Granny B Farms: Meet Phyllis, Farm Director

Our Director, Phyllis Duncan, came to Granny B with extensive experience in organic farming. Phyllis was co-operator of a certified organic farm in Pennsylvania providing produce to a local restaurant. She was later hired to manage a 96 acre fruit and vegetable farm in Hunker, PA, where she successfully developed the farm and the organic certification.While there, Phyllis managed the farm, an on-farm store, and co-managed three annual farm festivals.

Phyllis holds a degree in writing from the University of Pittsburgh. She was accepted to graduate school, but opted to learn from the land while raising three children. Phyllis now has 10 grandchildren, ranging from 1-year-old to 20-years-old. Her oldest grandson is serving in the United States Navy. Her youngest lives in Colorado.

Phyllis and her husband, Dan, have a Puggle named Jo-Jo, who is an awesome farm dog. Jo-Jo follows Phyllis and Dan everywhere they go, and loves to ride in the golf cart. She also keeps the varmints under control at the farm.

Reading Mother Earth Magazine since 1973, Phyllis has always dreamed about living a healthy, simple lifestyle. She was once a marketing executive in Pittsburgh—which brought a sense of accomplishment—but it was not personally satisfying. Fulfillment came with working with the soil and alternative building. She built a unique open shed with three walls: one made of cob, one made of straw bale, and one of earth bag. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette featured this shed in an article, which included a picture of Phyllis’s grandchildren standing inside the shed. The Tribune-Review featured the scene as well.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/15/2003, page e-2

Tribune Review, 10/13/2003, page b-1

Phyllis also built two cob ovens, and plastered a cob bench that another shop had built with natural plaster. Phyllis learned how to build with adobe, and plastered a wooden hut in the woods. She also helped build a round earth-bag hut.

As an organic farmer, Phyllis has attended PASA, Pennsylvania Sustainable Agriculture, and Acres USA conferences on sustainable agriculture. She is a member of OEFFA, the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association. She is on the management committee of Women Farm, and on the super-user board of AgSquared, a farm management software company. This board was established to improve software which was developed for farm use. Other board members represent sustainable farms, including a large herbs operation, as well as one conventional farm. Phyllis has also attended workshops with Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, PaWgN and numerous other farming educational field days.

Granny B Farms is a labor of love for Phyllis Duncan. We were lucky to get her at the very beginning, when Granny B was just a seed of thought in the imagination of its owners, Greg and Marianne. In just two years of operation, the farm has grown to 8 acres of fruit, 1-2 of vegetables, including: 8000 asparagus plants, 800-plant blueberry patch, 200-plant raspberry and blackberry field, a 96’ high tunnel for ever-bearing raspberries, 500-plant table grapes, and small fruit specialty plots with hardy kiwi, Aronia (also called chokeberries), goji (also called wolfberry), gooseberry, elderberry, currants, mulberry and pawpaw. Farm buildings include a barn, a machinery shed, a greenhouse and a high tunnel. Granny B serves organizations in the community, such as Flying Horse Farm in Mt. Gilead. In the summer, you can find our products at the Clintonville Farmers’ Market in Columbus, OH, and on the farm.

Thank you, Phyllis, for all you do!