Like a modern version of Old MacDonald, Daron Joffe—known to the world as “Farmer D”—wears a straw hat to go to work. But instead of tending fields and livestock, he minds a fast-growing business whose main products (local organic compost, soil, and ready-to-go handmade raised beds) are anything but traditional crops. Just because he is young, hot, and a genius at marketing himself doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be taken seriously as a force in the green movement.

The first time I saw the fresh, shovel-themed, white and green logo of Joffe’s business, Farmer D Organics, I was idling at the light at Briarcliff and Lavista roads, studying the nearby car wash and its strange new appendage: a small, upscale garden center with plants for sale up front. Now I can’t go to my favorite grocery stores and nurseries without noticing Farmer D’s bagged organic compost. (The “Farmer D” nickname, by the way, was invented by Joffe’s mother when he left home to study farming in college.)

Joffe’s popular original store and its new sibling in Norcross are only the tip of the empire. You can buy cute pots made of recyclable coco fiber, colorful pouches of heirloom seeds, and vigorous locally grown vegetable seedlings planted in organic soil. You can walk behind the aforementioned car wash (which belongs to Joffe’s father) and pick up three bright, alert chickens—the minimum order so as to discourage those who may want to fry or saute them for tonight’s dinner.

Mostly, though, you want to buy dirt. Farmer D collects agricultural byproducts from cotton and peanut farmers, refuse vegetables from Whole Foods, and bark nuggets and granite dust from various companies and carts it all away to a large plantation near Savannah, where everything is composted. Microorganisms and heat generated by the breaking down of the biotic compounds work their magic, and bingo: After four months and a lot of testing, Joffe ends up with organic black gold, ready to mix with peat harvested on the farm.

Whether you buy a countertop bed and just enough soil to grow a few herbs or are ready to transform your landscape with edible crops, Farmer D and his biodynamic dirt will inspire you and help you succeed.

Farmer D Organics, 2154 Briarcliff Road, 404-325-0128; 4050 Holcomb Bridge Road, Norcross, 770-734-0009, farmerd.com

Photograph by Jamey Guy

This article originally appeared in the August 2009 issue of Atlanta magazine