Start In Your Own Backyard
Start In Your Own Backyard is a mini-series about how the choices we make, both big and small, can transform the world around us. For host Steve Nygren, this is personal. Two decades ago, while running through the woods on his beloved family farm, he spotted bulldozers toppling trees for what he feared was another soulless suburban development. That sobering moment sparked a question that changed the course of his life: Isn’t there a better way to build community? One that works with nature, not against it?
The answer became Serenbe, a community built on biophilic principles, sustainable living, and the idea that well-being starts in the everyday spaces where we live, work, and connect with others.
Through stories, guest experts, and personal reflections, Start In Your Own Backyard invites listeners to find their own sense of agency. Whether it’s rethinking your diet, running for school board, planting edible landscapes, or advocating for change in your city, the podcast explores what it means to take action right where you are.
With a strong belief in the power of optimism, even when things feel tough, this series shows how each of us can create ripples of positive change.
The question is simple: What gifts do you bring? And are you ready to use them?
Want to dive deeper? Steve’s book, Start In Your Own Backyard: Transforming Where You Live with Radical Common Sense, is out now. An instant USA Today Bestseller, this book is part memoir, part guidebook. It offers a blueprint for building sustainable, connected communities, places where wonder exists in the everyday and people of all ages can truly thrive.
Start In Your Own Backyard
Matthew Raiford on Bringing Agriculture Into the Heart of Community
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When Steve Nygren intentionally built homes right alongside a working organic farm, traditional developers thought he was out of his mind. But over the years the benefits of embedding agriculture within Serenbe have become clear.
That’s why Steve was so eager to speak with his guest today, Matthew Raiford. Matthew is a James Beard Award semifinalist, chef, farmer, and sixth-generation steward of Gilliard Farms, land that has been in his family since 1874. His 2021 cookbook, Bress ’N’ Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth-Generation Farmer, combines more than 100 recipes with stories of the land, food, family, and culture that shaped him. Today, he’s carrying that legacy forward while thinking creatively about the future of local food economies.
Steve and Matthew talk about what we’ve lost as agriculture has become increasingly industrialized and disconnected from our communities, and what we might regain by bringing food production back into our neighborhoods, schools, public spaces, and even our kitchens.
Show Notes:
- About Matthew Raiford
- Gilliard Farms
- Bress ’N’ Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth-Generation Farmer by Matthew Raiford
- Serenbe Farms
- Serenbe Events
- Start In Your Own Backyard: Transforming Where You Live with Radical Common Sense by Steve Nygren
Are you interested in communities where people, nature, and businesses thrive together? Whether you’re a developer, urban planner, or simply curious about how thoughtful design can create lasting value and resilience, join us in Serenbe – September 28th through 30th – for the annual Nygren Placemaking Conference.
Are You Ready For Radical Common Sense? Visionary placemaker Steve Nygren chronicles the rise of Serenbe, a pioneering model of biophilic living outside Atlanta, and charts a path for others wishing to challenge the status quo, embrace optimism, and reinvent their communities…and themselves.
Subscribe on Substack and receive a free essay from Steve every week.
Welcome to season two of Start in Your Own Backyard, a series about the power we each have to shape the places where we live and in turn the world around us. I'm Steve Nigren, and this season I'm looking outward, sitting down with people who have shaped the way I think about the built environment, and others who are putting their ideas into action in communities of their own. I believe the built environment as it exists today is at the root of many of our biggest challenges, but I also believe it can be a powerful part of the solution. These are stories about taking agency, using the skills and resources we have, and starting wherever we are. Because meaningful change doesn't always begin with a grand plan. Sometimes it starts in your own backyard. When I first began developing Cerembi, I knew I wanted agriculture to be a central part of the community. So we intentionally built homes right alongside a working farm in the middle of our Grange Hamlet. At that time, traditional developers thought I was out of my mind. But over the years, the benefits of integrating agriculture into community have become increasingly clear. That's why I was so eager to speak with our guest today, Matthew Rayford. Matthew is a James Beard Award semifinalist, chef, farmer, and sixth-generation steward of Gillard Farms, land that has been in his family since 1874. Today, he's carrying that legacy forward while thinking creatively about the future of local food. Matthew and I share a belief that small-scale organic farming is about much more than food. It's about science, technology, entrepreneurship, education, community. We talk about what we've lost as agriculture has become increasingly industrialized and disconnected from our communities, and what we might regain by bringing food production back into our neighborhoods, schools, public spaces, and even our kitchens. When agriculture is embedded in a community, it becomes a form of infrastructure. People value what they can see, experience, and participate in. And when we know the people who grow and make our food, we strengthen our connections to one another and to the places we call home. Here's my conversation with Matthew.
