Ep. 14 | Grant Wallace - Our Apothecary / Moonie Mart

Grant Wallace supplies herbs and edible flowers directly to restaurants like Aviz, Kimball House, and Gun Show, and also works through Arivato Imports, a distributor that handles sales, customer service, and delivery to about 15 other restaurants. He has been supplying Atlanta chefs for about 15 years. Restaurants can reach out through his website or be connected through Arivato Imports.

“I've been supplying chefs in Atlanta for about 15 years. Arivato Imports helps me out by doing the sales and customer service and delivery so I don't have to hit 15 restaurants in one day.”Grant Wallace

Grant Wallace grows red basil, African blue basil, marjoram, marjoram flowers, and shiso for Atlanta restaurants. Aviz uses his herbs and also hay to smoke their signature dry aged duck. Kimball House buys shiso, an Asian herb with a licorice grassy taste that can be used as a taco shell wrapper.

“They got red basil, African blue basil, marjoram, marjoram flowers. It's hay smoke, so I provide the hay for that too. Shiso has like a licorice kind of grassy taste to it.”Grant Wallace

Grant Wallace describes Moonie Mart as his take on the modern country store. It sells his farm products, dried herbs and tea blends where customers can make their own blends, local ice cream, and locally roasted coffee and lattes. It opened November 1st last year and has a five year lease. It is located at the intersection of Highway 27 and Highway 120 in Buchanan.

“That's like my take on the modern country store. There you can find my farm products, also all the dried herbs that I make into tea blends and offer people the chance to kind of do their own tea blends as well.”Grant Wallace

Moonie Mart is in Buchanan, Georgia, about 50 miles straight west of Atlanta. Grant Wallace says you take I -20 west to exit 11, which is Bremen, then go north five miles to Buchanan. The store is at the corner of Highway 27 and Highway 120 in a strip mall next to a busy gas station.

“It's just straight 50 miles west. You just go I -20 west until exit 11, which is Bremen, and then you just go north like five miles, and that's Buchanan.”Grant Wallace

Grant Wallace grows perennial herbs, fig trees, apple trees, persimmons, pomegranates, asparagus, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and mulberries in his one acre perennial herb garden. In a separate field he grows tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, watermelons, broccoli, and cabbage. He has also raised goats, pigs, chickens, and rabbits for meat.

“There's fig trees, apple trees, persimmons, pomegranates, asparagus, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, some strawberries, mulberry. And then there's all the perennial herbs with the assortment of mints and the hyssops, marjoram, oregano.”Grant Wallace

Grant Wallace explains that CSA stands for community supported agriculture. Customers sign up for a season or part season, maybe 8 or 12 weeks, and pay upfront, usually $300 to $500. They receive weekly or bi -weekly deliveries or pick up fresh harvests. The upfront payment helps farmers cover seed, fuel, and labor costs without taking a loan. He works with Farmers Fresh CSA in West Georgia.

“It's community supported agriculture. You give your money up front. So that helps the farmers out. So they're getting their money up front. So that helps with the seed cost and fuel cost and labor cost. It's kind of like a community loan to grow that produce for the year.”Grant Wallace

Grant Wallace is the agricultural consultant on a 700 acre farm development in Buchanan that will become an agricultural resort. It has zoning for up to 300 rental units including architecturally designed tree houses with bathrooms and glamping units. The resort will offer farm tours, garden classes, and open fire dinners with chefs. Monthly events start this fall as a soft launch.

“We have the glamping units and farm tours and garden classes. We've got really cool tree houses. They're made from this company called O2 or tree walkers. They have bathrooms in there too. We're doing a bunch of monthly events this fall. That's kind of like our soft launch for it.”Grant Wallace

Grant Wallace involves his three sons in all his businesses. His 16 year old Harrison is learning irrigation repair work to earn money. His youngest son Hawthorne shoots videos for social media and wants to start a cooking channel. Grant says creating something, whether it is a meal from gathered ingredients or an entrepreneurial activity, gives kids real power and understanding of what they can do with their freedom.

“Creating something gives kids real power and understanding of what they can do with their freedom. It's the things that they do that can add value into their life, be it like a good meal or money for whatever they want.”Grant Wallace

Grant Wallace says it grinds his gears when his older two sons are on their smartphones, but he allows it when they work on videos or social media for Mooney Mart or other accounts. He notes that social media is how his kids talk to friends in group chats, similar to how AOL Instant Messenger worked years ago. He does not want to control his kids, just guide them and let them make their own decisions.

“If you guys are working on a video or doing something for the social media for Mooney Mart or one of the other accounts, then that's fine. They have all their friends on there with the social media and they're talking in the group chats and this is how they're hanging out. You don't want to control your kids, right? Yo”Grant Wallace

Grant Wallace recently got his real estate license and focuses on connecting people to homesteads in West Georgia, especially around Buchanan. Buchanan is a small town of about 1,000 people, 50 miles west of Atlanta off I -20 exit 11. He is working on his own development projects with partners and sees growth potential in the area as the agricultural resort develops.

“My whole goal right now is to connect people to their future homesteads. Not trying to get anyone to move out of Atlanta or anything. There's gonna be a ton of growth out there and I'm really passionate about the Buchanan area. That's where I'm staking my claim.”Grant Wallace