After a delayed start (from July 2023-January 2024), we are off and running to begin
the Southern SARE Professional Development Program grant (2024-2025)
“Indigo and Companion Food Crops: Opportunities for Limited Resource Farmers in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia”
After identifying a group of Service Providers in coastal SC and GA, we are preparing for our first (virtual) training to help farmers begin to grow and process indigo. This project will focus on developing and hosting sustainable agriculture educational events about plant-based indigo dye and companion food crops to train and inspire Limited Resource farmers to consider roles in the indigo value chain as growers and processors.
Please see our previous post here to learn more about our approach, method, and timeline.
In short, the project will launch in the spring of 2024 with a Cohort of approximately 12 service providers in GA and SC, who will participate in 3-4 trainings (virtual and in person) over the growing and harvest season.
The curriculum will follow the steps and methods outlined in the how-to manual and will provide an overview of the process and its potential for small, sustainable farmers.
As an outcome of our training and curriculum, we will create a publication manual (PDF/Print and website) for indigo dye production. This manual will serve as a user-friendly guide for Lowcountry farmers and growers when planting indigo crops and companion plants for their own use.
This unique opportunity to work with the plants, process, and equipment will allow SPs to gain a more detailed understanding of the potential for scaling this farm-based system to serve multiple farms in a central dye house facility that could be owned and operated by a producer cooperative of farmers and textile artists.
If you want to learn more, please see our contact page and let us know if you fit the criteria as a Service Provider in GA or SC. Here are some self-qualifying questions you can use to determine if you are a good fit for our 2024 or 2025 training:
Are you interested in supporting the revival of indigo in the Lowcountry of SC and/or GA?
Do you regularly work with small farmers in this region who might be interested in growing and/or processing indigo?
Over the next year, can you commit to several three-hour online training and one full day (eight-hour) field training in the fall at either St. Helena Island, SC, or Sapelo Island, GA?
If your answers to all of the above are YES, please reach out so we can discuss the possibility of you joining the 2024 or 2025 Cohort.
If we do our jobs well with this project, there will be a lot more blue in homes, businesses, and on the streets from Charleston to Beaufort to Savannah and beyond, putting Lowcountry indigo back on the map.