August 19, 2015 ... What one might expect, of course, the corporate "green and yellow" floral arrangement from the local John Deere dealership ... Cotton harvest season is October; cotton bolls in two of the arrangements.
Kate Schumacher has lived her whole life in the South, and as she tells it, "rural spaces have been a part of my entire existence." A college education and a few months into graduate school put her into a panic when she finally figured out that she wasn't living a meaningful existence. Career testings consistently pointed her to fields of study that had the word "agriculture" in them and on a whim and at…
I am honored and excited to share with others that my image "Free Range to Oven Range" has been selected as an exhibition finalist in the photography exhibition and event, SlowExposures. For Southern photographers, this is a prestigious event and I am honored to have my work chosen and exhibited. SlowExposures is a unique occasion spanning four days in September (17th through the 19th) in a community which has no name nor geographical boundaries…
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. Cynthia Glasscoe reclaimed a 106 acre farm that was purchased by her father in 1944 and became a new life challenge in 1990 when with her family reclaimed overgrown fields and washed out roads. The farm has become known…
Cotton Tale is an industry, farm, and family documentary headlining the changes in cotton production and agribusiness during the last 60 years. The narrative vehicle for this documentary is the voice of the "last-one-standing" patriarch of a four generation farm family living in the Four Hole Swamp of low-country South Carolina. Family members, multi-generational farm hands, and community testify to the family's farming heritage and deep-seated values of faith, succession, and family pride. Also prominent in the story is…
For Ann and Ron Fay at Rising Meadow Farm, spring is the most awaited time of the year with the daily arrival of new born lambs. It is also the time of the year that is most demanding physically. Ann and Ron have set the bar high as their credo is "only the best will do" which applies to the quality of food sources, environment, and mode of harvest. They believe that this level of care…
In 2003, the widening of US Highway 421 from Winston-Salem to Boone and it’s realignment with the Blue Ridge Parkway at Deep Gap was completed. NC DOT, unfortunately, did not make adequate allowances for managing the water runoff at the highway’s boundary intersection with Critcher Farms. Over the last 10 years and even until today, this once pastoral landscape has eroded into a chasm of canyon proportions – almost beyond repair. All local remembrances are…
The planning and execution of the photograph on the right took over two years to complete. I was aware of this local geological defect for some time and the stories related by the owners about the "first flood" were astounding. Their early conversations with DOT were not confrontational or demanding; however, they would have preferred having their ditch filled in and the causing factor relieved. In 2014, the NCDOT advertised and issued a contract for…
"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this herder from the completion of his appointed rounds" ... adapted from USPS. Ron Fay, who with his wife Ann, created the Rising Meadow Farm in Randolph, County, NC over 20 years ago and donated a conservation easement to the Piedmont Land Conservancy to prohibit forever the building of a big box store on their farm. They did all of this because it was "the right thing to do." "We…
Yes, there is an international sheep shearing contest, and the retro category that attracts the most spectators is the non-motorized blade shear category that pits man with two pieces of blade steel against beast. One doesn't have to go to Ireland or New Zealand to witness first hand but up-close and close to home in Randolph County a half hour south of Greensboro. Rising Meadow Farm and the septuagenarian proprietors Ann and Ron Fay have been…
