Full Moon Farms is the heart of Farm 255. Situated on the historic 100-acre Spring Valley Farm, five miles east of downtown Athens, Full Moon Farms’ first seeds were sown four years ago by Jason Mann and Laura Brams. Jason is our Farm Director as well as President of the Settebello Restaurant Group, LLC, the corporate entity behind Farm 255. At different moments, each and every member of the Farm 255 ownership & management team has also been a member of the Full Moon team. In a practice now out of fashion, we as chefs, managers, and partners sow turnip seeds in the morning and cook turnip greens in the evening. It is this overlap that gives us our unique identity. Full Moon is community-based farming at work.

We sell our produce through our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), a business structure that has proved quite successful for small-scale sustainable farms. A CSA is a subscription service that entitles members to a share of newly harvested fruits, vegetables, and flowers during the growing season.The CSA model guarantees a farm stable financial inputs at the beginning of every season, while providing members with dependable, newly harvested, nutritious, chemical-free food every week. Members actively participate in furthering local economy by supporting their local farm over a chain grocery store, thus keeping their food dollars circulating in their own town. More importantly, however, a CSA directly connects people through food exchange: at base, the CSA model is a community development tool. For this reason, Full Moon invested in building a CSA that included almost 100 members after its first three seasons. This season, in order to share the farm's offerings with a broader audience, including both committed eaters and casual diners, Full Moon has shifted production to supply both the restaurant and a smaller number of shareholders.

Spring Valley Farm is also home to a number of research projects directed by the Agroecology Lab at the University of Georgia. The Agrocology Lab's efforts on the farm are focused on developing and understanding farming systems that work with nature to restore degraded soils and promote ecologically sound farming practices. Working together with Full Moon farmers, researchers are able to ensure their work is locally applicable and economically viable.

We have developed a dedicated constituency – customers, workers, growers, suppliers, students, neighbors, professors, professionals – deeply connected to Full Moon and its operations. Now in our fourth season of successful production, Jason and Laura and the rest of our team infuse the land’s red clay daily with enthusiasm, fish emulsion, and the rich compost we’re brewing from the restaurant’s food waste to yield our harvests. Every day, we work to transform the seasonal bounty of our fields into exceptional, comfortable cuisine at the restaurant, and will continue to define this unusual relationship between a farm and a restaurant.

For more information about Full Moon Farms, or to become a member of our CSA, email Jason at info@fullmooncoop.org or visit their beautiful website at www.fullmooncoop.org.