Journal

Recycling turkeys cultivate climate resilience
Recycling turkeys help mitigate climate resilience by improving The Soil's health and moisture retention.
Journal / Uncategorized

Recycling turkeys cultivate climate resilience

The farmers at Against the Grain Farm have the highest regard for The Soil and regard it as if it were another family member.  A top-of-mind awareness of soil health perpetuates this farm’s culture.  In three days of turkey harvest last week, all the byproducts from the harvest process were emptied onto their composting platform.   Their goal is to strengthen The Soil  and promote healthy plant growth, reduce the need for pesticides and synthetic fertilizers,…

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November 26, 2019
Saviors of the Good Stuff
Saviors of the Good Stuff
Journal

Saviors of the Good Stuff

Saviors of the Good Stuff … in their own voices. The Orchard at Altapass is a natural sanctuary embracing the view of the Blue Ridge Mountains and a sloping orchard of old heirloom apples in tortured 100-year-old apple trees. This land is sacred. The apple barn is often described as a church within a church.  Sermons are not preached here but conspicuous are the values of knitted families and close friends.  The choirs of weekly…

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October 23, 2019
We Are Looking for a Professional Film Editor
Journal

We Are Looking for a Professional Film Editor

  On June 29, 2000, 32-year-old Chris Boone of Spruce Pine, N.C. set the speed record for a bicycle on the 469 mile Blue Ridge Parkway in 29 hours 36 minutes and 22 seconds. After a prayer with his support team, he began this journey at Milepost 469 in Cherokee, N.C. at 4:00 a.m. When he reached Spruce Pine, it began to rain, and it would rain the rest of the day, through the night,…

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September 4, 2019
My teacher gave me C-grades for citizenship in elementary school.
This young cast were naturals.
Journal / Uncategorized

My teacher gave me C-grades for citizenship in elementary school.

I always thought I was a pretty nice kid except for a defect which plagued me into adulthood.  I learned almost too late how powerful an effect (for good or bad) body language had on others.  My mother would often tell me my face would one day freeze in a scowl and I would be ugly for the rest of my life. K.B. and I attended a community theater (Calhoun Players) last week in the…

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April 15, 2019
Fading Lines
These young "to-be" farmers are introduced by their dad to the reverence expectations of cultivating around a cemetery located in the middle of their cornfield.
Journal

Fading Lines

I have become intrigued with cemeteries that are in the middle of cultivated agriculture fields – not at the edge, but in the middle! So many questions …. First, how did the cemetery get there?  We know intuitively that the cemetery came first, and then the crops Second, why are these graves not in a church or established family cemetery? The best guess is that the deceased was missing a connection to a church which…

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April 3, 2019
Preparing to punch the monkey …
Journal

Preparing to punch the monkey …

I believe that my wife K.B. has seen every swimming tutorial that YouTube has in their vast library.  Her compulsion is no doubt the desire to be the best competitive athlete that she can be as a world-class triathlete.  I benefit, too, as her swimming partner and companion when she (we) have gone together to swimming clinics and practices. I am the one who has come out ahead because I get the CliffNotes version the next…

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January 14, 2019
Ground Zero: Business I-40 Winston-Salem, NC
Bridge demolition on Business I-40 with later constructed national headquarters for Wachovia Bank.
Journal

Ground Zero: Business I-40 Winston-Salem, NC

One of the first sections of Interstate Highway to be built in the country was a section of four-lane which bisected downtown Winston-Salem, NC.  The project was completed in 1955, Because of Business 40’s age and outdated design standards, as well as increasing traffic volumes and wrecks, N.C. Department of Transportation decided in 2006 to rebuild the section of Business 40 from west of Fourth Street to east of Church Street - a distance of 1.5…

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December 29, 2018
Sweating the Small Stuff – It Makes a Difference
Journal / The Organics

Sweating the Small Stuff – It Makes a Difference

I have been going to Plum Granny Farm since 2014. I have observed the husband and wife team of Cheryl Ferguson and Ray Tuegel reinvent themselves (they once had professional jobs) and Cheryl's inherited family farm which once grew only tobacco. I have the unique perspective of seeing this farm as a snapshot each time I visit, which might be twice a growing season. What I don't see first hand I absorb in their weekly…

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December 7, 2018
The Thanksgiving Turkey: A Centerpiece for Against the Grain Farm
Derek Weiss - Against the Grain Farm Turkey Specialist
Journal / Uncategorized

The Thanksgiving Turkey: A Centerpiece for Against the Grain Farm

  Holly Whitesides and Andy Bryant are ardent practitioners of regenerative agriculture - a farming approach that increases biological activity to produce abundant yields while stewarding the Earth.  How come turkeys? Their first thoughts about raising turkeys did not stem from an altruist motive of “wouldn’t it be nice” but a conscious awareness of how turkeys can contribute to the health of the farm.  Turkey’s scratch, they poop, they eat grass, they poop more, and anticipate…

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November 18, 2018
The Organic Farmer: Heart and Hands – “MicroPRESS – Volume II” – Just Published
Journal

The Organic Farmer: Heart and Hands – “MicroPRESS – Volume II” – Just Published

The new hand hewn  "MicroPRESS - Volume II" of The Organics Farmers: Heart and Hands - Tumbling Shoals Farm has just been published! Printed with letterpress on archival paper, this signed, numbered, and hand crafted limited edition of 50  photo books is now available.  The cover has been buried in soil from the farm.  As the second book in this series, the purchase price is $75. The Organics Farmers is a long-term project designed to capture…

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April 22, 2018