Leap into organic farming business leads to ... - Greenbrier Farms

10 ISSUES • PEOPLE • OUTDOORS • FOOD & DRINK • CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT • CALENDARS 4.13.10 LINK
Leaving the
city for
the land
Leap into organic
farming business leads
to ‘quality-of-life raise’
By Matt Wake
mwake@UpstateLink.com
The view from Greenbrier
Farms’ back porch — silver
pond, rolling hills, grazing
cows, sheep and chicken —
looks like something you
leave corporate America
behind for.
That’s exactly what married
couples Chad and Amy
Bishop and Roddy and Natalie
Pick did. The friends
bought the 300-acre Dacusville tract from Chad’s
aunt in fall 2007.
“The reason why we’re sitting here is because
we all kind of had that a-ha moment,” Chad, 32,
says. He’s sporting a Zach Galifianakis-worthy
beard and trucker hat emblazoned with an image
of an ant. “I had a job doing sales for a corporation
and it was OK, but you’re lying in bed going, ‘Is
this what I’m supposed to do the rest of my life?’ ”
Now 33, Amy, a sharp, clog-wearing brunette
and confessed foodie, had been in marketing for
10 years when the company she worked for eliminated
her department. Her head was heavy with
questions: Do I find another job? Do I follow a
passion? “A lot of people are facing that right now,”
she says.
Roddy, 33, made the biggest leap. He was in
Indianapolis overseeing distribution centers
throughout the Midwest, Northeast and West
Coast. He’d been living a sustainable lifestyle for
Farmer Chad Bishop on locally raised produce: "When things ripen on the vine, you can taste that freshness. You’re going to taste the least amount of miles."

LINK 4.13.10 ISSUES • PEOPLE • OUTDOORS • FOOD & DRINK • CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT • CALENDARS 11
Mykal McEldowney
Roddy Pick harvests spinach at Greenbrier Farms. The farm’s three principals work 300 acres with the help of two employees.
years, participating in Community Supported
Agriculture (CSA) programs
where customers pay to have a certain
amount of a farm’s produce each week.
The trigger came from Roddy’s thenboss,
who insinuated that workers’ quality
of life and emphasis on working hard
wasn’t as important as the bottom line and
shareholder performance. Says Roddy,
who is tall, goateed and clad in Patagonia
gear, “The corporate world has its place. It
just wasn’t for me.” He quit his job, sold
his house and moved to Dacusville, even
though his daughter was 3 months old at
the time.
A little further down
the dirt road
Chad had been managing the farm,
owned by his aunt and uncle, for nine
months. After his uncle lost a battle with
cancer, Chad’s aunt was at a crossroads
about what to do with the land, labor and
overhead. So the Bishops penned a business
plan. Their intention: continuing the
farm’s emphasis on grass-fed beef, while
Greenbrier Farms
plant sale/tour day
When: April 17
Where: 772 Hester Store Road, Easley
(technically the farm is located in Dacusville)
Information: 864.855.9782 or
www.greenbrierfarms.com
The organic farm will offer garden
starters along with certified organic
seasonal flower seeds. Local vendors,
including Happy Cow Farms, will also
be on hand.
adding an organic produce component.
Today, Greenbrier abstains from herbicides
and pesticides. Tractors are used to
till land, but weeds, pest control and other
day-to-day tasks are handled sans machinery.
“(Organic farming) is way more labor-intensive,”
Chad says. They sow extra
amounts to offset losses from disease and
bugs, and they plant flowers, including
zinnias, to attract helpful insects, such as
bees and praying mantises. “Our goal is to
create a natural ecosystem for the whole
farm and let everything work for each
other,” Chad says.
If it weren’t for Phish, the titans of post-
Grateful Dead jam-bands, Greenbrier
Farms may have never happened. (That
said, during my visit with Chad, Amy and
Roddy, I didn’t hear the word “dude”
once.) Amy met Roddy while at a movie
theater simulcast of Phish’s 2004 farewell
concert in Vermont. (The quartet reformed
in 2009.) Chad was at the actual
show. “It turned out we all lived two
blocks away in Greenville’s North Main
area, so we immediately just started hanging
out,” Amy says. Even after Roddy left,
the pals kept in touch, meeting up for
New Year’s Eves.
Paying the cost
to be the boss
Even though Greenbrier is their Eden,
there have been sacrifices. In leaving
steady jobs, Roddy and the Bishops left a
lot of money on the table, and 40-hour
workweeks have been replaced by 24/7
responsibility. But Chad says this beats
counting minutes. “I used to moan about
being at work till 7 p.m., but now that’s
normal and it doesn’t bother me at all.”
The Greenbrier farmers also received
what they call a “quality-of-life raise.”
Their kids are growing up in a natural
environment, tottering among sheep or
chickens, yet the families are just a
15-minute drive from downtown Greenville.
Natalie, a software consultant who
works from home for an Indiana company,
has helped facilitate Roddy’s rural dream.
“Besides watching our daughter on long
days, she also provides a fixed income for
our family that is necessary,” he says.
Roughly 275 acres at Greenbrier are
dedicated to pasture. Another 9 acres are
used for produce, including tomatoes,
lettuce, eggplant, kale and basil. Regular
headaches they wrestle include rain (too
much, too little) and packs of wild dogs
ravaging livestock.
The Picks and Bishops literally live off
their land. Whereas they used to eat out
two to four times a week, they now do so
once a month. Instead, they prepare homegrown
meals, such as roasted chicken,
rosemary bread and squash. Rather than
going out to a bar, they’re inviting friends
over to build a fire, make burgers and play
Wiffle Ball. “We try to utilize the farm as
much as possible,” Chad says. The farmers
live in ranch-style houses scattered
across the property, which is interconnected
with dirt roads. Near two 100-foot
greenhouses, solar-panels blanket a barn
roof, powering operations with enough
juice left over to sell a little back to Duke
Energy.
Greenbrier sells its wares via the Carolina
First Saturday Market on Main Street
in Greenville on Saturday mornings, CSA
programs and an on-site store. The Saturday
Market cranks up on May 1.
A gray and green 5,000-square-foot
farmhouse contains brick pizza ovens and
an industrial-sized kitchen, where chefs
prepare rustic seasonal entrees, such as
leg of lamb. Greenbrier extends this experience
by hosting weddings and other
events.
Medical insurance has been Greenbrier’s
biggest financial hurdle. Their
small-business policy costs more than
corporate plans and covers only major
hospital scenarios. “Hopefully,” Chad
says, “living this lifestyle, we’re not going
to be sick very much.”

