Holly Whitesides of Against the Grain Farm loves to teach. She teaches not only for the joy it brings her but also for the outcome. The closer her young and younger apprentices get to the mark, the more predictable the outcome. Case in point. The subject for this morning’s class is “how to plant ginger” and the mark is “how to plant it right.” Rich compost has been appended to the planting zone – Check.…
"As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.'" Genesis 8:22 The Lord promised us that that the seasons would never cease to exist; but also, there was never any promise of variance within those seasons. He left it to farmers to manage the in-betweens – the extremes of temperature and moisture. Crop covers help mitigate these changes and add a measure…
Spring! The man pulling radishes pointed my way with a radish. --Kobayashi Issa A lowly regarded but highly cherished root crop of the spring garden shouts out “It’s Spring!” This vegetable is a mainstream product of Against the Grain Farm for a few short weeks in the spring and a few short weeks in the fall. Andy Bryant tells us, “it germinates quickly and we can have a crop in short order. With good weather…
The indoor winter version of the Boone (N.C.) Winter Farmers Market has decided to reopen - outdoors. Boone, N.C. and it's summer Watauga Farmers Market has grown in popularity each year as a destination for locals and others to shop for fresh produce and locally made crafts. To balance the uncomfortableness of cold weather, the market was reinvented as the Boone Winters Farmers Market by moving indoors December through April into the cramped exhibition hall…
I visited our farm family friends Andy Bryant and Holly Whitesides at Against the Grain Farm last week well in advance of our North Carolina governors "Stay at Home" order. On arriving, I noticed immediately a sign that had been scotch-taped to their front storm door. I was not surprised that there would be a sign given our challenging times but this is the first farm of all those that we follow that even had…
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,…
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…
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,…
What Happened? According to local resident Willie E. Graham (1887 - 1969), God made heaven and had a little left over so he made Floyd County, Virginia. The county is situated on a high plateau adjacent to the Blue Ridge escarpment in the southwestern part of the state. Because of its unique geological setting, all of its streams originate within the county boundaries, none outside it. Floyd County was officially established in 1831. From…
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…
