Press Media (Page 2)

Before Dr. Cindy Ayers Elliot established Foot Print Farms, LLC (2010) in the city of Jackson, she was an investment banker in New York and a CEO of Delta Enterprises in Mississippi Delta. “Trading in her high heels for a pair of work boots,” she has planted seeds in the soils of the beautiful Mother Earth and in the minds of the young future entrepreneurs. She dedicates her time and efforts to ensure that her farm is economical and environmentally friendly as well as an educational tool for novice farmers.

Cindy Ayers-Elliott is a fashionable farmer. Pearls are the clue, circling her neck and dangling from her ears in sly contrast to denim overalls.

Pops of pink, from her straw hat’s pale sheen to mud shoes’ dirt-flecked floral, echo in bins and a bus — a sign of support for the National Women in Agriculture Association. Feminine style, too.

Her Foot Print Farms on South Drive in west Jackson commands a surprising 68-acre sprawl inside the city limits. Inside the gate, the country feel takes over.

“My conference rooms have changed a little bit,” Ayers-Elliott laughed, settling into a folding chair under a carport frame.

On a frigid day in December, the slightly warm air inside one of the high tunnels, also known as natural greenhouses, at Foot Print Farms in Jackson contrasts the chilly air outside.

Despite the cold weather and a recent fall drought, domestic plants, such as spinach and mustard greens, and exotic ones, such as callaloo and pumpkins from Jamaica and mizuna from Japan, grow vibrantly in large wooden planters.

Two tall cylinders with herbs growing out of them sit against a far wall. Every 30 minutes, a low whir rings out as the water pump turns on. The cylinders, which contain herbs such as parsley and basil and greens such as lettuce, are used in a relatively new farming technique called aeroponics, in which growers suspend plants in the air instead of planting them in soil.