Eat Happy

Smiles abound when our amazing farmers work side-by-side with nature’s essential helpers to bring you this wondrous bounty!

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Meet “the team”

There’s a lot of action on the farm that kinda goes unnoticed. Meet “the team” – pollinators, protectors, replenishers and elements – for a peek into nature’s magic. Teaming up with our farmers, they make organic deliciousness possible.

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Our farmers

Our farmers are guided by a passion for growing and harvesting the absolute best for you. Practiced, patient, and brilliant, they are always working hard to deliver what Mother Nature intended.

news & events

group of people standing in front of a purple wall that says happy dirt

2022 Happy Dirt Grower Awards

When Happy Dirt’s founder Sandi Kronick moved to North Carolina, she was 21 years old

festive cranberry margarita on a marble countertop

Happy Dirt Recipe: Organic Cranberry Margarita

As we welcome the winter months with the Winter Solstice, we are prepping to bid

farmer hands holding covington sweet potatoes

For the Love of North Carolina Organic Sweet Potatoes

Since late August, North Carolina farmers have been busy harvesting their sweet potato crop. For

FARMER FEATURE | It’s always a good day when Linda and Stanley Hughes, owners of Pine Knot Farm and Happy Dirt farmer owners, visit the HIVE! They stopped in yesterday, which also just happened to be the first day of Black History Month!

We sat in the conference room to go over details for our Collards & Conversations event on Tuesday, where Linda will be showing us how to make her secret fried collard sandwich and Stanley will be sharing the history of Pine Knot Farm. While we were planning, Linda and Stanley reminisced about sweet potato dishes their mothers would make when they were kids. Stanley loved sweet potato pudding with raisins, and Linda remembered every detail of how they sliced the sweet potatoes when she was a girl.

Sometimes we miss capturing these stories because we are deep into the moment. But, it’s so important that we capture and document as the stories are shared. Memory and food. Food and memory. They are tied together. Food is a link to the past. Family recipes and specific foods are often the bread crumbs (or clues) to ancestral lands unknown and a history that’s been left out.

It was an honor to spend an hour, listening to Stanley and Linda share their food history. There’s a lot more, and we will continue to listen, record, and transcribe as long as and as much as they are willing to share.

And, the pup in the photo is Lola! She goes everywhere with Linda and Stanley. We think they would be thrilled to know Lola got a shout out on the ‘gram!

let’s be social

@happydirtproduce

FRESH | We’re wrapping up our citrus series with one of our favorite citrus varieties: the Shiranui mandarin! Georgia’s Shiranui season begins in November and ends in January, which means we only have a few Georgia Shiranui’s left to enjoy. BUT, California’s season begins in January and ends in April. Thank goodness! We weren’t ready to give up this sweet snack.

What in the world is a Shiranui?

🍊 The Shiranui mandarin isn’t always seen as the most attractive citrus fruit. Its skin is lumpy and uneven. Perhaps one of the most distinctive features is its top knot! To us, the Shiranui is absolutely gorgeous.

🍊 It’s extremely sweet, but you can’t tell! Hannah describes the taste perfectly in the video, “It has the right amount of zing.”
It’s seedless and easy to peel! Two more reasons why it’s a Happy Dirt favorite.

🍊 The Shiranui mandarin is a hybrid citrus that originated in Japan in the 1970s.

🍊 It’s known in Japan as the dekopon citrus. So if you’ve seen dekopon citrus in the produce section recently, you now know it’s another name for Shiranui mandarins.

If you haven’t tasted a Shiranui (or dekopon citrus), we highly recommend putting it at the top of your grocery list. They tend to be a little more expensive than other citrus varieties because they aren’t as common and can be difficult to grow, but they are worth every single penny.

