The Native Sun Story

First of all, welcome to our blog! If you've found your way here, then you probably care about the kind of food that you're eating. We do too! Native Sun Farm is a small, family-run, all-natural fruit and vegetable farm just outside Athens, Georgia.

Native Sun Farm is operated by us, Brent and Amy Lopp. We both graduated from the University of Georgia with degrees in Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, respectively. After graduating from UGA and getting married, we picked up and moved to Fort Collins, Colorado where Brent pursued a passion for the brewing industry and I worked as a glamorous landscape architect. After two wonderful years in Fort Collins, we decided that 1,000+ miles was just too far away from our families so we moved on back to Georgia. Back in Georgia with no jobs and no real place yet to call home, we decided a little sabbatical was necessary to figure out our next move. In February of 2008, we set out from Springer Mountain in north Georgia to hike the entire length of the Appalachian Trail. About six months and a thousand stories later, we finished our thru-hike at Mt. Katahdin in Maine. After all that time in the woods pondering our future, we returned to Georgia and decided to move back to where our relationship started (sorta) and where Brent had grown up. We returned to beautiful, funky, progressive Athens, Georgia. Back in Athens, Brent dabbled in the brewing industry again working at a local brewery and I honed my newly acquired outdoor gear skills working at a small outdoor shop. While we were both thoroughly enjoying themselves, something was stirring under the surface. We started reading books like The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. We planted a huge garden and learned about preserving foods through canning and freezing. We went to farmer's markets and tried to eat sustainably. The food revolution had arrived at our doorstep. After a delicious summer of eating backyard tomatoes and devouring homemade pickles, we were sold. Brent left his position at Terrapin in November of 2009 and started planning Native Sun Farm.

Here we are in May of 2010 and Native Sun has almost two acres under cultivation. The fields are full of sugar snap peas, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, tomatillos, okra, corn and plenty plenty more. The weeding is done by hand. You can reach down, pluck something out of the earth and pop it in your mouth without fear. Unless you're afraid of dirt - in that case, you can rinse it with a little water first. The produce is sold through the online farmer's market at locallygrown.net, through the farmstand on Jimmy Daniel Road and also to local restaurants and "food box" providers. Farm tours are always on the menu as well. Native Sun loves to show off what is growing and how it was grown.

This is our first year as an operating farm and we are just so excited to finally be doing something that we whole-heartedly believe in. Stop by and see us - let us know how we're doing and what kinds of food you might like to see cropping up in the fields.