Heard on the farm.

Compiled by ASAP 

Staff from the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) recently met with local agrarians to discover their feelings on sharing their products with the local community. ASAP asked, "Of all the ways you can sell your harvest, which way do you particularly enjoy and why?"

1 SONYA HOLLINGSWORTH, STEPP'S HILLCREST ORCHARD, FLAT ROCK, NC

"I love selling pick-your-own on the farm, because there is something very special when kids and their parents get to pick their own apples and see where their food comes from--they just light up!"

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2 CALVIN FREEMAN, FREEMAN'S FARM, LAKE LURE, NC

"I enjoy selling to the Marion flea market and the Rutherford County Farmers' Market because customers return week after week to seek out my produce. Sometimes they even call me at home to find out what I have that week. I try to grow what people want. 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. People know to come here for good vegetables through word of mouth, and by knowing me. They know this is what I do."

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3 GAELAN CORAZINE, GREEN TOE GROUND, YANCEY COUNTY, NC

"CSAs can provide a way for farmers to keep control of their livelihoods, and the CSA members can find a powerful way to gain control of an extremely important part of their lives--the food that they eat! The future of farming depends on reaching out to others. People need to understand that when we lose our connection with food and farms, we lose some of our freedom, as we become ever more dependent on far away farms that have no connection to local community."

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4 TOM TRANTHAM, HAPPY COW CREAMERY, PELZER, SC

"From seed to bottle of milk to customer, it all happens on the farm. It's better economically and health wise. Most people don't really know what happened to get that food to them. I take great joy in the experience of watching people stand on my property, drink a glass of milk and say 'Tom, this is the best milk I've ever tasted,' and then pay me a fair price."

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5 JIM AND JANE SAYLOR, SAYLOR ORCHARDS, SPRUCE PINE, NC

"We sell most of our apples on the farm, where visitors come every year and most return. People call us and ask, 'When are the apples going to be ready? I'm getting ready to make my travel plans and I need to know when to come.' We also sell to Wal-Mart. When they moved into Spruce Pine, we went to a meeting called 'Surviving Wal-Mart' and then straightaway marched over to the store and asked to sell to them, thinking that the best way to survive them was to join them. Now we have our own vendor number and sell apples directly to the store."

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6 FRANK TENERALLI, LET IT GROW, HOT SPRINGS, NC

"I have regular customers at the Asheville Wednesday Downtown and North Asheville tailgate markets that have been buying from me for eight years. The vast majority of what I sell goes to the same handful of people that come week after week."

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7 SARA RUNKEL, WILLOW CREEK FARM, BAKERSVILLE, NC

"By selling to schools, I can show that I am invested in the community and serving the whole community. People have ideas about organic farms--that they cater only to craftspeople or intellectuals or transplants [people not from here]. I don't see myself that way at all. I just don't use chemicals, that's all."

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8 HAL OLIVER, OLIVER ORGANICS, HENDERSONVILLE, NC

"My best customers are regulars at the Henderson County Tailgate Market. When I started off, I had to sell at conventional prices just to move my things. But now, people don't bat an eye at my prices; they like my produce, and they plan on buying from me."

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Farmer images and quotes compiled and edited by Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP). ASAP's mission is "to create and expand regional, community-based and integrated food systems that are locally owned and controlled, environmentally sound, economically viable, and health-promoting." www.buyappalachian.org