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Meet the Faces of Food

High Country Farm Tour Is August 2 and 3

Story by Anna Oakes

Several days a week, High Country farmers venture onto clogged highways and busy streets to bring freshly harvested food to a local farmers’ market near you. Next Saturday and Sunday, August 2 and 3, it’s your turn to go to them.

Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture will host the High Country Farm Tour this year, offering folks the chance to visit 14 different farms located in Watauga, Ashe, Avery, Wilkes and Alleghany counties. The tour takes place from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. each day.

In previous years, the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association—based in Pittsboro—organized the farm tour. When the association decided it wasn’t feasible to sponsor the tour in this area again this year, Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture decided to take it on. Based in Boone, BRWIA is a nonprofit that works to empower women and their families with resources, education and skills related to farming.

At each farm, volunteers will greet visitors, direct parking and answer general questions, said Susan Boylan, coordinator of the event. In addition to BRWIA, the High Country Slow Food Convivium is also providing volunteers.

“[Volunteers will] give them a little bit of info about the farm and invite them to look around,” Boylan said. Each farm’s tour may differ from the others. Last year, Boylan volunteered at a farm where the farmer led a guided tour every half hour.

“Each farmer can organize things as he or she wishes,” she said.

To take the tour, you’ll need to purchase a button for your vehicle—good for a carload of people for both days. Buttons are available in advance for $20 at the Watauga County and Ashe County farmers’ markets, Footsloggers, Mast General Store in Boone and Valle Crucis, Bare Essentials, Earth Fare and Spin a Yarn, Weave a Web in Jefferson. Buttons will be on sale at the farms for $25, or tourists can pay $10 per car per farm. Proceeds from the tour will benefit Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture.

Wear comfortable shoes and bring a cooler to store food you purchase, including produce, eggs, cheese, meat and other items. The tour will take place rain or shine.

Below is a listing and short description of each farm on the tour. For more info, call 828-297-6693, email susanboylan@skybest.com or click to www.brwia.org.

Want To Go?

Dates: Saturday and Sunday, August 2 and 3
Time: 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Location: High Country farms
Cost: $20entire tour per car in advance/$25 at farms/$10 per farm

Avery County

Apple Hill Farm
Apple Hill Farm, located in Matney, is “a place where animals talk and people listen.”

Watauga County

ASU Sustainable Development Teaching and Research Farm
The goal of Appalachian State University’s agroecology farm in Valle Crucis is to teach, research, and demonstrate small-scale, low external output farming practices for the sustainable production of safe, nutritious fruits and vegetables. The ongoing research projects you will see include alley cropping, no-till vegetable production, a hybrid passive solar greenhouse and non-chemical pest and disease control. Garlic and seasonal vegetables will be for sale.

Maverick Farms
Maverick Farms is a nonprofit collaborative farm in Valle Crucis dedicated to education and the preservation of family farming as a community resource to reconnect local food networks. They farm approximately 3 acres of specialty and heirloom vegetables and herbs including beets, radishes, beans, peas, carrots, corn, tomatoes, and squash.

Watauga River Farms
Charles Church is in his eighth season of organic vegetable production in Valle Crucis. In his 55th year of farming for income, he currently has 20 acres in organic vegetables and produces more than 1,000 pounds of organic broccoli per week, in addition to organic tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, lettuce and peppers. Production also includes 60 acres of hay, hogs and cattle. Produce will be on sale during the tour.

Leola Community Garden
Transformed from a former gravel parking lot, the Leola Street Community Garden is an organization made up of garden plot renters, volunteers and donors. The guidelines for participating in the garden are posted at www.leolastreetgarden.com. You’ll see what individual renters are growing this season to feed themselves, a butterfly garden, and a perennial herb patch right across the street from Wal-Mart in Boone.

Moretz Mountain Orchard
Bill Moretz’s farm is a third-generation high-density apple orchard that usually produces more than 90 varieties of apples, as well as small plantings of apricot, cherry, chesnuts, grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, sea berries, pawpaws, and rare trees such as Paulownia and Ginko bilboa. Much of the orchard offers a nice view of the New River valley. Guided tours are on Sunday at 2:00 and 4:00 p.m., and self-guided tours are available anytime during Saturday and Sunday.

Ashe County

Rose Mountain Farm
At Rose Mountain Farm in Lansing, you’ll see a new orchard, vegetable crops, greenhouse, free-range hogs, dairy goats and kids, an incubator/brooder room and Muscovy ducks. The farm uses rotational grazing with cross-fencing.

