When Lindy Savelle ended her career in federal law enforcement, including stints abroad, she and her husband decided to return to their country in South Georgia. They researched different crops to grow and settled on citrus. She shares her story on a recent Grower Talks podcast produced by the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.
Lindy Savelle
“Citrus is that one commodity you can use as a family,” says Savelle, adding that it can be grown on a small scale and still be profitable. In addition, citrus did not require a large capital investment. Large tractors and sprayers were not required to create a small grove.
The Savelles, who had never been farmers, started with 1,000 trees around 2015, making them one of the larger modern citrus growers in Georgia at the time. She points out that a previous citrus industry in Georgia was devastated by frost in the 1980s.
Savelle and her husband learned a lot about growing citrus through trial and error. She says she’s no citrus expert, “but I can tell you what doesn’t work.” And she’s happy to share this information with others who already grow citrus or are interested in growing it.
When Savelle and other growers founded the Georgia Citrus Association in 2016, she was…
learn more about Why she grows citrus in Georgia on the Citrus Industry website.
