Cattle farm, Farm in Athens, GA
Strickland Heritage Farms is a Black-owned farm in the Athens area of northeast Georgia. The Ark Republic list says it raises beef cattle and grows muscadines and vegetables. It is associated with Kendall Strickland, a Florida A&M agriculture business graduate and former USDA agricultural statistician. Strickland also owns Strickland Pride Produce, a market that sells locally produced fruits, vegetables, canned goods, honey and meats at retail and wholesale. The market started as a roadside stand at 316 E. Main St. in Lexington and in February 2024 moved into an enclosed building on Athens Road in Crawford, Oglethorpe County. Strickland has said he wants to employ and mentor young people, especially Black students interested in agriculture.
Kendall Strickland grew up in Illinois, where trips with his grandparents to apple sheds, peach stands and roadside vegetable stands sparked his interest in farming. He studied agriculture business at Florida A&M University on a USDA partnership scholarship, graduated in 2015 and worked as a USDA agricultural statistician. That job brought him to Oglethorpe County, where he began selling produce in Lexington and built a base of almost 100 customers a week. In 2024 he moved the business to a larger building in Crawford.