SPEAKER_00We have as a human race wanted things to be fast. You know? Like it takes time to make preserves. It takes time to make stewed tomatoes. And oftentimes people just want to be able to walk in the store, pick it up, and go. And I think shedding light on how amazing and delicious local food is, I think that might be a way to get it started as well.
SPEAKER_01So thanks for joining us for this conversation today. Thank you. First, for our audience, uh share a little bit about you, your background, and then uh Gillard Farms.
SPEAKER_00No worries. Well, my name is Matthew Rayford. I'm hailing from Brunswick, Georgia. I am a chef. I'm a graduate from the Culinary Institute of America in High Park, New York. I am uh a sixth-generation farmer, um, third generation chef, and uh I am all about my local community and any community that touches my community. Gilead Farms, um I have been a steward of it for the last 15 plus years. But the land has been in our family since 1874, and now there's a seventh generation, which uh uh right now currently is my son Kenton, who is helping me manage the farm now. And how old is your son? 22. That's very good. 22 years old, and he's he's dialed in completely differently, you know. Like you don't often expect a 22-year-old to actually be involved in something other than small college projects, you know what I'm saying? But he instead uh has dived into about five acres on the farm by himself, so it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's incredible to have uh a piece of land in one family for that many generations. Just that that history is uh incredible. Yes. We need more of that in America. Yes, we do. Well, tell us more about, you know, your view on the importance of uh the local food movement and all the things you're doing around that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, there are several things that have been happening, you know, over the last few months that have been um in the news and around food and food safety. And when I think about local community, I think about people that are working to ensure that their community is healthy. Um things are being trucked and pushed all over the United States to get to you to be able to enjoy. So for that would be first and foremost, is I think that it cuts down movement and handling of food. I also think that the local food movement helps build the local economy because we go to work for food, clothing, and shelter. And it has never not been in that order. Um, so I think that food uh is a primary, we need it from the moment we wake up in the morning to uh, well, we need nourishment from the moment we wake up in the morning to we the time we go to sleep at night and digest it. So I see where the importance is each and every day. And I also think about the word the thought process of anyone going hungry. You know, when you when you have a local food movement, no one in that community should ever go hungry. Because there's an abundance. Whether it looks perfect or not is a whole nother story. But it guaranteed when you're eating from a sense of place, um, you tend to be more healthy. I think uh about bees, right? We always talk about how local honey is very important when you're trying to keep down things like ragweed and all those kinds of things. So when I think also about the local food movement, I think about eating food that comes out of the soil from your area. So it's gotten the same options, the same nutrients that you've had. So uh I see where that would be more healthy for you on on any given day.
SPEAKER_01It's one of the big things about our educational system is we've really dropped all education around farms and food. And uh it seems that the minimal any graduate should have is they should know how to grow and cook their own food. Absolutely. So, you know, you you your family is one of the rarities in America today, um, prior to World War II, that it wasn't so unusual to have the generational farm. And and with the loss of that, um what have we lost as a as a nation and as a community?
