Video: Tour Shows Off Increasingly Popular Organic Farm Groups

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LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) — His father was a pioneering hog farmer 50 years ago. And now, he and his wife are on the leading edge of a small but rapidly growing toward organic and natural farming.

Black Creek Farm owners Scott and Lydia Enlow opened their Lowndes County operation to a tour Sunday as part of the state’s sustainable farm organization.

Scott’s father raised pigs on the family farm he bought in 1958 and was an innovator by being one of the first to raise pigs in buildings rather than in fields. He was the state’s largest hog farmer for several years.

Scott moved away but when he and Lydia returned to Lowndes County, he bought part of the family farm off Black Creek Road just outside Columbus.

The Enlows recalled how concerns over chemicals and hormones in food helped them turn their home garden into a profitable farm market operation.

“The more I read, the worse it got until I finally just told him one day, I said, ‘We’ve got to start raising our own food,'” Lydia said of the genesis of their farm, which is among the popular booths at the Columbus Farmers’ Market and has a growing clientele across the region.

“We picked a little flock of chickens up for ourselves and then we started a little garden for ourselves and people started wanting what we were growing and this farm’s kind of grown out of that,” Scott added.

Beaverdam and High Hope farms in Clay County and Bountiful Harvest Farm in Starkville also were on Sunday’s tour.

For information about sustainable farming, visit your local MSU Extension Service office.