doing it about you know about six
eight months and I realize I need help
so then at that point I brought on a
business partner rowdy pick and he was a
buddy of mine living in Indianapolis
very similar situation he was running a
distribution company very unhappy with
the situation he was in and wanted to
simplify in life and I have no idea how
I talked him into coming and doing this
with me but but we did we decided to
give it a go and starting in 2010 we
started a CSA and we just kind of went
from there and now you see the farm as
it is you know 75 member CSA we deal
with a lot of the restaurants here in
town and I would say as far as the local
you know that they said to talk about
local food so we almost a hundred
percent of our food is staying right
here in Greenville not even really Dacus
Phil as much it’s all coming right here
really to Greenville so we feel like
we’re a part of the local food scene
here and and are really gracious to be a
part of it but really kind of my point I
guess if there’s an idea for tonight
that I wanted to kind of put to you guys
is any of you guys that have young you
know sons or daughters or you know
nephews or nieces kind of the thing that
I’ve learned the most is it’s okay to go
out and earn a living with your hands in
being an educated person there’s nothing
wrong with that and I actually get so
much more out of life everyday not
sitting in an office and going out and
planting vegetables and work with my
hands and everybody’s motivated about
you know different things and that’s
kind of what motivates me and what gets
me going and gets me excited to go out
there and do this and it’s a really hard
job but I guess everybody has a certain
thing that makes me makes them tick and
for me it’s going out and working a hard
day and seeing the result of it at the
end of that day and and for me as I kind
of grow the vegetables at the farm and I
like that because my attention span
works in about 75 days so I’m bored in
about 75 days and it’s time to plant
something else so but that’s really my
point of the whole thing is that it took
me I would say that all of our business
and the things that we did before helped
a lot because we marketed the farm and
we used a lot of our connections that we
had here in Greenville in order to get
it off of you know in order to get it up
and running when we still lived in
downtown Greenville we would bring
coolers of food and sell it out of our
kitchen before we actually moved out
there relied on a lot of our network of
friends
stammers and and I’m sure they dealt
with things that they were like what is
this that he grew I have no idea but
we’re gonna buy it because we know chata
naming but really that’s the point of it
is that we that I want people to know
that it’s okay you know could I when I
was growing up it was a situation where
go to college get a desk job or you’re a
loser you know and I want people to know
that it’s okay to go out there and work
with your hands and you can make a
living at it and there’s a lot of people
that need there’s jobs that are needed
out there right now people to work with
their hands and make a good living so
that’s the store [Applause]
first of all I’m honored Thank You
Russell for having me to come and speak
and I do apologize if the picture
presentation does happen it is powered
by a PowerPoint and I apologize for that
but there aren’t any there are no bullet
points it’s just pictures in case you
get bored and you can stare at that
instead of me I will also go ahead and
say that I definitely made a C in public
speaking at Clemson so just preparing
you for that so really they asked called
and asked me if I wanted to do this and
asked if I wanted to come and kind of
talk about Greenbrier and kind of what
brought us to Greenbrier and kind of
what got us started so Greenbrier has a
farm is about a 300 acre farm and Easley
as the address but we’re in a little
town called Dacus Ville it won’t give us
a pulp post-office so we are easily for
now but a little town called Degas ville
about 20 minutes from town going
straight out highway 183 and we do
certified organic produce we do pastured
pork and grass-fed beef we also do a lot
of events weddings corporate events
parties dinners that sort of thing so
quite a few things going on at the farm
and we stay busy with it for sure so
kind of the story of the farm and how it
got started really is it was started by
my aunt and uncle Joyce and John Palmer
and they it was my mom’s sister and they
bought the land in 1988 and they they
were living in Degas ville they were
doing horses at the time Morgan horses
and showing them and they were living on
a farm a little ways away from the land
that we’re on now and my uncle bought
the land to develop it he was actually a
contractor and I was building schools
and banks and that sort of thing and
bought it to develop it put houses on it
and along about that same time that
happened he purchased the land he was
diagnosed with a rare form of kidney
cancer and at the time they were kind of
high-flying really doing their thing
business going crazy and it really kind