SPEAKER_00I think we've lost the idea of what a neighbor is. And when I think about community, it's all about your neighbors. And when I think about a local food movement, it's about connecting with the people that are in your area. Um I'll give you the example of when I was a kid, uh, everybody didn't grow the exact same thing. So you would go to one person's farm and pull sweet potatoes, and you would also sometimes barter. You you have a boatload of tomatoes, so you give them tomatoes, you get sweet potatoes from them. Um I think that that's an integral part of getting to know who's next door to you and uh and what's going on, and also how to take care of each other, I think. You know, the point that you just brought up about farming and food not being in our school system, a lot of times people forget that science, technology, engineering, and math can all be pulled from just farming alone. The science of what's in the soil, how the soil needs to have its nutrition. Um, when we think about technology, we think about how do we get water across a hundred acres of land and it be uniform. When we think about engineering, what are those tools gonna look like to make those things happen? And when you think about mathematics, everything has to be calculated from the seed to how much uh nutrition the soil needs. So when I think about STEM, when I think if you want to use stream or steam, whatever you want to use, all of those things can be done and are an integral part of farming. So if I think if that came back, we would also have an even stronger local food movement because students, young people would see it as a viable opportunity and a viable place to also make money. There's so many spaces within the realm. I mean, right now they're selling uh GPS-driven tractors that are like a million dollars to almost buy one tractor. So it's not like there's no money in farming, right? There's uh there's plenty of technology in it. So, and I think if we applied it more to our local area, I think it would help with things like uh climate change and things like that as well.
SPEAKER_01Well, absolutely. You know, 20 plus years ago, when I talked about putting a farm in the midst of our community with houses right next to the farm, people thought I was nuts. And I realized that industrial farming is something you don't want to necessarily live to next to. Absolutely. But the the local organic uh farm is uh is an asset. It's one of the greatest assets that we've had at Sarin B. So the coast of Georgia is certainly threatened with a lot of development and some of the traditional sparl. So how how do you feel, you know, the the ag movement and the smaller ags and balancing with the development pressure for uh the coast of Georgia?
SPEAKER_00You know, I it's been really interesting because I'll I'll go back and harken to when we had uh COVID and um when all of those the pandemic was happening. And our group of there was over 30 plus farmers that uh galvanized um with an organization called Waygreen out of Waycross, Georgia, which is roughly about 45 minutes from my farm, and to watch us have all of the things just about that would be inside of a grocery store and be able to have it available for our neighbors. Um and we we had folks come as from as far away as Tifton, Georgia, which is roughly two hours, to actually go and and be able to get local food because they knew where it came from. They were able to speak to the farmers even though they were speaking through masks. So I see where that is a very important thing because, you know, stores ran out of eggs, they ran out of milk, they ran out of all these things, but as farmers, we had all of that. So what you were just saying about having a farm in the middle of a community and a housing area, um, it it provides another level of security and safety and just being at peace, knowing that your food is coming from an amazing system that's been put into place.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell You know, over the last several decades, I found we're we're we're making all of our decisions in silos. We've become so specialized over the last 50 years that we're not integrating. And what are your thoughts on how our our neighborhoods, our schools, our restaurants, public spaces should all be designed so people understand the local food? I know putting blueberries at all of our crosswalks has really made people much more aware of the food system and the seasonality of it. Absolutely. And and and so, you know, what are some of your thoughts on uh all that? Because I know you've you've worked on this and thought about it.
SPEAKER_00You know, I think I think when you think about you know, oftentimes people think, well, you know, you can't really grow inside of a city. But there are so many public spaces, like you just mentioned, that could easily support things like fruit trees, the blueberry bush, like you just spoke about. I see schools being able to have a better grasp on the National School Lunch Program by having their own uh spaces on their schools where harvesting local greens and peas and or beans and things like that would be an awesome thing for the health of our children. You know, you and I, Steve, we're we're of uh of the age group where that was part of the conversation all the time, like how we ate, we sat down with family to eat. You didn't just grab your meal and go sit in front of the TV or go play another game or just do your homework or whatever it might happen to be. You actually took time to sit down with family and have a conversation. And I think all of that galvanized all of that. And I think especially in areas where if you could walk down the street, if I could walk down the street with with uh with whether it be family member or not and pick an apple, that's a whole conversation piece. And eating it deliciously right at the moment that it's ripened. So I can only imagine what those blueberry crosswalks look like. They're probably stained purple by now.
