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Freeman's Farm: Growing Trust in the FieldsBy Ginger Kowal
“This is what we call the upland.” Calvin Freeman stretches his arm out toward an expanse of red clay fields that curve and hug the contours of the hills. “This is where I grow most of my greens. Down at the bottomland, that’s where the sweet corn and the squash and the watermelons are grown. And the okra, can’t forget the okra.” The bottomland is a rich stretch of flat land located on Freemantown Road. The bottomland is parallel to a creek edged with mixed hardwoods and river birch. In summer, the hills green and the rows fill with dozens of varieties of vegetables and melons. These fields in Rutherford County are where Calvin Freeman has been growing Calvin has become known as a farmer that will produce a beautiful product of consistent quality. At his main market venues, the Marion flea market and the Rutherford County farmers’ market, customers return week after week to seek out his produce. They even call him at home to find out what he has to offer that week, or to request a specific vegetable or variety. “I try to grow what people want,” says Calvin. “They tell me what they want to buy and I keep track of what sells at the market. And I’m always trying something new, using different seeds every season.” Calvin set up a small fruit and vegetable stand on the road by his upland fields where he can sell produce in the summer to customers who pass by on the road or who come expressly to buy what’s freshest from the fields. He has also moved his packing station to a spot under a shade tree within view of the road and has found that people traveling by will often stop and ask to buy some of what he’s packing or washing. “People know to come here for good vegetables through word of mouth, and by knowing me. They know this is what I do.” His constant drive to improve and innovate, along with his dedication to consistent quality, has also helped Calvin develop a strong relationship with Mountain Food Products, an Asheville-based distributor that is one of his “biggest and best” buyers year-round. “My father was selling to Ron Ainspan at Mountain Foods before I took over farming from him, so Ron knows both me and my family. Mountain Foods is a good buyer; I can always count on them.” But it is his customer base at the tailgate markets, those individuals that come to buy every week, that his business really rests on. “The markets are definitely where I sell most of my vegetables, and then people that I sell to at the market come here to the farm too.” One of Calvin’s biggest assets, both in selling at the market and directly to Mountain Foods, is his attention to good packaging, which he learned from Calvin’s area of Rutherford County, the Bill’s Creek area, is known as the best in the county for growing vegetables. As Calvin explains, “People will ask me, ‘Are you from Bill’s Creek? Are these vegetables from Bill’s Creek?’” Unfortunately, Bill’s Creek’s rolling hills and proximity to Lake Lure also make it one of the fastest-growing areas in the county. Calvin is one of only a very few full-time growers left in the area, and his fields are becoming neighbor to more and more housing developments. With his on-farm experience and presence at the markets, Calvin has made his produce available to the new vacationers. With his warm personality and dedication to providing consistently high quality produce, he has gained the trust of both longtime community members and new residents. Like the summertime visitors that all too often return to Bill’s Creek to become locals, his drop-in customers soon become devoted regulars. It is those customers that return to the market week after week that Calvin grows for. In exchange for their loyalty through the market season and even over the many years that he’s been farming, Calvin provides the market buyers with delicious fruits and vegetables and with a promise of quality that he crafts and delivers himself.
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market vegetables for most of his life. As a teenager, he would work with his twin brother to help his father and mother in the fields and at market. “This is a family farm. And the farming has been handed down. I love it.”
his father. Over the years he has learned for himself that produce that looks good, will sell. “My number one priority is high quality. And of course, to keep my produce looking good. Because if it’s pretty,” Calvin laughs, “it’ll sell.” Keeping his vegetables looking good means taking care of them in the field and through the packing process, grading them carefully, and ensuring that quality is consistent through each container. “I’ve been marketing produce since I was a teenager, you know. When I was a kid I would go with my dad to the market on Lexington Avenue in Asheville and help him sell our vegetables there. I learned how to market vegetables back then, and every year I find something to do better.”