of made them take a step back and say
what is life really about for
are we gonna stay in this fast lane are
we gonna slow down and after a little
bit of time and taking the horses over
to this land and riding him on there he
kind of fell in love with that piece of
land it was the original 75 acres that
he had bought there and they decided to
build there and kind of scale back on
life in general and decide to kind of
start doing a little bit of farming on
the side and scale way back on the
construction and the things and just to
kind of enjoy life for what it is
because at that point he didn’t know the
days were semi numbered for him was a
rare form of cancer not really a lot of
cures there at the time and or not cures
but you know treatments and that sort of
thing so at that time he was going to
Duke University and to do treatment of
kind of a experimental treatment I guess
and the doctor started talking to him
about diet hey maybe you should try to
think about what you’re eating and they
brought up the word organic and
grass-fed meats and you know keep in
mind this is in like 1989 and people
look at you funny when you said organic
back then it was not like today so it
was a situation where they kind of
decided that hey this doctor knows what
he probably knows what he’s talking
about a little more than we do let’s
give it a shot so they started cutting
it they stopped feeding corn to their
animals and started going grass-fed
there and started trying to source
organic food and started to live that
lifestyle and it really rubbed off on me
a lot so kind of at the same time I was
you know elementary middle school age
and I grew up in a cul-de-sac I was
riding bikes and playing Nintendo I did
not grow up in a farm family at all but
my mom would ship me off to the farm
once they got kind of going and had cows
and things to do and baling hay they
would ship me off for about three weeks
every summer to go stay with my aunt and
uncle at the farm and I really loved it
I went out there and wood bale hay and
work with everybody it was working there
zero pay involved just you know I would
say what do I get paid to say the meal
that she ate tonight and the roof over
your head you know pat on the butt could
get you back to work
but mapa was a hard-working man I
learned a lot of lessons from him but
anyway I’ve just really kind of enjoyed
that working together with a team to
accomplish this physical task and at the
end of the day you can sign your name
to it and you know barely eat dinner and
fall asleep you know before you even
make it to bed I just really enjoyed
that and at the time it was back brained
it wasn’t front rating I wasn’t thinking
to myself man I really enjoy this I want
to be a farmer one day I was just being
a kid and enjoying the fact that I was
there instead of running around the
streets in the neighborhood where I
lived I just really enjoyed that and so
time went on I went through high school
and pretty much every summer was going
out there and then I went off to college
and kind of did my thing there and I
actually started out at Clemson pre-vet
because I thought I wanted to be a large
animal vet because of the cows and
things that were going on at the farm
decided I wanted to socialize a little
more than I want to go to vet school and
ended up graduating with a different
piece of paper altogether but anyway so
I finished Clemson it was kind of and
started working for a local food
distributor called pya/monarch at the
time since been bought out by u.s.
foodservice but I was selling groceries
which is kind of kind of ironic so along
comes 2007 my wife and I are living here
in downtown Greenville we had a little
bungalow in North Maine doing our thing
and I was working and she was working
for a local marketing company and my
uncle finally the cancer finally got him
I got that got the end of him and in
2000 September 2007 he passed away and
along the same time I was kind of laying
in bed every night going you know I was
probably 28 29 30 years old writing this
time and I was and not this please don’t
let this offend anyone but I was like I
can’t do this nine to five thing for the
rest of my life is this really what it’s
supposed to be like the same thing from
here forever and I really struggle with
it so at the same time that my uncle
passed away and my aunt had hired a farm
manager because she wouldn’t think she
realized is because always handled the
finances that sort of thing is that this
farm that they had started it was fun it
was a hobby farm it cost money it cost a
lot of money every month to run and so
she was like wow I didn’t realize that
and I’ve got to figure out a way for
this thing to become profitable so at
that time she hires a farm manager just
a completely different guy hired him off
the street and I was still kind of doing
my
and wishing I could be that guy but
didn’t never said anything I didn’t want
to be the greedy nephew that you know
it’s like hey I wanna I want to come and
take care of that
she hired another guy and over the
course of that next year I could just
see that she was getting taken I mean
