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Who Grows Your Food?  Growing
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 Let It Grow Organic GardensBy Ginger Kowal
In the midst of what appears to be a timeless valley, where sepia almost
seems to tinge the edges of the sky, and echoes of an earlier century
ring between the ridges, Frank is a graceful reminder of the present.
His farm, terraced in specialty vegetables and treated with organic techniques,
reflects the changing shape of these tobacco fields. His market, as well
- Saturday mornings at the French Broad Food Co-op in Asheville - belongs
distinctly in our time. When Frank came to Spring Creek, he was not surprised
to find that his neighbors were traditional farmers who grew primarily
corn and tobacco for the conventional wholesale market. By the same token,
his neighbors were not surprised to see a “new-age bearded guy” move
in. “They never thought I’d make it,” Frank laughs.
He had to earn their respect and trust by showing that he could do his
own work, fix his own equipment, and grow vegetables on the steep mountain
land. Over the past seven years that Frank has been here, he has built
a solid and warm relationship with his neighbors. At the same time, he
has shown them that locally-focused organic production techniques can
be a promising route for the small farms of western North Carolina. The story of the Spring Creek Tomato Company, whose sign Frank has kept out of respect for his predecessors on the land (and because it’s a great directional marker), is another interesting tale of newcomers in the small mountain community. The farm had been worked with traditional corn, tobacco and cattle since the nineteenth century, but in the 1960s two young women purchased the land and turned it into a small tomato processing facility. In those days, tomatoes were touted as a “hot crop,” and every farmer in the valley had a row or a field of them. The Spring Creek Tomato Co. was welcomed eventually and did good business by processing and shipping the local tomatoes. Frank remembers, “Everybody in this valley has stories about coming to the tomato plant.” The land was abandoned in the seventies when tomatoes became less profitable, and Frank was the next farmer to take it over – once again, with a new plan for the land that was eventually embraced by the farming community. Frank rejects the impermeable boundary that is sometimes placed between organic and conventional growing techniques. From his vantage point as a friend and neighbor to growers of another generation, the differences between the way that he grows and the way that his neighbors choose are minute compared to the many similarities. “The difference,” he explains, “is that when other farmers in this valley were growing up, chemicals were ’in’ - and when I was growing up, organic was ’in.’ The older folks here have a gut understanding of what’s going on in their fields. There’s no way that I could come here, grow for seven years, and know more about the fields than people do who have lived and farmed here for sixty years.” What Frank has done in his seven years on Spring Creek is find a method of growing and selling his produce that works very well for him. He calls it “organic with a strictly local focus,” and explains that it works particularly well for him because he grows on a small scale, allowing him to grow a wide variety of produce, and some specialty varieties, at a very high quality. He is able to facilitate his distribution personally, in keeping with a “strictly local focus,” to restaurants and directly to customers within an intimate radius of his property. He concentrates his sales particularly in mountain tailgate markets, where he can explain precisely to his customers the methods used to grow their food - methods that he can be proud of, and that his customers appreciate. At the markets, Frank strives to replicate the choice and variety of
produce that is available at As he has earned the trust and friendship of his fellow growers in Spring Creek, Frank has endeared himself to the people of his larger neighborhood, western North Carolina, with the high quality of his produce and his own personal investment in his relationships with customers. “People in this area are very supportive,” Frank says. “I feel lucky to be a part of this scene.” Indeed, he fits very well. Find Let It Grow online in the Local Food Guide! ©Copyright 2004 Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture
Project
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Highway 209 follows tumbling Spring Creek through a narrow valley of
grazed hillsides and steep mountain walls outside of Hot Springs, North
Carolina. Towering ridgelines border the view from the road between patches
of forest and farmland. Small uneven fields of corn and tobacco crowd
against the weather-beaten sides of Chestnut barns. Any visitor that
happened to wander through might be tempted to think that life in this
valley, the Spring Creek community, has not changed in many decades.
Just after a one-lane bridge over the creek and before a hairpin turn,
though, a curious sight appears. In the midst of the tobacco fields and
timbered hillsides, a huge wooden tomato, unmistakable in its size and
color, points the way up a rutted dirt road. It hangs from a battered
sign that reads “Spring Creek Tomato Co.” Those curious enough
to follow in the direction that the giant tomato points will come not
to the Spring Creek Tomato Company but to Frank Teneralli and Let
It Grow Organic Gardens. 
grocery outlets, so that shoppers at the
tailgate market can buy all of their vegetables for the week at his stand.
Over the years, this approach has been rewarded by dedicated customers
who return to Frank week by week throughout the season. They provide
him with the vast majority of his sales, and in turn he provides them
with a full complement of delicious vegetables throughout the season.
He calls it a heartwarming relationship.