Steward Farms · Marietta, Georgia
Our Story
From a small farm in Hazlehurst, Georgia to a blackberry patch in Marietta — the story of how one family's roots found their way back to the soil.
Steward Farms · Marietta, Georgia
From a small farm in Hazlehurst, Georgia to a blackberry patch in Marietta — the story of how one family's roots found their way back to the soil.
Working with the soil has its roots in my great-grandfather, Elijah Korenegay. My grandmother and her siblings shared with me their adventures of growing up on a farm — the early mornings, the long rows, the particular feel of Georgia summer heat pressing down on everything that grew. Funny fact is many of them wanted to escape that life, and when adulthood came, they did so.
It is understandable. They were young, living in Hazlehurst, Georgia back in the 1930s–50s. Life was different. The labor was real. And the world beyond those fields was calling. #CountryLife is cool — but not always when you're living it.
I remember hearing stories of them going out to the fields and helping great-grandpa — picking tobacco, gathering wild blueberries, the rhythm of seasonal work that shaped their childhoods. But I never thought I'd have anything to do with growing things. We were two generations apart, and I grew up in the South Bronx, New York.
"I never thought I'd have anything to do with growing things. We were two generations apart, and I grew up in the South Bronx, New York."
Fast forward to 2019. I had been married for two years and the idea came about to get a strawberry plant from a local hardware store and take the plunge into gardening. It seemed like a small, harmless thing to do.
That snowballed into something more and unlocked an emerging passion to grow things — one I didn't realize I had in me. To God be the glory.
Me and Gen moved to Marietta, Georgia and had a son named Josiah. That was a major life change, and I encourage people to get married and have little ones — because they are a blessing from Yahweh. They take work, but raising a child teaches you so many valuable lessons about life and God's ultimate plan.
I carried some of my strawberry plants over from the old home when we moved. The new space gave them more sun and they adjusted well. I heard strawberry plants don't typically last through winter — but they did. They're multiplying and growing strong.
I got into butternut squash and gave some away to friends and neighbors. They said they enjoyed it. A small thing, but it felt good — knowing something you grew with your own hands fed people you cared about.
When Josiah turned two or so, I ended up getting into blackberries — he seemed to enjoy eating them. I wasn't really into them because they were seedy and my impression was that they were tart. But I thought: since he likes them, I can grow them. And that's one less thing to go to the store and spend money on.
"I got a thornless blackberry plant and planted it on the side of the house. I didn't know what I was starting."
I learned about plant management through trial and error — and a lot of YouTube University. You learn the vocabulary, the pruning cycles, the difference between floricanes and primocanes. Slowly, I started developing a little momentum.
Last year the blackberry canes yielded over three pounds. My wife Gen froze them until she could figure out what to do with them. That season passed. Winter came and went.
The new growing season came, and like clockwork the blackberry canes produced a bountiful harvest. I kept telling my wife, "Get ready." And she was like, "I still have to figure out what to do with the ones in the freezer. Why don't you sell some of them?"
I thought to myself — I can do that. One thing led to another. I put a post up on Facebook and we landed our first customer.
That blew my mind. Here I am selling something to customers that isn't digital. Something I grew. Something real.
My small business work had been designing websites and doing web hosting — and those spaces are cool yet are commoditized even more so now with AI. But this? This was different. There's something about handing someone a pint of blackberries you grew from the ground up that hits differently than delivering a website.
So I began to think — how do I scale up, and what does that look like? I could do this and make a living, benefiting others in an organic and healthy way.
Blackberries are healthy, if you didn't know. Not only that — organic and pesticide-free blackberries are what your body demands. People didn't always eat the way we eat today. (Find out more in Genesis.) What we put in our bodies matters. What we grow matters. What we pass down to our children matters.
"I have this strong desire to homeschool my son. Children who are taught one-to-one fare well. God made children, and their intelligence is often underestimated."
They learn a lot faster than the establishments give them credit for. Children are sponges, and the substance they absorb impacts their trajectory in life. I want Josiah to grow up knowing where food comes from. Knowing what his great-great-great-grandfather Elijah did with the same soil. Knowing that the work your hands do has dignity.
That's what Steward Farms is. It's not just blackberries. It's the continuation of something that started on a farm in Hazlehurst, Georgia — skipped two generations — and came back to life in Marietta.
To God be the glory for what He plants in us, and what He helps us grow.
Daily harvest updates, behind-the-scenes moments, and first picks of the season — live from the farm.
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