COMMUNITY | A few of the Happy Dirt staff are part of the mutual aid group that launched Durham's first community fridge in order to reduce food waste and to encourage the community to come together to meet the needs of everyone in the community, no matter your income level. ⁠
⁠
Our Quality Lead, Haleigh Paquette, told @indyweek, “Social conditioning tells us that you can only engage with something like this in the taking side of things when you are in dire need. This is an exercise in the leveling of a playing field, getting capitalism out of the picture, and giving and taking when and if you are able without questions asked.” You can find the full Indy Week article via the link in our bio.⁠
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This is just one small, yet powerful, way we can work together to create a more sustainable future for us all. Give @durhamcommunityfridges a follow and keep an eye out for community fridges in your neck of the woods.

FRESH | Satsuma mandarin season is coming to a close. Hannah and Taylor had the opportunity to visit two Georgia citrus farms in 2022. They had a blast chatting with the growers, tasting a copious amount of citrus varieties (specifically mandarin varieties), and learning about why the citrus industry is exploding in Georgia!

So, what exactly is a Satsuma mandarin?

🍊It’s a cross between a mandarin and a pomelo.

🍊The season lasts from November to February.

🍊Satsumas are semi-seedless, meaning they are typically seedless. But there are some seed stragglers once in a while.

🍊They are cold tolerant, which makes them an ideal citrus to grow in the Southeast as we now have random cold snaps.

🍊As far as flavor, they have a mild acidity and are super sweet with some floral notes.

🍊They are very easy to peel, making them the perfect snack!

You have most likely eaten a Satsuma without knowing it! If you go to the grocery store this weekend and grab a bag of mandarins, look at the label to see if they are Satsumas. We 10/10 recommend grabbing them if so, since they won’t be back until November.

FARMER FEATURE | It’s always a good day when Linda and Stanley Hughes, owners of Pine Knot Farm and Happy Dirt farmer owners, visit the HIVE! They stopped in yesterday, which also just happened to be the first day of Black History Month!

We sat in the conference room to go over details for our Collards & Conversations event on Tuesday, where Linda will be showing us how to make her secret fried collard sandwich and Stanley will be sharing the history of Pine Knot Farm. While we were planning, Linda and Stanley reminisced about sweet potato dishes their mothers would make when they were kids. Stanley loved sweet potato pudding with raisins, and Linda remembered every detail of how they sliced the sweet potatoes when she was a girl.

Sometimes we miss capturing these stories because we are deep into the moment. But, it’s so important that we capture and document as the stories are shared. Memory and food. Food and memory. They are tied together. Food is a link to the past. Family recipes and specific foods are often the bread crumbs (or clues) to ancestral lands unknown and a history that’s been left out.

It was an honor to spend an hour, listening to Stanley and Linda share their food history. There’s a lot more, and we will continue to listen, record, and transcribe as long as and as much as they are willing to share.

And, the pup in the photo is Lola! She goes everywhere with Linda and Stanley. We think they would be thrilled to know Lola got a shout out on the ‘gram!

let’s be social

@happydirtorganics

FRESH | We’re wrapping up our citrus series with one of our favorite citrus varieties: the Shiranui mandarin! Georgia’s Shiranui season begins in November and ends in January, which means we only have a few Georgia Shiranui’s left to enjoy. BUT, California’s season begins in January and ends in April. Thank goodness! We weren’t ready to give up this sweet snack.

What in the world is a Shiranui?

🍊 The Shiranui mandarin isn’t always seen as the most attractive citrus fruit. Its skin is lumpy and uneven. Perhaps one of the most distinctive features is its top knot! To us, the Shiranui is absolutely gorgeous.

🍊 It’s extremely sweet, but you can’t tell! Hannah describes the taste perfectly in the video, “It has the right amount of zing.”
It’s seedless and easy to peel! Two more reasons why it’s a Happy Dirt favorite.

🍊 The Shiranui mandarin is a hybrid citrus that originated in Japan in the 1970s.

🍊 It’s known in Japan as the dekopon citrus. So if you’ve seen dekopon citrus in the produce section recently, you now know it’s another name for Shiranui mandarins.

If you haven’t tasted a Shiranui (or dekopon citrus), we highly recommend putting it at the top of your grocery list. They tend to be a little more expensive than other citrus varieties because they aren’t as common and can be difficult to grow, but they are worth every single penny.