We Have a Farm!!!

“A farm includes the passion of the farmer's heart, the interest of the farm's customers, the biological activity in the soil, the pleasantness of the air about the farm -- it's everything touching, emanating from, and supplying that piece of landscape. A farm is virtually a living organism.”
~ Joel Salatin, Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front


We are ecstatic to be leasing land from Ayrshire Farms, the FIRST ever certified organic farm in North Carolina!  They have been farming organically in North Carolina for over 30 years and they have a few plots that they make available for lease.

About our Plot: - We have seven very long rows surrounded by deer fencing.  We'll be growing squash, sweet corn, heirloom tomatoes, okra(!), peas, shelling beans, beets, radishes, microgreens, melons and more!  The soil-building benefits of organic farming are so apparent at Ayrshire.  When I first saw the red, red, RED, soil of eastern North Carolina I remember telling Ches I felt like I could scoop up a handful of soil and spin a nice pot.   As you can see from the photos, the Ayrshire soil is a brown, loamy tilth.  Eventually we will be buying our own land, so we plan to learn all we can from Ayrshire's owner, Daryl Walker, to learn how she and the Ayrshire founder Bill Dow built this vibrant place (Follow the Bill Dow link for his contribution to an oral history project about the Ayrshire farm's origins).

Spring is just around the corner (the first day of spring is March 20th!).  This weekend are hoping the ground will be dry enough to till our plots and direct seed sugar snap peas.  We couldn't be happier than to be partnering with Ayrshire Farms!  Stay tuned for more updates as the season unfolds.

An added benefit of the high deer fencing...if we get tired
of weeding we can lock ourselves in until we're finished.