Blue Ridge Food Ventures
In the past, one of the solutions for farmers who needed to process quantities of a food product was to build a community kitchen. Later, community canneries were built at a central location for...
View ArticleMarket fresh
You throw on your comfy shoes, a touch of sunscreen, and a big hat and grab a canvas bag. It’s Saturday morning and the tailgate markets are open for business.
View ArticleIn search of the perfect tree
There. Could that be the one? Robust, evenly distributed branches—but a little too portly. “Like a little fat man,” the boy, about 11 or 12, thought to himself. That won’t work. Breathing through his...
View ArticleYoung sprout is full-on organic
Birke Baehr has become famous in this past year, but on a Tuesday afternoon you might find him at a modest farmer’s market held in a church parking lot banked by tall lush woods in a residential area...
View ArticleTobacco’s Golden Days
In the sliver of time that lines the far edge of summer, burley tobacco is tinged with a thin, spreading ring of gold. Baking under the summer sun, it gives off a surprisingly gamey aroma, reminiscent...
View ArticleAvery County farmers grow it on their own
Trosly Farm owners Kaci and Amos Nidiffer grew up with farming in their families. Shortly after Kaci and Amos married in 2007, the couple purchased a relatively small parcel of land and old farmhouse...
View ArticleA place at the table
Located where the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains pinch Virginia to its narrowest point, Meadowview once was an agricultural center. The railroad’s arrival in 1856 opened the remote part of the...
View ArticleSaving the seeds of wisdom
Before “buy local” or “grow your own,” gardens at the home place were a necessary way of life. Folks bent over the earth as beads of sweat dripped from their brow into the dirt. They walked the garden...
View ArticleConnecting growers to new customers
Two of North Carolina’s leading local food and farmer advocacy organizations have partnered for Connect2Direct, a major new initiative to increase farmer direct sales and expand local food access.
View ArticleApples to Apples
Solar panels and windmills, chickens and berry patches—there’s plenty to look at on Big Horse Creek Farm in the highlands of Ashe County, North Carolina. But perhaps nothing is more striking than the...
View ArticleTaste of the Mountains
Chefs, brewers, distillers, bakers, farmers, and country cooks are preserving traditions and redefining the flavor of Southern Appalachia, from A to Z.
View ArticleFarm to Mug
Whether he’s scavenging the countryside in search of honeysuckle and dandelion, scouring mom-and-pop farms for fennel and carrots, or tracking down local honey and sorghum cane juice, Todd Boera is on...
View ArticleThe Poet Behind the Plow
The tumbling waters of Wolf Creek have flowed down from Neel’s Gap for a century since September 14, 1917, when acclaimed poet Byron Herbert Reece was born in a one-room hand-hewn log cabin.
View ArticleAhead of the Herd
Behind the tractor and gumboots and Tennessee accent, John Harrison has the restless curiosity of a cutting-edge innovator.
View ArticleSyrup Sweetens Life in Ashe County
Cold winters mean good business at Waterfall Farm, where a simple venture tapping “a few maple trees close to the house” in 2006 has evolved into one of the few commercial maple syrup operations in the...
View ArticleThe Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree
There’s something deeply resonant about the continuity of family farms, working the same land backward and forward in time. The heritage is particularly rich when the crops grow on trees.
View ArticleRooted in History
In the remote community of Boogertown, a narrow gravel road threads its way to the end of Wilson Hollow and a farm cradled in seclusion a few miles from Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
View ArticleDo I Dare to Eat a Peach?
What’s sweet, drips with juice, has a creamy texture somewhat like a mango, is harder than a banana but softer than an apple, and is “like kissing your Gramma’s cheek”?
View ArticleBlount County Patriarch
Life in the Great Smokies in the 19th century and during the pre-Park days of the 20th century might justifiably be described as arduous, hardscrabble, marginal, or demanding.
View ArticleRaising funds to help food banks
The challenge raises funds to purchase produce from local farmers which is donated to people in need who visit food banks/pantries.
View ArticleGet Along, Little Doggie
My grandfather had two farms. One was down Old Russellville Pike where he kept pigs and grew a little tobacco and hay. He had cattle too—a nice herd of Herefords, that stocky, breed of beef cattle with...
View ArticleThe Silo In My Mind
That summer day in 1964, my friend Andre and I headed up our street, not knowing where our journey would take us. The day was young and the sun beamed brightly, and we were eager for an adventure.
View ArticleInvasive insect threatens to spread
The Spotted Lanternfly is an invasive species that destroy fruit crops, trees and plants by hopping from plant to plant, crop to crop, and tree to tree.
View ArticlePhoto Essay, October 2021
Thank you to the readers of Smoky Mountain Living for sharing your images with us!
View ArticleA Compass and A Map
I have lived most of my years in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, but I’m a North Carolina girl at heart. Born in the town of Williamston, those early years were lived among my mama’s...
View ArticleTime to shear the sheep!
Sheep Shearing Days will include demonstrations of shearing, carding, spinning, and weaving the fleece into woven goods.
View ArticleThe importance of working cats
I was cleaning the field for spring planting and discovered I had forgotten to return the crow netting to the shed for the winter. Discovering the rolled-up netting wasn’t a surprise; a lady farmer...
View ArticleThe Critter Kegger
Here at the farm, we’ve had an influx of undesirable critters. I don’t know who posted a “Welcome” sign at the entrance of our property, but Poppa and I would be much obliged if the critters would just...
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