12 ISSUES • PEOPLE • OUTDOORS • FOOD & DRINK • CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT • CALENDARS 4.13.10 LINK
Small farm. BIG idea.
D ESIGN & PHOTOS BY MYKAL MCELDOWNEY
A look into
a not-so-normal
day of Roddy Pick
and Chad Bishop
at Greenbrier
Farms, a natural,
organic and
sustainable operation.
Two newly built
greenhouses sit with
a beautiful view
overlooking Paris
Mountain.
(TOP LEFT) On
the way up to the
greenhouse, Pick
drives past a heard
of grazing cattle.
Greenbrier has 275
acres of land for the
livestock.
(BOTTOM LEFT)
Although Pick and
Bishop left the
business world,
they still enjoy the
convenience of a
BlackBerry.
(RIGHT)
Pick and Bishop
pose with a few of
their plants grown
in the greenhouse.

LINK 4.13.10 ISSUES • PEOPLE • OUTDOORS • FOOD & DRINK • CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT • CALENDARS 13
(ABOVE) Pick began the morning hand-picking spinach, placing each leaf in a basket. “We put it in a washing machine to clean it,” Pick said. “Just not one we
also clean our clothes in.”
(TOP LEFT) Bishop, left and Pick, right,
work on transplanting plants for a plant
sale.
(BOTTOM LEFT) Transplanting plants for
sale is tedious, but it has to be done. “We
tune the radio to classic soul and that kind
of just gets you in a rhythm,” Bishop said.
(MIDDLE) Bishop waters plants often,
which takes up a lot of the day, especially
in warm weather.
(RIGHT) A freshwater well provides all the
water to watering devices for plants and
animals alike