SPEAKER_01Well, and it's it's just brought community together in a way that they never imagined. And you know, you've got neighbors uh all headed in for the for the blueberry bushes and then sharing recipes, and it's really incredible.
unknownTrevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely. And you know, the other thing, I I think we're seeing a a movement that uh, you know, they're holding up some of your organic farmers. You've seen that becoming celebrities. People are starting to understand the local farm, the farmers' markets are really uh becoming popular. But I I think we're still missing that agrarian economy. We need we we need more value-added, you know, getting those seconds from the farms, and what could they do with that, and then who's distributing it. So we're not expecting that that farmer who's doing these great farms to then be everything for the whole food chain. And that it looks like that's one of our challenges as we head into these next decades is how do we restore the local uh agrarian economy with all these different levels?
unknownAaron Ross Powell, Jr.
SPEAKER_00You know, I I find that my thought would be to have more local food processing areas. So when I grew up, pear season was around, everybody harvested pears. We went to a couple of different people's homes. You had some people that peeled, some people that cut, and everybody else did the preserves, right? So I think that that uh is not necessarily the way everybody would do it now. But I think if we had more small food processing facilities where we could take the seconds and turn them into tomato sauce, turn them into pear preserves, turn them into strawberry jam would be an awesome thing to do. And I think that one of the places that are trying to see that helping a little more is the thought process of the Georgia Grown and being able to uh use that organization as part of that conversation around those food processing facilities. I mean, it's really interesting to be all the way in California and uh see a box of collard greens that that has the Georgia grown moniker on it, right? Collard greens that came from all the way from Georgia. That's one piece. But what happens when we can process our own collard greens in our own uh small facilities and get them out to the local um economy that's here? I think that also adds new jobs. Um and so when you were talking about the agrarian and and being an entrepreneur, I think that this is a great time to get into the food production world because we need more people that have those good ideas and we need things outside of I love fermented hot sauce, and that's one of the things I do, but not everybody wants hot sauce. So what do we do with the peppers, right? So um I think coming up with new ways to make things, uh, new ways to look at uh other cultures that do things. So I now use the fermented peppers as my uh gateway into saying I also like Harisa, which is North Africa. So there that that still uses peppers. Um still you can add tomatoes, secondhand tomatoes with them. So I think there's opportunity for us to grow in that arena. And I think that we should also be able to have a conversation with our local communities on who the people that want to do it. Um and I think that that's also part of the conversation. Thinking about it, you know, when I when I think about Sarambi, I think about a co-op model where everybody is bought into the idea of being successful and everyone is pushing into that uh arena. So it, you know, it's rising tides raises all ships, or all boats, or canoes, or uh paddle boats. When that tide comes in, it raises all of them. It's it's no, it's not discriminating at all. So I think if we looked at our local economy and the growth, I think we look at it as rising tides raises all ships. We want to have a better organic and regenerative community, then we need to all look at what it's gonna take and not try to work in a silo and just do it on our own. That we also look at all the people that are involved because there's only a certain amount of things that I know, even being a chef and a farmer. And having a conversation with you, Steve, and other people at Sarinby, I've seen that, oh, you know what, I could apply that exact same model over here. It might not be as big or whatever, what have you, but I can apply the model. So I think it's also uh using the the, I think the best quote I can use is closed mouths do not get fed. So you have to open your mouth and have conversations with other people to talk about, you know, what is needed in the local economy.
