Local Farmers

We’re fortunate to have so many great, local Appalachian farmers providing food and opening their farms to us at the Food and Society Conference. You can find out more about many of these farms at www.AppalachianGrown.org.

• Barker’s Creek Gristmill. Located in the mountains of northeast Georgia, Barker's Creek Mill has been providing the local community with milling services since the mid 1800s. All grain products are untreated with no preservatives added, and the bran is not sifted away from the germ. Woody Malot is providing cornmeal at the Conference.
  
  
• Blue Ridge Food Ventures is a shared-use, value-added food processing center serving food entrepreneurs throughout the Asheville region. It provides services to those wishing to start or grow small businesses in the food industry, to local farmers who wish to add value to their products through processing, and to caterers and bakers needing a permitted kitchen to prepare foods for their clients.
  
  
• Charlie Foster has been raising produce and selling it at the Abingdon Farmers Market for years. In 2003, he also began raising organic produce for sale to supermarkets through the Appalachian Harvest grower's network. He will provide greens at the Conference along with San Marzano tomato puree.
  
  
• Fullam Creamery: The Fullam family has operated their dairy in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains for four generations. Their products are always Grade A, the same grade used for drinking milk, and are made with no added hormones. Lynnette Raines and Claret Fullam will provide gouda and yogurt at the Conference.
  
  
• Flying Cloud Farm. Annie and Isaiah Perkinson have been farming the land at Flying Cloud Farm for about five years, with an active CSA for four years. The land is rich bottom land, originally used for hayfields, but now produces vegetables, fruits, and flowers for local markets.
  
  
• Garden Mountain Farm, in scenic Burke’s Garden, Virginia, is a diversified family farm offering pasture raised, grass finished, hormone and antibiotic free poultry and eggs, lamb, pork and beef. Mike and Rebecca Hubbard will provide grass finished beef and pork at the Conference.
  
  
• Hickory Nut Gap Farm. Located on 90 acres of farmland, Hickory Nut Gap Farm is farmed by fourth-generation farmers. Jamie and Amy Ager both work full time at Hickory Nut Gap Farm-Spring House Meats and enjoy being at home on the farm while raising their son Cyrus. Amy and Jamie Ager are providing free-range eggs at the Conference.
  
  
• Isaac Dickson Elementary School.
  
  
• Jake’s Farm: Established in 1998, Jake’s Farm (run by Chris Sawyer and Missy Huger) grows everything from apples to watercress. During the summer, they sell at the Black Mountain Tailgate Market on Saturday mornings and the new West Asheville Tailgate Market on Wednesday afternoons.
  
  
• David King of Abingdon, Virginia will provide organic greens, potatoes, herbs, and tomato puree at the Conference. David has been farming organically for more than 20 years, the last 12 years on the Holston River near Abingdon.
  
  
• Mountain Food Products. Ron Ainspan is the owner of Mountain Food Products, a local food distribution company and a long time advocate for local food and farms. Mountain Food Products will source foods from nearby and deliver all of the food to the Conference.
  
  
• Rice Family Farm specializes in intensive shiitake mushroom farming outdoors, with mushrooms grown on oak logs at 3300 feet in a 50-year-old forest. Steve Ricewill provide shiitake mushrooms at the Conference.
  
  
• Kenneth Cole, of Riverview Orchard, will provide asparagus at the Conference.
  
  
• Spinning Spider Creamery: Spinning Spider Creamery is a farmstead goat dairy nestled in a mountain cove on Bailey Mountain in Madison County, NC. The entire family participates in the operation of the creamery. Chris Owen is providing goat cheese at the Conference.
  
  
• Sunburst Trout Farm. Conceived in 1948, and farmed by three generations of the same family, Sunbrust Trout Farm has evolved into one of the most unique trout production sites in the country. Sally Eason of Sunburst Trout Farm will provide trout at the Conference.
  
  
• Sunny Creek Farm. Sunny Creek is a family owned and operated farm in the Western North Carolina foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains claiming to “produce some of the best
  and most carefully grown sprouts in the Southeast.” Lee Ewing is providing sprouts at the Conference.
  
  
• Thorntree Farms: Martha Mewbourne owns and operate Thorntree Farms in Nickelsville, Virginia. One of the first pasture-based livestock farmers in the region, Martha has been working with grass-finished beef for 10 years and lamb for five. She is providing lamb at the Conference.
  
  
• Warren Wilson College Farm and Garden. Although educational by nature, the Warren Wilson College Farm and Garden is run as a working farm, making decisions that working farms make, and running a viable business with strong contributions to the local food economy. John Pilson is the farm manager and Karen Joslin is the garden manager.
  
  
• Yellow Branch Cheese. Yellow Branch Farm is located in western North Carolina, near Fontana Lake in Graham County. Yellow Branch Cheeses are made in small batches following an original recipe that they developed. The distinctive flavor of the handcrafted cheese results from the high quality of the milk and the variety of grasses and herbs growing in the pastures. Karen Mickler and Bruce DeGroot will provide raw milk cheese at the Conference.
  
  
• Zimmerman Berry Farm is located in the beautiful western North Carolina mountains of Madison County. Pam Zimmerman will provide berries at the Conference.