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The Value of Farming: Palmer Ford OrganicsBy Ginger Kowal
Will’s farm, Palmer Ford Organics, occupies a total of forty acres
on the southern edge of Madison County. The land of his area, like so
much of western North Carolina, was covered in small family farms until
only a few decades ago. In the thirty years that Will has lived on his
property, he has seen the open fields and forests around him give way
to acre lots and subdivisions. What were once large tracts of contiguous
farmland, owned and maintained by widely spaced families and separated
by forest, are now manicured front lawns. Will and his son Jeff, who
share ownership of the Luckily, Will came to rural Madison County at a time when many of those traditional growers still worked the land. He learned from his neighbors the specific techniques that are needed to grow healthy crops on the difficult mountain soil. He also learned conservation techniques that the mountain farmers had used for years to keep their soil from washing down the steep hillsides, like cover cropping and strip cropping. As a young man from the flatlands of Indiana, Will says that the mentorship of his neighbors was invaluable to learning sustainable ways of farming that were adapted specifically to this area, molded and adapted over generations of farming. And as those older farmers have disappeared, today Will instead is the bearer of that vital knowledge. His forty acres of mixed forest and field, too, are a dynamic and thriving connection to the ecological and cultural heritage of the North Carolina mountains. The specific history of Palmer Ford Organics reflects changing trends in mountain agriculture. As a newcomer to the area in 1977, it was logical for Will to grow tobacco like his neighbors. Tobacco became less and less profitable, though, and the costs of producing it rose higher and higher. Will chose to transition to certified organic produce in 1998 because, as mentioned, he was committed to healthy living and wanted to make it possible for others to live healthily as well. It also made a lot of economic sense, though, and the past few years have proven to Will that it was a good move. Because western North Carolina seems to attract the kind of people that value healthy and organically raised food, Will says, the market has been very kind to him, and production at Palmer Ford Organics is thriving. He sells his vegetables to restaurants and grocery stores on the wholesale market through Carolina Organic Growers, Inc, a growers’ cooperative that sells only certified organic produce. To Will, farming is more than an occupation: it’s a lifestyle. And what is the best part about the farming lifestyle? Quite obviously, Will says, it’s the food! “A farmer eats like a king,” he says. “You can walk out in the fields and pick your food yourself, and enjoy it the minute it’s picked. There’s nothing like it.”
In all of these varied capacities, the land that comprises Palmer Ford Organics serves as much more than just a means to providing food. It is a repository and a living example of our cultural traditions; it is a guarantee of protection to beautiful and ecologically diverse land; it is a place of reconnection with western North Carolina’s natural heritage. These are the characteristics of the small farm, the local farm and the family farm, where infinitely more good things are grown than simply good food to eat. Find Palmer Ford Organics online in the Local
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property, are the only ones left in the valley
that are still farming. As markets for commodity crops traditionally
grown in these mountains have shifted over the decades, many full-time
farmers in western North Carolina that preserved lineages of land ownership
reaching back generations have suffered, and so has their land. 
Of course, the vast majority of Americans don’t get to experience
this. Most of the food that we buy at the supermarket is at least a few
days old, and sometimes thousands of miles away from the field. And here
is another way that Palmer Ford Organics serves up more than just calories
and nutrients, though those are important: customers are invited to come
to the farm, walk through the fields, and pick their berries themselves.
Then they can enjoy them like a farmer does: in the fields where they
were grown, a minute after they were picked. A visit to the farm to pick
delicious berries and celebrate the season also invites all kinds of
other benefits: customers get to talk with a farmer who has made
a commitment to grow healthy food; they get to experience the history
and culture
that is embedded in our local agriculture; and they get to witness the
beauty of carefully cultivated western North Carolina hills in field
and forest.