SPEAKER_01You know, some communities are talking about community kitchens, so that there's actually a a uh certified kitchen that then people could lease out for hours and there's refrigeration, things that are needed. Have you seen any of that happening?
SPEAKER_00I I actually I have, and I know um there is a uh company that is um in the Atlanta area, I believe, but they work all over Georgia. Um, and that would be David and Francis Martin. They have been working on some projects around um Georgia, around creating those micro kitchens, those community kitchens, um, because they are an opportunity for the community the communities to grow their products and create other products from um from having those small community kitchens. I've also seen some of that in South Carolina, they've been doing that as well, where they've created some small community kitchens. Um I and I would say if if whoever's listening to this, if you don't have a small community kitchen that's a certified kitchen, think about it this way. If you're just thinking about your community and you know, grandma has an awesome tomato sauce recipe, get everybody in your neighborhood together and make it together and you all eat from it. Like, you know, sometimes I think we complicate things by trying to make it a very specific kind of way. I think we should start where we are, and that's in our own kitchens. Um and, you know, I would I have any problem with going to somebody else's house and making uh canned tomatoes? No. It doesn't have to be in my house. Let me mess up your house and we clean that up, you know. So I think it's I think it's that way too, you know?
SPEAKER_01Well, I think about many of our religious uh uh in the communities uh having uh structures and many of them have kitchens and those are certified. And it it seems that there's a real opportunity for the agriculture community and the religious communities to to come together because it's it's such a fit that I'm surprised that that more of that hasn't happened.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, the that used to be the the faith kitchens used to also be the center of every community. So I mean I think you're really on to something with that conversation right there, Steve, that there is big opportunities to work with our local faith based organizations, that especially the ones that have kitchens. They're already certified. Let's do it. I think uh Hey, I mean, we call it Faith Kitchens if we wanted to, you know. Um, I think there's great opportunity there. We have to start somewhere. And so I I see that as a great place to start, you know, and because I mean, think about it. You know, the the the first three words is in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form or void. And the Spirit of the Lord went to and fro. And he said, Let there be light, and there was light. And so that's those first three scriptures is let's put some light on it and understand that we gotta make do some movement there. You know what I'm saying? Moving to and fro means that we gotta go back and forth. It's not gonna be easy for that light of the local food system to become popular. So I think that that's a perfect, a perfect thought process. Oh, I I didn't know I was gonna quote a scripture either. I just kind of popped in my head when you mentioned, when you mentioned church kitchens, and I was just thinking about, you know, having grown up, you know, inside of uh churches and and and watching, again, watching my grandmother and them go and have like an abundance of muscadons and just all of a sudden we got Mustangon Jam, you know? So I think that there's a lot of those conversations that are I would say it's it's a lost conversation, but I think it's a conversation we should start having now. And they say, you know, nothing gets nothing gets old, but even when it does, it always comes back in the style.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. I mean, gr growing up, and even when we first moved to this area, you know, th 30-some years ago, there was the church night dinner. And you didn't have to be a member of the church. Everyone came and there was, you know, X dollars, the the the Women's Uh Society or Club raised money through it. And and then there would be, you know, a certain amount of food that you could package and that they were selling you could take home, you know, for later. And I thought, well, there's most of that food came out of the people's gardens or a local place, and it brought community together, but it also supplied local food. And and and some folks that that were struggling, they could they could eat there for less money than the fast foods and and the working families. And it it it's just such a uh such a place, it seems a void that's so natural to fill. I I'm just curious why it hasn't.
