Get Growing: Jeff Jacobson

Beware the Ides of March.  At least if it’s in the year 2020 and your primary source of income is home renovation. Such is the tale of Jeff Jacobson, expert carpenter and loving dad. Self-employed Jeff heard his phone ringing a lot during the middle of that month; it wasn’t good news. 

Almost overnight, eight months of work dried up. Jeff had to figure something out.  After all, he and his wife, Danielle, and his kids, Heidi and Jacob, still had to eat. He considered his options.

“I have a small farm in Pegram set in a holler. And I needed to make a living, so I plowed up some ground. But it was late March and way too late to be plowing and planting. Also, the ground hadn’t been farmed in years, so I was going to have to deal with crazy weeds. Any income from the produce was at least ninety days off.” 

Then he happened upon some wood. “I found a good source of cedar about an hour south and started building planter boxes -- ten of them in a day and half.”

To market his wares, he spray-painted a piece of plywood to read ‘Handcrafted Raised Cedar Garden Beds’ and set up shop along Highway 96 outside of Franklin. He sold out in hours. And on a weekday. During a time when most folks weren’t even leaving their houses.

His phone began ringing. On the line were the friends and neighbors of the folks who had just bought his beds, each calling to place their orders for his expertly crafted planter boxes with a life span of 10 to 15 years.  

“I was building sixteen hours a day just to try to keep up,” Jeff recalls. “For any boxes not pre-ordered, I would load them up on my trailer, fifteen at a time, and they would sell out beside the highway in hours.”

Growing their own food was something Jeff and Danielle did before their children were born, but now has extra rewards. “Growing food as a family not only brings us together but gives our children a chance at succeeding in something really big at a very young age that will continue throughout their lives,” says Jeff.

For 6-year-old Heidi, growing Blue Lake Pole Beans is her favorite thing about gardening. She also loves getting muddy and being able to pick her own vegetables from right outside the house and use them to cook.

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