Pick of the Crop – Goldman Grown….A Belated Mother’s Day Tale

Goldman Growers strawberry picture courtesy of the South of the James Market Website

Moving into May with the Souther of the James Farmers, Market. Meet your girlfriends up here and share a vino and some toe tapping with the Music du Jour. How about that recommended 9 servings of fruit and vegetables a day? You can get some of those Virginia Grown items right here; freshly harvested and NOT trucked from Florida or imported from Chile. Bring your dollars and your beautiful smiles and visit. See you Wednesday!! The Market runs today from 3-8 and will feature music by Calvin Cecil. This week we take a look at Goldman Grown.

Kate Ruby is the Mother AND employee of Matt Goldman, proprietor of Goldman Grown. This company specializes in blueberry and strawberry plants, but many more varieties of fruit and foliage are available both from the nursery or the Market. The nursery is located in Caroline County and Matt has a mouth-watering business card featuring 2 hands cradling plump, juicy blueberries. Great marketing…..now we just have to wait a few more weeks to actually get them for our blueberry cobblers, muffins, pancakes and fruit salads.

Quick stats on Goldman Grown. The company is 3 years old and comes from the passion and skill that Matt has developed, initially from his time with the Virginia Berry Farm as their Operations Manager. Because the properties are adjacent to each other, Matt was able to branch out individually, with Kate’s help “plant-sitting” and selling. Matt sells blueberry, strawberry, blackberry, fig, arctic kiwi, hardy pomegranate and many other delights for your growing pleasure. But, as all resourceful agis do, he also harvests berries. The strawberries last week were the best I have had literally in years. And the best part about them is that they are not sprayed with chemicals. Since conventional strawberries tend to be pesky culprits in harboring residual pesticides, I prefer organic or non-sprayed offerings such as these.

Goldman sells at 3 markets, but he can work with you directly if you want larger quantities of plants. (mattgoldman8@gmail.com) Matt got his appetite for this type of work early on as a lawn-mowing entrepreneur at age 15. He was one of the early attendees of the Maggie Walker Governor’s School; but even with that prestigious start, entrepreneurism attracted him more than academic degrees. Mom says he has always worked for nurseries and is mostly self-taught as well.

Many of us see the rows and racks at Lowe’s and Home Depot and I asked Kate to explain why it makes better sense to seek out a nursery such as Goldman’s instead. First, let’s look at stress on plants during transportation. Many of the box stores put the plants through a lot of miles. Matt’s plants are only an hour away at the most. Many times, Kate has stages of them in Church Hill being carefully nurtured before they get their retail debut. Secondly, any of us can email or call Matt and get information about how to best transplant and care for the plants. Try doing that at Lowe’s; not that their employees are not usually very helpful in most areas; Matt is a subject matter expert on the plants that he nurtured.

Treat yourself to some of the wonderful, healthy berries this week. Chat with Kate. And I will see you at the Market!

Previous Picks of the Crop

Pick of the Crop is written by Trish Morrison.

Originally from Illinois where she was pioneering with Food Co-ops and Farmer’s Markets in the Chicago suburbs, Trish now lives in the neighborhood near Westover Hills Elementary School. A city dweller by week, weekends she travels to Lunenburg County working on an agricultural venture with her son. She enjoys the blend of art, agriculture, music and muse, you can find at a Farmers’ Market and hopes it comes through in her interview style of writing.