Meet the Farmer- Harleston Towles

I began my farming career in the summer of 2013 under an old packing shed at Sidi Limehouse and Louise Bennett’s Rosebank Farms. My assignment was through a Lowcountry Local First on-farm apprenticeship. 70 hour work weeks were the norm but after two years of quite literally blood, sweat, and tears, I was hooked. In 2015, my partner, Rita Bachman and I combined our Rita’s Roots and Driftwood Downs to form Rooting Down Farms. I took sole responsibility of the enterprise after just a few months and farmed various small plots on Johns Island for the next three years. After being coined the “gypsy farmer”, I moved the operation to beautiful Edisto Island in 2018, to a single location. I’m grateful for every place I’ve tilled ground, but you can read about my “coming home” here…

Towles is traveling through life with Partner/garden guru Rita Bachmann and his darling daughters, Florence and Rosemary.

Besides being a wonderful mother to Florence and Rosie, Rita owns and operates Rita’s Roots Backyard Harvest.  She helps aspiring and experienced growers alike raise vegetable crops in the comforts of their own yard and has been growing gardeners in the Lowcountry since 2013. Rita was actually one of the first sustainably grown farmers in the Lowcountry but has since taken her talents to the garden.  Check her out for all of your backyard gardening endeavors at ritasroots.com.

Florence is eight now and loves to farm, ride horses, wrangle goats, cats, and anything else with four legs….

Rosemary is three and can’t seem to figure out who isn’t crazy in this family…!