Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Shady Grove Farm - TPR's In Focus - Sept. 8, 2026

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Shady Grove Farm - TPR's In Focus - Sept. 8, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from Troy University's Trojan Cafe,
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  offering handcrafted Starbucks beverages and a wide assortment of meal and
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  snack options, located on Troy University's Montgomery campus
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  across from the Rosa Parks Library and Museum.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In Focus,
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  and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. Southern Living magazine featured
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  an interview with Josie Butamosi, owner of the Shady Grove Road
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  Blueberry Patch Farm, in its June/July
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  26th issue. So we tracked her down for an interview
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  and learned she is a former counselor who made a career change.
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  She is joined by farm operations manager Adjoa Yemeya
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  in our Back to Nature series.
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  And the 46-acre plot was previously
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  the research farm of Dr. Booker Watley,
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  an agricultural professor at Tuskegee University.
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  Josie Badamosi, thank you so much for joining us here at Troy
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  Public Radio. Thank you for having me.
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  Adjoa Yameyah, thank you so much for joining our conversation
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  today. Thank you for having me. Josie, you were featured
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  prominently in an article in the June-July issue
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  of Southern Living magazine. How did that interview come
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  about? I'm trying to think of how someone heard about me from another article
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  and decided to interview me. Well, I was so excited to
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  read about your blueberry patch. How many types of blueberries
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  do you grow on your farm? We have about 1,500
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  to 1,800 plants, and we have about 5 different cultivars,
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  and then there are 2 kinds, a high bush and a low bush
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  are the 2 different types. Are there differences in
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  size and color? All of that. Different in the leaf
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  texture, different in the berry sizes, the color
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  of the berries, the ripening time of the berries. It's really diverse,
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  which is the whole idea behind the farm itself as a
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  small farm. Booker T. Watley, who established it. The concept
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  was for the small farmer to diversify its operation as
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  opposed to doing mono-growing crop like the large farmers.
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  It's several different varieties and cultivars.
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  Aunt Jua, you're a professional, the farm operations
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  manager with a USDA background. How did
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  you and Josie Badamosi connect?
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  Our funny story, or a story of fate,
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  where Facebook stranger said, there's this lady in Tuskegee,
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  you work with farmers, she has a blueberry farm, and you need to
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  go meet her. I first made my way to Tuskegee,
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  and I graduated, I worked for the federal government,
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  I worked from up north to the south, and when
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  I left, I said, I really do love agriculture, so I stuck with it.
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  And during the pandemic, that's when I got in touch with Ms.
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  Josie. I came to visit the farm and it was absolutely
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  beautiful. The pictures did no justice. And I said, Ms.
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  Josie, I wanna be your farm operations manager. And she said,
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  yes. In your agriculture background,
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  did you specialize in blueberries by any chance?
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  I ate blueberries. You know, just as a technical person,
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  I'm a reader, I'm a writer. I've been in ag
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  for almost 20 years, but I've only been farming for about
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  2 and a half years. But I have learned so much about the blueberries.
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  With the end of the blueberry season, what are your plans for
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  the rest of the year? We've recently had an event that we was
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  honoring Dr. Booker T. Watley and also sustainable agritourism.
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  So to really expand the property, we have 40 acres
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  of forestry, and, you know, we want to have mental
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  health wellness opportunities, walking trails.
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  If you have a mountain bike, there's a lot of different places that are close
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  to Tuskegee that are similar, and we just want to be a part of that.
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  We have our teas, our croissants, so we would hope that when people are
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  coming, we can offer those throughout the year. Josie, you have
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  a background as a substance abuse counselor.
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  One of the important things about being a counselor One
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  has to believe, and especially for substance
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  abuse people, treatment is so challenging because
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  what's going to ultimately help them recover
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  is that they're going to have to develop some kind of
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  a belief system, spiritual system, that they can get
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  in touch with the power greater than themselves— God, Allah,
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  whatever their particular belief system— that they can begin to
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  believe in. That's going to help them overcome their situation.
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  And when I was a counselor, I found the strength of
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  that kind of belief system. Ajo is my technical professional
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  person. One of the things that I came to appreciate, because growing
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  and harvesting time is very short, we had to come up with
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  other kinds of activities. And because I had so many blueberries,
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  that was one of the things that I decided to work with. So I started
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  experimenting and it got so good and demanding,
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  I couldn't manage it. So I had pulled back.
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  The part that really made the transition initially,
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  I was sharing, I guess it was a form of advertising, my tea with
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  different people. And I had a financial manager that I
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  was working with and she gave it to some of her clients.
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  And one of the persons that she gave it to is the person who currently
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  makes the tea, who became my husband.
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  Now he makes the tea, and he gets all the tea he wants.
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  So as I talk about the farm, these things, they're more than just
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  coincidental. It's a belief system that
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  you stay open and allow yourself to experience
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  energies out there— it gets a little wacky— that you can come
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  to trust in. So almost everything that happens
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  on the farm, put the desire in the heart, and let God take care of
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  the details. Details. You're a counselor by profession.
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  There are people in this world who say that nature heals,
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  and here you are in the middle of nature with a 46-acre
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  farm offering walking trails, blueberry bushes,
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  the nature experience. Does that compute with
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  what you do as a counselor? Absolutely. The real name
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  for a counselor is a facilitator. The healing takes
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  place between that person and nature,
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  God. I didn't know anything about farming. I had never even
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  seen a blueberry bush, I don't think. People ask me, well, why did
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  you decide to do this? I don't know. What happened when
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  the idea of the farm came to you?
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  It came out of the fact that I decided that I was going
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  to retire. I needed to rest. My husband passing
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  and then me breaking my leg in 4 places in my front yard, and then
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  my my mother passing, and then
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  just being exhausted. My children were grown and gone,
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  and I really didn't have any family here, but I decided to stay here
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  since I had spent 40 years in Tuskegee at the time. So I decided to
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  stay, and in the process, I joined a water
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  aerobics class, and I met some ladies who had been coming to the farm for
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  the last 15, 20 years, and they invited me to come
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  pick some blueberries. It's about 3 miles into the forest
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  on one end and about a mile and a half. So here I But
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  I knew nothing about farming, knew nothing about blueberries.
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  I just trusted. It's been such a wonderful experience,
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  but at the same time challenging. We have growth-promoting
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  opportunities, so it's been such an opportunity
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  to be with students and be with other people,
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  and I'm always surprised at how things unfold.
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  Some people call that synchronicity.
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  Exactly. Ajua, we're running short
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  of time. How can your listeners find out more about the upcoming
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  activities there? We are very visible on Facebook.
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  People can just type in Shady Grove Road Blueberry Patch,
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  and we do a Linktree. But definitely
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  stay tuned to our social media, and we're
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  looking forward to, you know, having more things for the community. I want to thank
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  both of you for spending some time with your Troy
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  Public Radio listeners today, and I would like to remind them that they
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  can find the story in the June-July issue
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  of Southern Living magazine. Thank you so much.
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  In our Back to Nature series, we were joined by someone
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  known as the Blueberry Lady, Josie Badamosi,
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  and Adjoa Yemeye, Farm Operations
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  Manager of the Shady Road Grove Blueberry Patch
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  in Tuskegee, Alabama. More information can be found online
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  at sgberrypatch@outlook.com.
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  Thanks for joining us for In Focus, which is a podcast wherever
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  you get your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch at infocus@troy.edu.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported
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  Troy Public Radio.