Proud to be a Farmer: 3D Farms

DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) - Many visit farmers markets around the wiregrass to get their fresh produce. But the triumph and hardships that it takes to get the fruits and vegetables to your table is often a story untold.

Just off Highway 431 in Headland you’ll find 3D Farms, led by Jarrod and Leslie Dozier.

“One thing that my grandfather always taught me was a man that don’t work, don’t eat,” said Jarrod Dozier, co-owner of 3D Farms.

Running a farm, however, was not originally in the plan for Jarrod.

“I was like ‘man I’m not going to do this because it’s hard work,’” he explained.

It was Leslie, though, who changed the family’s mind.

She said, “After my dad died in 2009, we kind of started doing the family garden thing; the same thing my dad would do. So, one year when we were growing the tomatoes, I told my husband ‘I think we can sell these at the farmers market.’”

3D Farms started in 2017 on a small 2-acre piece of land selling tomatoes but public wanted more.

“Then we started with some squash and then cucumber, and then we tried corn, then peas. The demand was so demanding for peas so we couldn’t keep up, so we expanded again with more land,” said Jarrod.

Now the Doziers grow their fresh produce on 38 acres of land.

Then there’s the 75 acres that Jarrod runs cattle on.

How 3D Farms went from just growing produce to raising cattle is simple.

“So, if I’m sitting down at the table eating, I’ve got all my vegetables, but I don’t have any meat. So now if I add cattle to it, now I have meat to go with that,” Jarrod explained.

Being a farmer hasn’t always been easy for the Doziers.

Both of their families farmed during an era of race inequality.

“That was one of the reasons why, you know, my dad and my uncle had to come out of full-time farming. They had families that they had to provide for. They had children,” Leslie said.

But their faith has always kept them going.

Jarrod says, “I just always try to stand on God’s word and when the enemy comes at us, for whatever reason, we just try to push through.”

Even during recent economic hardships, where farm products are up two to three hundred percent.

“You try to minimize where you can to cut the corner. But at the end of the day, the vegetables still need chemicals. They still need pesticide, herbicide, fertilizer. So, you really can’t cut corners. And then at the end of the day when you put pen to paper, you look at your profit margin, it’s very nil,” Jarrod explains.

Despite this, the Doziers know how important the life lessons are that come from this job.

“What if somebody went to the store and there were no vegetables on the shelf at all? Then what would we do? So that’s why we try to teach the next generation how to take that seed, how to plant it, how to nurture it, and how to grow it, then turn around and eat it,” Jarrod concluded.

And that makes Jarrod and Leslie, Proud to be a Farmer.

You can find products from 3-d farms at farmers markets in Headland, Dothan, Eufala, and Ashford.

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