Summer 2009

“I wanted to grow melons. That was my big dream,” John Kunkle laughs, explaining how he came to Madison County. Kunkle lived in Washington, D.C.  and, after 9/11, he wanted to get out. He worked at a natural foods grocer and had become deeply involved with food. “I always talked the managers about what was best. I learned everything I could from the produce people. Planning my evening meal was a big part of every day.” So, he decided to grow his own food.

Now he and partner Melissa Harwin run Highgate Farm in Marshall. Their beds of Certified Naturally Grown produce run along the top of a thin ridge overlooking Indian Grave Gap Road.  On the afternoon when I visited, Kunkle was happy because, “Today, I have onions from last year and onions from this year in storage together—my food supply has overlapped by 365 days."

They’re successful enough, not only to grow their own food, but to vend at the Weaverville Farmers Market and the Madison County Farmers and Artisans Market.  Over three years, they’ve built their off-the-grid home and farm thriftily and gradually, learning as they go.  Kunkle had no prior farming experience—just memories of  his family’s garden in Pittsburgh “where my father was  proud to grow our own food, before it was popular.” When Kunkle was starting Highgate Farm, a friend gave him three tomato plants. He  saved the seeds from those plants, planted them, saved more seeds, planted again, and now he has dozens of plants—a row stretching up strings in his garden. 

Highgate Farm specializes in drying tomatoes, paste tomatoes, and heirloom and specialty varieties such as the apricot colored tomato, June Flame. The farm also grows mixed produce such as herbs, kale, and chard;  blueberries;  and strawberries. Look for a late crop of strawberries at farmers markets.  

And, of course, Kunkle grows melons. He tries out new melons each time he plants and talks about “wonderful, big, ugly warty” heirloom melons, serving size melons with a delicate flavor, green melons, and  true cantaloupes (which are not the fruits called by that name that we buy in the grocery store), and more.  “My favorite melon,” Kunkle says, “is whichever one my spoon’s in.” This statement not only expresses joie de vivre, but gets at the benefits of eating local food and trying the new varieties that become available as the seasons change in your area.

The next goal for Highgate Farm is grow blackberries, raspberries, and other fruits. They also hope to sell produce to more restaurants.   For now, tailgate markets are Kunkle’s favorite way to sell. “Tailgate markets are the places that are most profitable,” because he sells directly to the customer without a middleman, he says. “Tailgate markets are also where I have the most fun.” Selling directly to customers allow him to interact with them.

“We don’t grow common produce. If we’re going to succeed, we’ve got to educate customers and make them comfortable with foods they’ve never prepared before.”  I pointed at escarole growing between long, neat lines of tomatoes and green onions. “What should I do with that?” Kunkle has a reply ready. “Young escarole? Simple—salad greens. Older plants? I’d stuff heads with tapenade, capers, and olive oil and braise them.”

In addition to cooking tips, Kunkle says, “You’ll get more pound for pound buying from me than buying organic produce at a grocery store.” In addition to what you pay at the cash register, there are longer term costs to consider.  “When you buy local food, you’re putting your money back into the local economy—where it’s needed now—and you’re decreasing long terms costs to the environment and your community.”

Community was one of the things that brought Kunkle to the area, after a nationwide search for land. Whenever he researched small, family, farms, he came across information about Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP), a nonprofit organization working in Western North Carolina to keep farmers farming and reconnect people with their food. “I saw the Local Food Guide and the proliferation of farmers markets and was impressed. I didn’t see this amount of support for what I wanted to do anywhere else.”

Kunkle had also read that Western North Carolina was well suited to growing melons—in an article that the publisher later retracted. But by then, Kunkle was already on his way to settle in Madison County, and despite the odds, to cultivate over 4000 square feet of melons.