she was the guy was sitting in the
office playing solitaire hey we’ll go to
market next year we’ll grow something a
couple of things here and there but you
could just tell that things weren’t
going well and I could see the stress
with my aunt cuz we had kind of gotten
closer again since my uncle had passed
away so anyway at that time in late 2008
my wife Amy had lost her job and it was
she was working for a real estate
marketing company and obviously real
estate was not doing real well in 2008
so that was at about the time where I
finally brought it up to her and said
hey I think we need to make a go at this
I think that we need to put a business
plan together make a go of it and see I
don’t know I grew three squash plants
this summer that sounds about right
you know that’s because that’s about my
experience that what it wasn’t farming
at the time so anyway really we decided
hey let’s put a business plan together
and presented to my and see what happens
and we did and she bit and said yes
please thank you you know we worked out
a deal where I’d come and work for work
for her for a year and try to make a
thing profitable if it was and we could
take it over from there and kind of the
rest is history on that end but we so
Amy and I started we went out there
busted our rear ends had absolutely no
idea what we were doing and had just
kind of tried to grow a little bit every
year it was kind of tough because it 300
acre farm it’s kind of hard to just oh
we’ll just kind of grow slow and see how
this goes like no you have to utilize
that cost and everything that goes into
that big piece of land almost
immediately so my wife Amy decided there
was a barn there with a kitchen in it
and I said she said I don’t want to go
to work I want to work here and so she
decided she was gonna take over that
portion of the business and try to do
some events and in about late 2009 we’ve
been doing it about you know about six
eight months and I realize I need help
so then at that point I brought on a
business partner rowdy pick and he was a
buddy of mine living in Indianapolis
very similar situation he was running a
distribution company very unhappy with
the situation he was in and wanted to
simplify in life and I have no idea how
I talked him into coming and doing this
with me but but we did we decided to
give it a go and starting in 2010 we
started a CSA and we just kind of went
from there and now you see the farm as
it is you know 75 member CSA we deal
with a lot of the restaurants here in
town and I would say as far as the local
you know that they said to talk about
local food so we almost a hundred
percent of our food is staying right
here in Greenville not even really Dacus
Phil as much it’s all coming right here
really to Greenville so we feel like
we’re a part of the local food scene
here and and are really gracious to be a
part of it but really kind of my point I
guess if there’s an idea for tonight
that I wanted to kind of put to you guys
is any of you guys that have young you
know sons or daughters or you know
nephews or nieces kind of the thing that
I’ve learned the most is it’s okay to go
out and earn a living with your hands in
being an educated person there’s nothing
wrong with that and I actually get so
much more out of life everyday not
sitting in an office and going out and
planting vegetables and work with my
hands and everybody’s motivated about
you know different things and that’s
kind of what motivates me and what gets
me going and gets me excited to go out
there and do this and it’s a really hard
job but I guess everybody has a certain
thing that makes me makes them tick and
for me it’s going out and working a hard
day and seeing the result of it at the
end of that day and and for me as I kind
of grow the vegetables at the farm and I
like that because my attention span
works in about 75 days so I’m bored in
about 75 days and it’s time to plant
something else so but that’s really my
point of the whole thing is that it took
me I would say that all of our business
and the things that we did before helped
a lot because we marketed the farm and
we used a lot of our connections that we
had here in Greenville in order to get
it off of you know in order to get it up
and running when we still lived in
downtown Greenville we would bring
coolers of food and sell it out of our
kitchen before we actually moved out
there relied on a lot of our network of
friends
stammers and and I’m sure they dealt
with things that they were like what is
this that he grew I have no idea but
we’re gonna buy it because we know chata
naming but really that’s the point of it
is that we that I want people to know
that it’s okay you know could I when I
was growing up it was a situation where
go to college get a desk job or you’re a
loser you know and I want people to know
that it’s okay to go out there and work
with your hands and you can make a
living at it and there’s a lot of people
that need there’s jobs that are needed
out there right now people to work with
their hands and make a good living so
that’s the store [Applause]
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