Good as Gold

This fifth-generation family farm in Georgia grows sunflowers to make award-winning cold-pressed oils beloved by chefs across the country

- CAMERON BEALL

WHEN WE FIRST started, 'cold-pressed oils' and 'Pitts, Georgia,' were not things you ever heard in the same sentence," says Clay Oliver, who owns Oliver Farm Artisan Oils with his wife, Valerie. Growing up in the small South Georgia town, Clay loved helping his dad on the family land where they raised hogs and cows and grew corn, cotton, and peanuts. Even so, he couldn't wait to leave and experience the world beyond Pitts. After college, he worked as a schoolteacher for several years, but ultimately, his search for a different vocation led him back home. "I've always enjoyed a challenge, and with farming, every day holds something new," he says.