Chesapeake Greenhouse – Sudlersville, Maryland
John Maniscalco grows a delectable array of lettuces in a controlled greenhouse environment in Sudlersville, Maryland, using the most recent technologies in soil health and hydroponic growing.  This system allows John to provide lettuces year-round to Whole Foods Market, get high density production, use energy more efficiently and lower water consumption.

Meadow Creek Dairy
Galax, Virginia

In managing their herd of Jersey cows at Meadow Creek Dairy in southwest Virginia, the Feete family is intent on providing them with the best care possible, which in turn helps them produce the highest quality cheese from raw cows’ milk with no added coloring or preservatives. The deep yellow coloring of these cheeses reflects the grass-based diet of the Jersey cows and the high beta-carotene content of the milk.

Eagle Creek Growers – Mantua, Ohio
Under a 3½ acre greenhouse, the Bonner family at Eagle Creek grows a wide variety of potted plants and hanging baskets almost completely off-the-grid. They heat their entire greenhouse system using energy created from an on-site boiler system utilizing environmentally friendly products such as wood waste, saw dust, and dried manure from local horse farms.

Savannah Bee Company – Ted Dennard
Savannah, Georgia
As Ted Dennard tells the story, he got started in the beekeeping business when “an old, battered pickup truck swarming with bees rattled into my life.” He learned the craft of beekeeping from the driver, Old Ray, and has kept bees in his backyard ever since. Today Savannah Bee Company’s award-winning artisan honeys are carefully harvested by the finest beekeepers in the southeast and delivered to Whole Foods Market in the purest form possible.

Capriole Farmstead Goat Cheese
Greenville, Indiana
In 1976, Judy Schad and her family fled the suburbs for a small farm in the hills of southern Indiana, in search of a more sustainable lifestyle. More than 30 years later, Judy has built a goat cheese farm on the 80 acres surrounding her home where some 500 goats roam the pastures and woods, while Judy and her crew use their goat milk to make fresh, ripened, and aged chevres by hand.

The Thompson family has been farming in southern Brooks County, Georgia, since the early 1930s. Today, Raymond and his son Andrew own and operate Thompson Farm Smokehouse, where they continue the tradition of providing excellent quality food grown on a small family farm. The Thompsons raise pastured pork and employ old-fashioned salt curing methods to ensure superior flavor in Thompson Farm meat.

Note: Our Farm to Market slide shows currently feature farmers and producers from our South and MidAtlantic Regions. We hope to expand to others in the future.

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Mercier Orchards – Blue Ridge, Georgia

Tim Mercier has been picking apples since he was seven years old on the North Georgia orchard where he was raised and now lives with his children and grandchildren. Tim and his crew hand-pick dozens of varieties of apples over 200 acres that will ship out to Whole Foods Market the very next day, making them the freshest bushels of apples available straight from the tree to the market.

The Choptank Oyster Company is a thriving oyster hatchery and farm that produces high quality oysters, while also helping to improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Traditionally, millions of bushels of oysters have been harvested annually from the waters surrounding Dorchester County, Maryland, up until the 1970’s when harvest numbers began to drop off substantially as a result of over harvesting. However, The Choptank Oyster Company is helping to turn this situation around by culturing and spawning millions of native oysters in the bay at any one time.

Shawn Thackeray – Thackeray Farms – Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina

Shawn Thackeray began farming this 200 acres of land located a mere mile from the Atlantic Ocean many years ago with his father-in-law when it was all planted in tomatoes. Today Shawn owns this land, where he dedicates 20 acres to grow heirloom tomatoes and has expanded the rest to grow a diverse roster of specialty vegetables and several varieties of wildflowers. Thackeray Farms is currently transitioning their sustainable farming practices to organic in order to improve the condition of the soil and the surrounding water and to provide the healthiest working environment for his employees.