Fall 2009

When customers around the world place orders for wreathes on www.LocalHarvest.org , Linda Raper, a farmer here in Madison County, goes out to cut greenery.

Linda and her husband, Aubrey, operate Rogue Harbor farm in a protected hollow with abundant springs and trees in the Foster Creek area of Marshall. During the summer, the Rapers grow vegetables such as water cress, cucumbers, herbs, hot peppers, green onions, potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, peas, sweet peppers, leeks, summer squash, and collards on their Certified Organic acreage. During the colder months, the north face of their land is what yields a crop—Fraser firs.   They trim branches from the trees and hand-make wreathes, center pieces, and door decorations.

The trees thrive because of Rogue Harbor’s location and elevation. (The Rapers don’t spray their trees, for the sake of the environment and people, Linda says.) After she cuts greenery to order, she must make sure it’s been exposed to freezing temperatures for the right amount of time—that’s the secret to keeping the needles from falling out. Then she arranges the greenery, fanning it out like a hand, clamping it into a form, and adding decorations.  Her greenery brings welcome color and a fresh aroma indoors in the winter. But it also has unexpected appeal throughout the year. “When the wreathes turn brown, we put them outside and birds nest in them.”

The Rapers have lived in Madison County since 1978. They came wanting to grow clean food for their family, but without much farming experience.  “We learned everything from our neighbors,” Linda says, and the couple has continued to save seeds from the first their neighbors gave them.

Linda also thanks friends for their other specialty crop—water cress. Friends brought the Rapers a few plants years ago and they put them in the creek. The watercress multiplied so much that the Rapers fought to get it out. They pulled the plants, they let chickens eat the watercress, they let cows—until they realized there was a market for watercress. Now the greens, grown in their clean, mountain water, are an important part of their business.

The Rapers sell their Certified Organic produce through Carolina Organic Growers (COG) and Madison Farms an organization Aubrey helped to found.  As Linda watched guests linger over the last course of homemade cobbler at a local foods dinner recently hosted by Madison Farms she noted that, “The organization is getting a higher profile. More farmers are getting involved.” Attendance at the dinner also suggested that more consumers are getting involved in the local food movement.  As Linda points out, “ If people want farms to survive, and they say they do—they want to keep seeing farm landscapes, they want better tasting food—then they need to support small farmers.”

In addition to LocalHarvest.org , Rogue Harbor’s greenery is available on the farm, and from NCDA&CS General Store website at ncagr.gov/ncproducts . Find contact information for Rogue Harbor in Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s (ASAP) Local Food Guide—a directory of local farms and businesses using local food—at www.buyappalachian.org . You can also find information about Madison Farms’ involvement in ASAP’s Farm to School and Farm to Hospital programs at www.asapconnections.org .