Georgia

The County Tried to Take My Family’s Pecan Orchard for a Developer’s Shopping Center. They Didn’t Count on a Box of 1923 Papers

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Handsome Black pecan farmer with short gray hair and a trimmed gray beard standing in a Georgia pecan orchard at golden hour

The letter said the county was taking my land by eminent domain for “public use.” The public use was a shopping center owned by the county commissioner’s brother-in-law. My lawyer said I couldn’t win. My grandson found something in the attic that said otherwise.

I Was About to Sell My Peach Orchard to a Developer. Then a Grandmother and a Seven-Year-Old Boy Knocked on My Door

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Older peach farmer in a straw hat standing among ripe peach trees in Georgia

The contract was on my kitchen table. One signature and my peach orchard would become a solar farm, and I’d finally be able to stop. Then a little boy in a too-big baseball cap asked me if it was true that peaches grow on trees.