Blowing Rock Honey is proudly selling honey at Watauga County Farmers' Market for the first time in the fall of 2008. We're biased of course but we feel ours is the best honey in the state! But don't take our word for it... drop by our spot at the market and try a free sample. Our honey is fresh from the 2008 season. Our Sourwood is as pure as can be... never mixed or cut with other types of honey. This year was a tough year for honey producers but we were blessed. We have Locust, Poplar and Sourwood and they are all outstanding. We look forward to seeing you!

Robert Church farms in North Wilkesboro near Miller's Creek. He has developed techniques for providing early, great tasting crops by working with the climate and local conditions.

One of Robert's specialty crops is watermelons. He starts the seeds in quart pots in the greenhouse early in March. By the time the transplants are ready to be set out in April the plants are starting to run and bloom. Robert focuses on growing a flavorful melon that is easy for one person to carry and does not need to push the plants by adding fertilizer. He uses weed growth to his advantage, allowing taller plants to shade the watermelons during the hot weather. He also finds it unnecessary to spray for pests. Robert grows several different varieties of watermelons including Royal Sweets, Crimson Sweets, Jubilee and Sangria.

Once the watermelons start to play out, the pumpkins begin to take center stage. Robert grows many different varieties of pumpkins including unusual and rare types. Some of the favorites are Cinderella, Long Island Cheesecake, and Hawaiian Peanut pumpkins. Robert also starts the pumpkin seeds in the greenhouse and sets out the plants around the end of May. Robert plants out 12 acres of pupmkins every year as well as 12 acres of watermelons.

Robert also grows boxwoods which he digs and sells in the fall. He digs them after they have grown fairly large, averaging around two and a half to three and a half feet tall, and twenty eight to thirty two inches around. He spaces them in the four feet apart fields to permit mowing between the shrubs, and this easy maintenance allows a large number of plants. Robert has about 35,000 boxwoods planted, and plans for a couple of thousand more. Cuttings from existing boxwoods are rooted and planted for planting in the future.

We sell Hot Sauces, Salsa, and BBQ Sauce made from our home grown peppers, we also sell eggs, vegetables, herbs and blueberries.
Visit the Fire From The Mountain website.

Zydeco Moon Farm is fully certified organic and owners Sally Thiel and Joe Martin raise a variety of vegetables including tomatoes, lettuce, sugar snap peas, peppers, snow peas, and squash.

Fog Likely Farm

James Wilkes owns Faith Mountain Farm in Creston, NC.

He can be reached at:

• 489 Big Laurel Road
• Creston, NC, 28615
• 336-385-3510

David, Kathy, Anna and Autumn Blackburn live in Ashe County in North Carolina and can be found at Watauga County Farmers' Market with their fresh Kandy Korn and a variety of heirloom vegetables. David grows the plants from seed that he saves from the best selections of the previous year's crop, enabeling customers to enjoy the full flavors of time-honored favorites.

David also grows flowering trees and shrubs and wholesales them to nurseries. He plans to bring flowering shrubs to the market nest year, including his specialty, Wigelia. Look for cut flowers next year, too.

Much of David's farming efforts are directed toward growing Fraser firs for sales as Christmas trees. He is able to ship the trees individually in sizes from table top up to six feet in height. Customers can also mail order Fraser fir wreathes, these are shipped one per box and are available either decorated or undecorated and make excellent gifts. The deadline for orders of trees and wreathes is November 10.

David uses various techniques for growing vegetables in our sometimes difficult climate. He avoids blossom-end rot in tomatoes by adding calcium to the soil around the plants. Beans are grown on wire supports to improve air circulation, and also to speed up picking.

Some of the heirloom varieties that David has success with and brings to the market are:

Tomatoes

• Brandywine
• German Johnson
• Mortgage Lifter

Snap Beans

• Frost Beans
• Doubleback Beans
• Big Red
• Greasyback
• Pink Tips
• Half-runners

Contact the Blackburns at (336) 846-5249 or send an e-mail.

Jon Bost owns Grandfather Mountain Apple Orchard, a pick-your-own orchard since WWII.
Now, you can pick your own woodworking design too!

What you are seeing today is off-season work, crafted from local maple and cherry wood cut down for the construction of the new Highway 421.

Jon also does custom work from descriptions.
Call him at (828) 963-8489.

Coming soon, blueberries and apples!