SPEAKER_00You know, I I I think it's also because we uh we have as a human race wanted things to be fast. You know, like it takes time to make preserves. It takes time to make stewed tomatoes. And oftentimes people just want to be able to walk in the store, pick it up, and go. And I think shedding light on how amazing and delicious local food is, I think that might be a way to get it started as well. Um, I mean, I've I've had bread that was fresh made, and I don't think I'll ever go buy bread in a grocery store unless it's uh something very, very specific. You know what I'm saying? Like a croissant. I I'm not, I'm probably not gonna make my own croissants, um, but I will always make my own Fakacha bread, my own tomato pie, my own pizza dough. So, you know, there's all kinds of ways to do things. And um I think that that's one of those ways is that we come back and look at the amazing opportunities that we have locally. Um, and you know, I I would challenge all your listeners to say, you know, what was your grandma's recipe or your auntie's recipe or your uncle's recipe of something that they liked? Start there, you know, start making that again and then reach out to Steve and I and say, hey, we've done that. We want to do something else. Um, so I think it's that those kinds of opportunities that are there. Plus, if you think about going to your local church or mosque or whatever it might happen to be and actually work in that kitchen, imagine bringing that community together even closer. Because oftentimes that's the only time you happen to see everyone is that time that you go for service. So imagine going in and putting that kind of energy into that space where you're working with everybody in your community that you would normally not have a full conversation with. You just see them that one, that Sunday or that Friday or Saturday, and you kind of wave at them and, hey, how you doing, Steve? And you keep it going. But now Steve and Matthew are in this kitchen laughing and talking and making barbecue sauce. So I think that those are also some kinds of ways of thinking about how to bring community together.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, and you're it's it's wonderful. You now have your son working with you. And so when, and I've heard you refer many times to your grandmother in her garden and her kitchen. So what as you can imagine into the future, when your grandchildren and great grandchildren are your age, what are you hoping they remember about you and your imprint onto the food movement?
SPEAKER_00That's a heavy question. You know, I I I'm I'm really big on quotes, and I would I would want them to understand that the the trees that they're eating from right now pop planted. Because when you plant a tree, you don't plant it for yourself. You plant it for your children's children's children to be able to enjoy it. So when I think about a pecan tree, well, you're talking seven to ten years before it really starts to produce, and then it will produce uh for years, like 30, 40 years afterwards. So I think I want them to know that the seeds that I planted today, while we're on this uh podcast right now, are the seeds that are still giving them the food that they are partaking from at the day that they're doing it. I want them to know that those seeds were saved by me. I want them to know that that tree was planted by me. Um, that is what I would want my legacy to be. And I that's the legacy I want my community to have. I want my community to come to this land that's been there since 1874. The 50 acres that are left of 476 acres originally, I want them to walk and go, wow, someone actually stayed and cultivated this land and did all these things. There's a lot of other things I could be doing with my career, you know? But I decided to do this. And it wasn't like I just made a go of it. It's been, it's been struggle like any other job would be, but it has been fulfilling work. And I've always wanted to have fulfilling work. So I want them to understand that Pop did fulfilling work and that he laid the groundwork for them to be able to continue to do that same work.
SPEAKER_01That was beautiful. And I, you know, I uh more people need to be thinking about the legacy we're leaving. We we certainly all are are are here uh because of sacrifices that maybe our ancestors have made. And and I just think we're so short-term thinking today that we aren't thinking about what this is going to mean for future generations. So that was beautiful. Thank you. Love all you're doing and love the conversation. Is there anything else you would like to share with our listening audience?
SPEAKER_00I would like to share that with them that coastal Georgia still has a lot of farming that's going on here, that we're farming, you know, at Gileard Farms, we're farming everything from rice to hibiscus to uh ginger and turmeric. Um we're still raising animals, and that if they want to see a Georgia Centennial family farm, look up Gileard Farms in coastal Georgia and come visit us. And, you know, I would say that my second home, and when I think about what I want to build on our land, SARM is part of my model. It's part of my thought process on how to build community. And I appreciate, Steve, that you dug in and kept digging in and are still making it happen.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's why I wrote the book, uh, Starting Your Own Backyard. And you're certainly an example of doing that very thing. Absolutely, absolutely. And thank you for having me on, also. Well, thanks for the conversation. Look forward to when we can get together next. All right, no problem. You take care. All right, thank you. Bye now. Bye-bye.