Stories and Essays: Farming in the Blood

Although farming remains a strong tradition locally, Western North Carolina lost 679 farms and 115,447 acres of farm land from 2002 to 2007.

Citizen-Times reporter John Boyle and photographer Erin Brethauer followed two local farmers through the growing season to chronicle the challenges they faced.

Alma Nesbitt, 12, looks out from a barn near her sister's farm in Fairview, NC.
   
Amanda and Jeremy Sizemore fought through nine inches of rain in May, a record, and so far this week they've seen torrential downpours of two inches and one inch. Both of those rains came in less than two hours."For us, it makes things worse," Jeremy Sizemore said. "Anytime it's a wet season, it makes everything, disease-wise, 10 times worse. Organic growers would rather grow in a drought."So much rain makes it logistically difficult to get in the fields to plant and spray crops, and it creates a perfect environment for pests, fungi and other diseases. The Sizemores estimate their revenue came up about 50 percent below expectations because of lost crops.
   
Jeremy and Amanda Sizemore have had their share of headaches securing plants this spring.In April, a supplier shorted them a few thousand lettuce and broccoli plants, leaving a gap that could cost them about $12,000. So they decided to put a late-harvest strawberry crop in and ordered 12,000 organic plants from California for $1,000.The plants arrived Saturday, a week later than expected.“It looks like a little squid,” says Jeremy Sizemore as he pulls out a bundle of cold strawberry root clippings from one of twelve boxes that Amanda just picked up near Franklin. The Sizemores plant some crops with seeds, but they buy a lot of other plants as seedlings.They've never grown organic strawberries, but they're confident it will pay off.“I figure if the land is just sitting there with nothing on it, it's not making you money,” Amanda Sizemore says.
     
  
Alma Nesbitt, 14, and Jeremy Sizemore sit down to eat during the Farm Day Cane Creek Valley Farm hosted for their CSA customers.
   
Jeremy Sizemore wipes the sweat from his brow while talking with a produce buyer.
  
Amanda Sizemore, co-owner of Cane Creek Valley Organic Farm, packs up greens in the field.
     
  
Amanda Sizemore tries to estimate how much produce to put in the weekly CSA boxes. It’s a Friday morning, and it’s a muddy one. It rained again last night, about a half inch this time, and that’s left the fields too muddy for planting.So far, Amanda and Jeremy Sizemore have gotten about 48,000 plants in the ground – their early crop, which includes cabbage, broccoli and lettuce for wholesale and carrots, onions, Swiss chard, potatoes, and other vegetables for members of their customer supported agriculture program, or CSA.Part of a new generation of market-savvy farmers, the Sizemores know the future lies in retail enterprises such as the CSA.
   
Alma and Bun Etherton stir their iced teas during a rare lunch in town.
   
It’s not often that you find Honley and Alma Etherton sitting down when work remains, especially in the summertime when their fields are growing lush with vegetables. But after 47 years together working the land -- and after getting up around 8 a.m. Tuesday morning and picking beans until 5 p.m. -- the couple needed a break, not to mention some air conditioning.They placed eight half-bushel baskets filled with green beans on the floor in front of their air conditioner and leaned back into their easy chairs.“This sure does feel good,” sighs Alma Etherton.But the day is not over yet. The bean plants are calling and the break soon ends, as the couple steps back out to the fields where the yellow sunlight is slanting through the plants. Although they picked nearly all of three rows that are 300 feet long, they've got 75 feet left.
     
  
After working all morning in the kitchen, preparing hot pepper relish for canning is starting to make the couple look as weary as the old food processor that Alma bought at a flea market years ago.Friday, they prepared 28 cans of tomatoes and 7 quarts of peaches. The previous Monday they made 36 quarts of beans.“We look forward to winter,” says Bun, “we worked ourselves half to death this summer.”Where Bun leads the charge in the field to plant crops, harvest and spray, Alma organizes and delegates the work in the kitchen.
  
Alma Etherton sets tomatoes up on the loading dock at Madison Family Farms where she and her husband, Honley, sell their vegetables every Wednesday morning. Madison Family Farms then takes the produce and sells it to local restaurants, cafeterias and schools as well as at a market at Mission Hospital on Thursdays from 10-2.
   
Every summer, the Etherton clan gathers together on an island in the French Broad River for food, fellowship – and a head count.This year, it came to 45 family members who could make the annual family reunion, which has been a tradition for 65 years. They came from down east and South Carolina, among other places, to drink Mimosas, eat homemade fried chicken and reminisce.Honley “Bun” Etherton and his wife, Alma, hosted the affair on their island property not far from their home. Of the 14 Etherton children, just four are living, and Bun is the only one of those who made a career out of farming.