Shady Grove Gardens & Nursery was started in 1986 to supply quality perennials for our landscaping needs. Through the years Susan developed the nursery using sustainable methods, before that was a buzzword. Plants are grown outside or in our un-heated greenhouse; organic, hands-on growing methods are used throughout the farm and nursery. Our selection includes new and hard to find varieties along with a few tough favorites. We are especially proud to say do not use any systemic pesticides or fungicides. "To us sustainable means protecting birds and bees too." See our website for more details about our organic and sustainable methods. We have great healthy perennials, bigger than mail order, better than chain stores.

We offer the highest quality, large, blooming size plants, all organically grown (non-certified). We've paid special attention to varieties that are well suited to the conditions of the High Country. Our selections reflect our passion for native plants and cut flowers. The nursery is located 10 miles west of Boone, NC. Summer hours are Fridays 9-6. Our phone number is (828) 297-4098, send mail about your gardening concerns, or visit our website at
Shady-Grove-Gardens.com
Shady-Grove-Gardens.blogspot.com

Cut Flowers are our speciality. We can supply flowers for weddings, churches and special occasions. Just contact us for special orders or lists of seasonal availability. Our selection changes daily, so visit our display at the market each week for something different.

Join our Fresh Flower CSA (Subscription).
This is the 2nd summer Shady Grove Gardens & Nursery will be offering a subscription to their best fresh flower bouquets. Bouquets are delivered in our buckets to be transported home. The Wednesday afternoon Watauga County Farmers’ Market in Boone is our drop-off site.

This is everyones chance to get fresh locally grown flowers without pesticides and without getting up early on Saturday morning. Members will get $25’s worth of flowers for 10, 15 or 20 weeks. The late season bouquets will include orange and red winterberry holly for the holidays. 

These seasonal flowers will be different each week as they are all grown outdoors in Ashe and Watauga counties. Since 1986 Shady Grove Gardens has produced perennials and cut flowers without using any inorganic pesticides or herbicides. 
Subscription members will be invited to join Susan Wright and Brent Cochran for a fun farm tour, to see where their flowers are grown and learn a little more about flower farming.

To get more information or sign up for the weekly bouquets contact Susan at 828-297-4098 or sggarden@skybest.com.

Vegetable and Flower transplants

WINTER VEGATABLE CSA-FOR OCTOBER OR NOVEMBER PICKUP Want fresh local vegetables after the summer season? Shares will weigh approximately 60 lbs., and include apples, large yellow storage onions, yellow and red potatoes, 4-5 types of winter squash, red cabbage and garlic. In addition pumpkins will be in the October package. Favorite recipes for soups, delicious casseroles and pies will be included. The cost is $90 a share.

The vegetables and fruit offer will store for at least 2 months most will store even longer.
Boxes of winter storage vegetables shares will available for pickup at the last Watauga County Farmers Market October 31st and just in time for Thanksgiving November, 21, 2009. Signup for this CSA will end June 1, 2009.

Planning a wedding? Why not have it on our Farm? Contact us about our facilities at The Peak.

Carol has called her 21-acre Butler, Tennessee farm "home" since 1977. The blueberry bushes were planted with the help of neighbors and sons in 1982.

Even when Carol moved to Wyoming, then on to California, the blueberry farm was always her real "home". When she was finally able to return to her farm in 2000, she found many of the bushes completely entangled with wild roses and brambles. With the help of her partner, Susan Jacoby, Carol slowly uncovered the 1003 blueberry bushes that had patiently waited for her return. That spring, a neighbor called and said, "I read 'Under the Tuscan Sun' last winter, and every time I pass your farm and see you and Susan working on the blueberry hill, I think of that book. The author rescued an olive grove in Italy, and it's good to see you bringing your farm back, too."

Since the summer of 2000, there have been plenty of berries for the farmers market and for the birds. There are both highbush and lowbush varieties of blueberries. This provides a steady flow of fruit from mid-June through July.

" 'Live like you are going to die tomorrow, but farm like you will live forever.' I don't know who said it, but that's how I feel." (Carol)

Susan has been a lifetime advocate of organic farming methods and natural life- style practices. She is a practitioner of herbal medicine and the whole food approach to health. She has taught seminars on both coasts and given individual consultations for the past 25 years to people with many different challenges and backgrounds. Susan and Carol began working together almost ten years ago with Carol providing the emotional healing aspect to the work. "I devote myself entirely to the blueberries this time of year, as I need them for my own healing and rejuvenation. I am happy up there in that sea of blue tranquility. And it is a privilege to be able to contribute in a genuine way to the Watauga County Farmer's Market. To be able to remind folks what a real blueberry, no poison, and freshly hand-picked, should taste like, lest we forget."

Carol and Susan can be reached for questions, comments, appointments, blueberries, highest quality medicinal herbs or to sign up for their upcoming monthly newsletter by way of e-mail or by calling 423-768-3968.