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Farm 255 and Full Moon Farms: Bringing the Food We Eat Back to Its Roots

by Ellie Mann
05/22/2007

Digging holes one-trowel length apart and spreading the roots into the ground, the director of Full Moon Farms planted perennial asparagus crowns that will be served on a plate at the Athens restaurant Farm 255.

Anyone who has eaten at the Farm, as it is often called, on Clayton Street in the back of a large courtyard next to Clocked Diner, knows that the food is fresh and unique.

When I contacted the owner of Full Moon Farms, Jason Mann, for an interview, he invited me to come on down to the farm where he would be planting asparagus. But, only if I was OK with being put to work.

"These asparagus shoots will be on your plate in about two years," he said Sunday when I visited the farm and got to try my hand at planting asparagus.

Unique from other restaurants in the southeast, Farm 255, which opened its doors two years ago, serves food directly off the organic Full Moon Farms and other farm partners in Georgia. The first seeds were planted on Full Moon Farms four years ago.

Not only is the food straight from local farms, but Farm 255 actively supports local artists, musicians and community.

"At the Farm, you can expect good food and an atmosphere that supports the things that I believe in," said Mary Morrow Denson, 21, a student at the University of Georgia. "Local artists and food, Farm 255 is unique to the community of Athens."

According to Mann, a local architect restored the old 1930s building into an open space facilitating communication between the cooks and the diners. You can see the preparation of the food and feel the energy that goes into the creation of the unique dishes.

"In the open, boisterous space, we are all working together, employees, local friends and artisans," Mann said.

Whether it's jazz night at the Farm every Tuesday, or Tino Garrido, a classical Spanish guitarist, every Thursday night, or stopping by to see an old friend play the keyboard during dinner, Farm 255 promotes some of the most unique local artists and musicians in town.

In the middle of the boom of organics and the fad of eating local foods, coming into the Athens area from California was not as easy for Mann as it may seem.

"The success of our idea depended, and still depends, primarily on human contact," he said. "We are relationship centered. No fences. No barbed wire. You can come out and walk the farm with me."

When Mann first came to Athens four years ago, he personally went to almost 100 farms in a 200-mile radius to meet the farmers and to establish initial contacts with the local agriculture society.

"We started off with a 100 mile drive, a handshake and a long-term commitment," he said.

Studying under an ecology research professor at the University of Montana in Missoula, MT, after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley. Mann was encouraged by his professor and his radical ideas about organic farming in the southeast to move to the challenging environment of the Piedmont. The land is harsh, filled with weeds and pests and the climate is extremely humid. In the southeast, farming is harder than in the fertile northeast and west coast.

In Athens, Mann saw a ripe niche and a community that was not only ready for organic farming and local foods, but also "deserved it."

Mann recognized the interface of a progressive idea and an adequate consumer base that "flipped the system on its end."

The Farm 255 and Full Moon Farms' partnership has had a real impact on the community in a short amount of time.

Farmers need to be able to survive with a roof over their heads and food on the table, so Mann is working to preserve the community of farmers and local foods.

According to Mann, only 2-4 cents of the dollar goes into the farmer's pocket. He believes that our society has marginalized its farmers.

Mann has centralized the farming, packaging and distributing of food under one roof with the Full Moon Farms and Farm 255 partnership. His business aims at allowing the farmers to capture as much of the farm dollar as possible.

"Food is the cornerstone of vitality and living. This is our temple and our body," he said as he explained the importance of sustainable food practices in relation to having local farm plots independent of the reliance on imports.

Farm 255 is reconnecting people to the roots of the food that they eat. The restaurant rotates its menu based on what's popping up in the field for the season.

Some of the fresh seasonal food on the menu today include, orecchiette with San Marazano tomatoes, roaster garlic, bitter greens and Grana Padano, wild striped bass braised with Alice's cabbage and potatoes in a spicy tomato broth and Darien shrimp and grits with Tim and Alice's red mule grits and a shellfish butter sauce.

Diners should take advantage of the "ask the chef" option on the menu. From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. only, the chef, David Sturgis, will choose four courses and a dessert of his choice. The cooks at the Farm are Noah Brendel, Matt Palmerlee, Dave Giacchino, Andrew Wickham and Miguel Uriostegui.