Big Horse Creek Farm
Also in Lansing, Big Horse Creek Farm has heirloom apple orchards and a nursery area containing thousands of grafted apple trees. Observe its alternative energy system and learn about off-the-grid living. Weather permitting, visitors can view the sun from the home telescopic observatory. Garlic, one-year-old apple trees and organically grown vegetables will be available for purchase. Because of the ruggedness of the driveway, pickup trucks or 4-wheel drive vehicles are required to reach the farm.

Old Orchard Creek Farm
Old Orchard Creek Farm is an historic farm in Lansing dedicated to preserving cultural heritage, the rural landscape, environmental integrity and agricultural tradition. The farm grows blueberries and heirloom apples and primarily is a U-Pick operation. The blueberries are pesticide free and the apples are entirely organic. The 1890s farm and its buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to fresh blueberries and apples, the farm sells a variety of farm-related products.

Honeysuckle Farm
Located atop an extended finger of Pond Mountain, Honeysuckle Farm has long-range views of Mount Rogers in Virginia, Mount Jefferson and Mount Phoenix. The farm’s products are asparagus, rhubarb, squash, green beans, sugar and snap beans, fingerling potatoes and lettuce.

Zydeco Moon Farm
Zydeco Moon is a farm and cabins on beautiful Helton Creek in the Grassy Creek area. The certified organic farm raises a variety of vegetables including tomatoes, lettuce, sugar snap peas, peppers, snow peas and squash. Come learn the requirements of raising vegetables organically and see the types of materials used to ensure food is natural and safe.

Owl Feather Organic Farm and Vineyard
Operated by fifth-generation growers Amanda Gentry and Paulette Lawrence, Owl Feather farm is 145 acres, with 2 acres devoted to the vineyard. The vineyard sells four varieties of wine grapes to the New River Winery.

Alleghany County

Rocking S Farm
Located in Piney Creek, Rocking S Farm is a family-run farm producing certified organic vegetables and transplants and raising antibiotic- and hormone-free sheep and cattle. Call ahead if you want to order meat. Colored peppers and cherry tomatoes are also for sale.

Wilkes County

Tumbling Shoals Farm
Located in a bucolic valley where the Tumbling Shoals Creek lazily meanders down to the Reddies River, Tumbling Shoals Farm is a transitional organic vegetable farm in its first year of production in Millers Creek. In season this August, you can expect to find sweet bell peppers and hot chili peppers, eggplant, several kinds of tomatoes, green beans, okra and flowers. See the farm’s unique New Zealand deer fence design and passive solar propagation greenhouse.

Volunteers Needed!

Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture needs volunteers from the community to help with the 2008 High Country Farm Tour. Volunteers will serve as greeters, direct vehicles, answer questions and help the farmers with their tours. In return for their time, volunteers can visit as many of the farms on the tour on the other day of the weekend at no charge.
Contact Coordinator Susan Boylan at susanboylan@skybest.com or 828-297-6693.

About Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture

Story by Diana Godwin

Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture, an organization for farming women, is the new sponsor of the High Country Farm Tour. BRWIA is working with farms and local agricultural organizations to increase public awareness of the event and to recruit volunteers.

BRWIA is based in Boone, and its mission is to provide women in agriculture and their families with new resources, education and skills. The group’s interests include sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship, minority women in farming and education. Many women farmers work throughout Watauga County, according to Angie Pate, BRWIA program director.

BRWIA hopes to improve local food accessibility by encouraging schools and other institutions to utilize community food resources. The group also provides educational workshops. Farming women face challenges that make their families increasingly at risk for economic difficulty, according to BRWIA.

Working partnerships with like-minded agricultural groups and the support of foundations have been a vital part of BRWIA’s growth. The organization recently received $25,000 in grants from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the Southern Partners Fund. The grants helped to fund a development retreat for board members, monthly speakers and sponsorship of the High Country Farm Tour. To provide better services for women in High Country agriculture, BRWIA is reevaluating its future direction through a yearlong assessment.

Contact Angie Pate at 828-406-2533 or click to www.brwia.org for more information about the organization. The BRWIA’s monthly meetings feature different topics and a potluck supper. The meetings are held at 6:00 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month and alternate between the Watauga and Ashe Cooperative Extension offices.