Get to Know the Farm!
Meet the Farmers
Concetta Kome - FGD Founder & Farm Director
Concetta Kome hatched the idea of Farm Girl Deliveries in 2016, when her backyard chickens began to lay more eggs than her family could eat. She shared the extra with friends, and soon she was delivering produce from her home garden, too. When Concetta and her family moved to a beautiful parcel of land in Six Mile, the abundance grew, and so did Farm Girl Deliveries.
Lillian Kome - Produce Manager
Lillian and her twin sister Rosa grew up in fields, forests, and their parents’ gardens. In Biosystems Engineering at Clemson University, Lillian studied how to design systems so that both nature and people benefit. She brought that knowledge to the farm, along with her love for home-grown food.
Rosa Kome - Flower Manager
While studying Environmental and Natural Resources at Clemson, Rosa learned how the plants she’d grown up with grew in the wild. During her time as an assistant grower at a commercial greenhouse, she experienced how people grow plants indoors. On the farm, she combines her knowledge to raise naturally beautiful flowers.
The farm wouldn’t flourish without help from our additional farmers, including interns from Clemson University and wonderful volunteers.
Our Chickens & Other Farm Animals
Abundant space and a balanced diet creates not only happy hens, but also hearty, healthy eggs. That’s why our chickens have free range of spacious pens and daily access to non-GMO layer feed, mixed seeds, fresh greens, kitchen scraps, and their favorite, soldier fly larvae. They also get oyster shells, grit, and all the insects and sprouts they can forage.
Our hens provide valuable services, in addition to laying eggs. They consume plant and food waste, provide nitrogen-rich manure, and prepare new land for planting. We raise all the hens from chicks, and when their egg-laying years are done they retire to the eldest flock, where they continue to improve the earth for future gardens.
We have around 90 chickens, divided into two flocks. The varieties include Golden Comets, Buff Orpingtons, White-faced Black Spanish, Barred Rocks, and more. The diversity of breeds means a diversity of egg colors– and personalities. There’s never a boring day with our hens, and they aren’t the only animals that call our farm home!
Our herd of livestock provides manure, kudzu control, and good company. The goats are Gobi, Boots, Frankie, Kippah, Winnie, Robin, and Luca; the sheep are Merry and Pippin. They are watched over by the mini donkey Gnocchi, who takes his job very seriously.
We also have six rabbits, who likewise provide valuable manure for our gardens. And last but not least, two ducks, who don’t pay much rent but are nonetheless nice to have around.
How Our Garden Grows
Farm Girl Deliveries raises all their flowers, vegetables, and eggs on a parcel of land in Six Mile, SC. Our vegetables and flowers grow on a half-acre of cultivated land. We grow all of our plants from seed to harvest.
Our all-natural, sustainable practices include:
No-till: We build our gardens from the ground up - literally!
-
Tilling disrupts soil structure and biology. No-till increases water infiltration, good microorganisms, and organic matter.
-
To establish new beds, we lay down cardboard, mulch, leaves, and compost.
-
We regularly add new organic material, including cover crops, leaf mulch, compost, and manure.
-
We ensure the soil is never bare; it is always covered by plants or leaf mulch.
No synthetic fertilizer: Healthy soil contains all the nutrients that plants need to survive. Natural soil processes make those nutrients available to plants.
-
We manage our soil to maximize populations of microorganisms like mycorrhizae fungi, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and decay microbes.
-
When needed, organic amendments are added to ensure productive crops.
-
Young plants receive a boost of food from natural sources such as fish emulsion (which smells exactly how it seems like it would!)
-
Compost teas provide natural benefits; for example, comfrey tea delivers nutrients that the plants pulled from deep in the soil.
No pesticides: We never use insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, or other synthetic pesticides. Instead, we manage our farm like a natural ecosystem.
-
Beneficial insects are encouraged, including predatory beetles, parasitic wasps, and pollinators.
-
Susceptible plants such as collards are protected by cloth covers.
-
Some pests are removed manually (and the unlucky ones are a treat for the chickens!)
-
To control disease, we use crop rotation, drip irrigation, and sanitary practices.
-
Weeds that aren’t smothered by mulch are removed by hand and sent to the compost or the animals.
Polyculture: Our garden grows a diversity of vegetables and flowers knocking metaphorical elbows, just like in an ecosystem.
-
Flowers attract pollinators for the veggies (simple and effective!)
-
Companion plants benefit each other in myriad ways, including deterring pests and consuming complementary nutrients.
-
Complexity prevents catastrophe; a single disease or pest won’t end the season.
-
We benefit by harvesting diverse food, flavor, and nutrition every day.
