The Farm

R&R Secret Farm is a small urban farm & floral design studio located in Athens, GA. We are woman-owned and operated and the long-time dream of Rita O'Brien. We grow a wide assortment of stunning seasonal flowers & herbs that are carefully tended to in respect to our bodies and the environment. We are proud to design lush, gorgeous, and unique bouquets and arrangements made with seasonal blooms from our chemical-free fields. Our farm is Certified Naturally Grown, similar to Certified Organic, except we take our commitment to sustainability further by using no chemicals, minimize our disposable plastic usage, and are solar powered. A major focus of this farm was to create a unique garden-like aesthetic with a wide diversity of shrubs, trees, and perennials that provide both food sources and habitat for our beloved pollinator community. Each year our farm continues to get healthier and more robust and our flowers are all that much more beautiful because of it. 

When selecting our home, it was important to us that we be in town. We wanted to have neighbors so we could be part of a community. Rita's husband, Robert also wanted to bicycle commute to work, and makes the 13 mile trek nearly every day. We love our neighbors and the strong connections that we have made by growing where we are. 
In addition, we are part of the Farmer-Florist Collective that is working to challenge the status quo of the flower industry (80% of the flowers purchased in the U.S. are imported) by supporting local, seasonal flower production.

The Farmers

Rita and Robert have been adventuring together since 2007. They spent their first magical summer together working on a small vegetable farm, and years since going on dog walks in the woods, fixing up a 100 year old house, playing music, and taking trips in their VW Vanagon camper. In 2017 they moved to Georgia and started a farm of their very own.

Rita 

Rita is the main operator of R&R Secret Farm and has been farming full-time since 2009. She loves plants and working outdoors. She loves the challenge of turning a bare landscape into a beautiful and bountiful ecosystem. Before coming to Georgia, she was an urban farm manager and food hub director, and seasonal farmers market manager at a non-profit. She is also certified with the USDA to do GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) farm food safety audits, and led workshops to help farmers develop their businesses. She travelled to the U.K. and Canada for the WWOOF program on various farms, served for a year as an AmeriCorps member and helped set up community gardens, taught youth gardening and nutrition education.  These years honing her green thumb has her excited for her farm in Georgia. She has a keen eye for flower arranging and a supreme ability to keep going and going and going.... Aside from farm work, she loves dogs and plays music a bit. 

Robert

Robert works full-time off the farm and is the occasional market & farm assistant after hours. He is passionate about good coffee and was an apprentice to a small wood-roasted coffee company for 3 years prior to moving to Georgia, where he learned to roast to perfection, the importance of quality over quantity, sustainable sourcing, and fresh roasted. He roasts coffee weekly with those principles. 
He is also an amazing cook and loves finding new recipes and makes the most delicious pizzas. An avid commuter bicyclist, he bikes about 200 miles a month and in the past he led youth bicycle repair workshops, bicycled across the US and through Mexico. He is a serious DIY'er, with problem-solving skills to fix anything (and why we are able to keep our 80's camper van running), plays music with his long-time evolving project called Petalboat, and has a PhD in microbiology which he utilizes in his food safety work.