Did you eat a meal today?
Chances are if you ate an egg for breakfast, a salad for lunch or a piece of fried chicken for dinner, you’ve tasted the harvest of a small farm in North Carolina. March 21- 27 is Small Farms Week in North Carolina.
First held in 1986, Small Farms Week is held to recognize men and women who turn empty fields into fabulous feasts.
A small family farm, according to USDA, is a farm that earns $350,000 or less in gross cash income per year.
Many of us have been introduced to small farms through local farmer’s markets and produce stands that allow farmers to sell their produce and products weekly. Visit East Palmer Street in Franklin on Saturday morning and you’re likely to walk away with fresh baked goods, homegrown vegetables, honey and a variety of meats. You can pack your pantry at the farmer’s market with products that have been grown, harvested or made right here in Macon County, or perhaps a neighboring county.
Western North Carolina’s farming history is rich, as too is the soil used to grow everything from spring’s first strawberry harvest to autumn’s abundant crop of apples.
Farming has been a mainstay in Macon County’s economy since the 19th century. The agricultural schedule for the 1850 census showed 643 farm owners or managers in the Macon, Jackson, Swain county area.
A lot has changed since then, but one thing remains the same: For small farmers to survive, they need local community support. Small family farms make up almost half of the U.S. farm land, generating 21 percent of production. Making a living as a small farmer is hard in good times. Add changing weather patterns, increased fuel prices and a pandemic that affects customers and workers and we will find many farmers asking if it’s time to park the plow and shutter the barn doors. Every time Macon County loses a small farm, we lose the availability to purchase fresh products, our economy loses valuable jobs and our community loses a piece of its history.
How can we help? Eat local! Visit the farmer’s market on Saturday, the produce market down the street or the local butcher shop. Remind your children that cheese and dairy products come from vendors at the farmers market, as well as the dairy case at the local grocery.
Encourage our local leaders to support small farms and family businesses. Maybe another great use of the long vacant Whitmire property would be a covered pavilion area to host the weekly farmers market? Who knows, maybe with such support the market would expand to two days a week.
When you go grocery shopping this week, look for ways to support our local small farmers.
And when you sit down for dinner to night, remember to give thanks for our local farmers. They’re feeding Macon County, one harvest at a time.