Fun on the Job

I have a really great job. I get to work with agribusiness companies and help them start {and grow!} their businesses. I have been traveling with a colleague for a few days over the past few weeks to see what south GA has to offer. There is so much I have never even heard of. I am glad I get to experience all of these neat things and promote an industry I love.

During one of our travel days, we visited Sweet Georgia Baking Company in Americus. Of course, we couldn’t turn down sharing a slice of chocolate walnut whiskey pie, made with corn whiskey from Thirteenth Colony. Boy was it rich! I needed a glass of milk afterward. It was delicious.

We also visited Perry Wellness Center. It is a wonderful mental health day facility. Part of the activities include growing fruits, vegetables, and plants for their farmers market. PWC also has wonderful arts and crafts. I can’t wait to take Justin to see it!

The folks there got a grant to build a new greenhouse. Its walls are all windows. It is a real beauty.

They have wonderful art installations throughout the property. This wonderful archway was even worked on by former First Lady Rosalyn Carter.

I think I see a few projects for Justin in my future. I love the corrugated metal planter boxes and the funky bathtub would be a really neat fish pond.

Later that afternoon, we stopped at Lane Southern Orchards. My photog sister Sami took my middle sister Suzi’s maternity pictures here the day before. The peach blossoms are just beautiful!

We also visited a tilapia farm where they grow over 250,000 pounds of tilapia a year! It was amazing to see.

I absolutely love this grain-silo-turned-fire-pit. I sent pictures to Justin and he is on the hunt for an old silo to do this at our house now.

I also got to see a carrot packing shed in operation. These carrots were brought in from the fields in huge containers and are cleaned, packaged, sorted by size (some were cut down to baby carrot size), and sent out across the country. I see their brand in Publix all the time!

Justin cooked a fabulous meal earlier this week and reminded me it was a true “Georgia Grown” meal: deer he killed in Byromville, potatoes and cabbage grown by Jake and Ben and the rest of the Cook/Perry family, and butterbeans and strawberries for the pound cake (not in this picture) from Calhoun Produce.

We have a lot of great things around us if we just take the time to check it out!