Off The Land Farm, Ellerbe, North Carolina
Project Snapshot:
Off the Land Farms is building a farm pack house with wash stations, grading equipment, and cooler storage. This facility will enable them to sell grapes, blackberries and vegetables to wholesale markets, which requires maintaining high quality and freshness for a longer period. This new pack house will enable their operation to achieve optimum market access by maintaining high quality, pack optimally, and hold in a cooler at the proper temperature.
Bio: Davon Goodwin grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but has rooted himself in North Carolina for over a decade now, consistently evidencing his dual commitment to agriculture and community. Davon holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, where he studied biology with a concentration in botany. While in college, Davon enlisted in the Army Reserve; he served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he earned a Purple Heart after he was wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED). Currently, Davon is the manager of the Sandhills Ag Innovation Center, a food hub in Ellerbe, North Carolina that is working to reinvigorate the local sustainable farm economy and support the next generation of farmers. He also owns and operates OTL Farms, a 42-acre sustainable farm located in Laurinburg, NC where he grows muscadine grapes, Blackberries and Vegetables.