This profile is a seminal component of a major work portfolio head lighting organic farmers whose hands are as expressive as their faces, and whose hearts have lead them to a proactive life of caring for the earth and others.
From surgeon to farmer …
Since coming back to Winston-Salem to begin practice in 1979, Bob Alsup always had a garden. Even as a kid, he had a strawberry patch or vegetable plot. On his very first day in Winston-Salem as a physician, he was looking for a place to plant his garden. Luckily, his dad who had some land in county, was generous enough to allow him to clear some. For 33 years since, the garden grew bigger each year.
The itch to grow goes all the way back to the early ’50’s and his childhood home on Queens Street; their home was literally in the shadow of “Baptist Hospital” (North Carolina Baptist Hospital) and “Bowman Gray” (School of Medicine). Neighbors were tolerant and so was the hospital and medical school. “Our roosters were loud!” he remembers. No one got upset.
“I was so excited about what was coming up, and if I weren’t on call, I would be at the farm gardening with a flashlight!”
“A 33 year transition from being a full time surgeon and a hobby farmer to now being a full time farmer giving it all that I got seems to me to be a pretty natural transition.”
I agree … HMM