Meet PCG Member – Emma Hendel : Growing Great Partnerships from Seeds to Success
For PCG Professional Member Emma Hendel and her husband Elliot Seldner, owners, farmers, and stewards of the land at Fair Share Farm, success is about relationships and partnerships.
“It’s what makes everything work,” Emma said. “It’s true in good times and even more importantly, in more difficult times. The relationships and partnerships we have formed with chefs, others in the farming community, our retail customers, our employees, and even between each other that have helped to make us successful at what we do.”
The farm, established in 2014, is comfortably nestled in Pfafftown, NC – a bedroom community of suburban Winston-Salem. Operating on five acres of land, Fair Share’s specializes in USDA GAP certified greens, roots, edible flowers, microgreens, and more.
Emma has been a professional member of the Piedmont Culinary Guild for two years. She originally joined, hoping membership would act as a catalyst to start building relationships with chefs in and around Charlotte. Since that time, she has become a member of the PCG Board of Directors – and is deeply involved in helping steer the ship to other parts of the state, primarily working to help build membership in the the PCG Triad sister guild.
In addition, Fair Share Farm is a certified PCG Business Member.
She credits Chef Travis Myers, PCG professional member and NCRLA’s 2018 Chef of the Year, in getting her more deeply involved. Myers is quite obviously a fan of the farm and of the leadership Emma brings to the table.
“Emma was working for me part-time at River Birch Lodge while she was teaching school,” Myers explained. “We hit it off immediately and shared a lot of the same values regarding our local food shed. When she told me she and Elliot were starting a new microgreens business, I couldn’t wait to hear more. I hadn’t really used microgreens before. Emma taught me a lot about their use and their value.
“I was lucky to be one of her first customers,” Myers continued. “Ever since then, I have enjoyed every bit of produce they grow at the farm. You can see immediately the passion they have for growing. I know when I see their logo or name on a product, it’s gonna be the best they can offer. They wouldn’t grow something and sell it if they wouldn’t grow it for themselves. I love me some Fair Share Farms!”
Other chefs feel the same. Fair Share Farm regularly sells to dozens of restaurants between Charlotte and Winston-Salem, reaching many of them via a partnership with PCG member, Jesse Ledbetter and his team at Freshlist.
Partnerships helped make the pivot possible.
Operating with a primary focus on restaurant accounts, when the Covid-19 crisis hit and chefs were forced to scale back and change plans, Emma says she was lucky not to have to reinvent the wheel.
“We already had an online platform. We had produce to sell and within a day (of the Covid-19 NC shutdown). We were able to shift our operation to sell more to the public, at the same time continuing to service restaurant accounts as needed.”
Not only was Emma prepared; but she had the foresight to see the opportunity to use her online platform as a way to help other farmers and producers in her area. At the same time she was able to offer the public a host of farm fresh value.
To that end, she has partnered with friends and fellow farmers (many of them PCG members) to offer her customers things she doesn’t normally have at the farm. In turn, other farms and farm stores now sell Fair Share Farms lettuce and microgreens to their customers.
It’s a win-win for the public and for farmers and producers as well. Order online at Fair Share Farm and you’ll find value-added items from Winston’s Bobby Boy’s Bakeshop fresh baked breads to Barbee Farms strawberries and sweet potatoes; from Harmony Ridge eggs to Goat Lady Dairy cheeses.
Emma has sought out other farmers who need help moving product. The day of the interview for this profile, she was driving to Chatham County pick up a huge load of English cucumbers to help another farmer sell.
“Since this all started in March, our sales have skyrocketed, but the work has increased as well.”
New routines, new protocol have made everything from harvest to market much more time consuming. Now selling online with a half dozen pick up points from Charlotte to the Cobblestone Market in Winston-Salem, Emma, Elliot, and the team at Fair Share Farm will be just as prepared as restaurants start to reopen and chefs begin to place orders once again.
It’s been a journey, possibly one with more ups and downs than could have every been anticipated, but Emma seems one to look to the future, enjoying the ride all along the way.
“It’s just what we do,” she modestly finished. “It’s all the business of farming.”
Profile written by Heidi Billotto
