by Angie Lavezzo, CFSA Communications Coordinator | Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021 –

Matthew Oates of Wild Oates Farm

“A lot of people couldn’t jump into this and immediately support themselves, let alone a family,” says Matthew Oates, a 2021 Farmer in Training, (FiT) at CFSA’s Elma C.Lomax Research and Education Farm. Learning to farm at Lomax allows for experimentation and a place for new farmers to train while not being financially on the hook for a mortgage payment, setting up infrastructure, or debt for farm equipment. Lomax offers a safe place for folks new to farming to learn what works and what doesn’t.

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by Rachel Clark, CFSA Development Director | Thursday, July 23, 2020 –

Shelly Stamper, Shell-Belle Farm posing on a truck at Lomax Farm

Since her introduction to CFSA’s Lomax Education & Research Farm in 2017, Shelly Stamper has been an integral part of the Lomax community. During her first year farming, Shelly leased land at Lomax and enrolled in the Farmer-in-Training (FiT) program. Her year as a FiT provided a low-risk, educational environment for Shelly to fully immerse herself in agriculture and start her own business surrounded by a supportive, experienced farming community.

Years later, Shelly owns and operates Shell-Belle Farm and still utilizes the greenhouse at Lomax. She currently plays an active role in several Lomax initiatives including those that are swiftly responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We had the opportunity to virtually sit down with Shelly for an interview in April. 

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By Rachel Kriegsman, CFSA Development Coordinator

Photo by CFSA

The next time you find yourself in the Charlotte area, especially if you identify as a whiskey enthusiast, you’ll want to consider stopping by Southern Grace Distilleries

Located 20 minutes northeast of Charlotte in Cabarrus County, Southern Grace distills and ages a variety of liquors at the site of a former North Carolina prison that operated from 1929 to 2011. Unique through and through, this is the only U.S. distillery located in a former prison. The distillery brings new purpose to the building, converting the spaces that used to be behind bars into fermentation rooms.

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By CFSA | Friday, Aug. 31, 2018 – 

Tractor at Lomax

At the Elma C. Lomax Farm in Concord, CFSA interacts with farmers at various points in their careers. A quick glance through the events held at Lomax through the last year included sustainable agriculture classes offered by Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, workshops presenting research on high-tunnel and field production, volunteer days, and field trips for elementary and middle school students. This is all in addition to the Farmer-in-Training program, where farmers use the Lomax equipment and land as they are establishing their own business and looking for land of their own. 

However, as we interact with farmers of all points in their career at Lomax, we don’t have a lot of exposure to one specific type of farmer: the coffee grower.

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by Stephanie Campbell, CFSA Outreach Coordinator | Dec. 16, 2016 — 
alexander-acres-eoy-2016

“When I learned that I had a serious health condition, I began to learn of the correlation between nutrition and disease. I was astounded to learn that there is a link between the food we eat and 80% of diseases!”

This is one of the most frequent answers that we receive at CFSA when we ask why folks buy organic and why they buy from a farmer they can trust.

“The ability to heal through diet and natural supplementation resonated with me and spurred a change that has redefined my path and purpose.”

For Dylan Alexander, his diagnosis of multiple sclerosis over a decade ago led him to grow food, first his own and later for others on his farm.

The medications Alexander was prescribed only seemed to make him feel worse. He began to learn more about the link between his diet and his health. “The ability to heal through diet and natural supplementation resonated with me and spurred a change that has redefined my path and purpose. Alexander Acres was created as a way to share this knowledge, with the benefits of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables.”

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An aspiring farmer, Alexander learned of and was accepted into the CFSA Lomax Farmer-in-Training (FiT) program in 2014. This gave him access to land and equipment, mentoring, classroom instruction on the business of farming, and hands-on farm experience in organic practices and certification. Along with gaining skills, he is developing and managing his own agricultural business start-up.

“We all have to eat, so we need people growing our food.”

On the cusp of beginning his third year in the program, Alexander and his wife, Kelly, have moved to Concord from Charlotte and are preparing to farm on land of their own in the next couple of years.

At Lomax, Alexander has been developing some niche products to provide diversity and marketing opportunities in addition to growing the farmers’ market favorites. He grows microgreens at his home for the restaurant market and mushrooms on logs in the woods at Lomax. He’s become known for his skill at producing exceptional organic transplants, which are valued by other farmers and home gardeners. Alexander’s wife is a graphic designer and, in addition to handling the website and social media for the farm, does canning and sauce-making which may lead to some value-added products eventually.

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The Alexanders love sharing good food with their family, friends, and their growing number of customers. The bottom line for these two is that they are committed to growing good, clean, healthy food and they want people to know what good, clean, healthy food can do for their lives.

“People (first) notice the incredible difference in the taste of fresh, organic food,” he shares, “and then they begin to learn of the health benefits too.”

“The FiT program at Lomax made it possible for me to go from a home gardener to a farmer.”

“The FiT program at Lomax made it possible for me to go from a home gardener to a farmer,” said Dylan. “I would have stumbled around trying to figure things out on my own and probably failed. At Lomax I have learned the skills I need, established a viable farm business and customer base, and have a network of resources and people to continue to help me succeed.”

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The average age of American farmers is 58 and increasing. Less than 2% of the population in our country now farms. Lomax is one way CFSA is working to develop new, younger farmers in the Carolinas. As Dylan points out, “We all have to eat, so we need people growing our food.”

Young farmers like the Alexanders can’t do it without you.

Your gift today will provide the training and support another new FiT at Lomax needs to succeed and provide us ALL with the food we need in the Carolinas.

Please consider giving.

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by Mary Bures, NC Wildlife Federation

This summer, CFSA’s Lomax Farm partnered with the North Carolina Wildlife Federation to bring students in their Great Outdoors University Program to visit Lomax Farm and the Farmers-in-Training. An important part of agritourism allows children to experience farms and how farmers grow the food that they eat.

 

Photo submitted by Mary Bures, GoU

Photo submitted by Mary Bures, GoU

NC Wildlife Federation’s Great Outdoors University (GoU) has enjoyed an action-packed 2016 season of experiences, including those with our destination partner Lomax Farms.  GoU of greater Charlotte, NC launched its first programs in June of 2013 and has served over 30,000 participants to date. GoU is a conservation-based experiential education program designed to bring life-changing experiences to kids 6-18 years old who have limited opportunity to explore the natural world. The GoU curriculum empowers youth by connecting them with nature using fun hands-on/minds-on inquiry-based teaching methods in outdoor environments like farms, forests, streams and nature preserves.

 

For many of these children, GoU provides their first opportunity to get outside and explore the natural world and its many wonders and benefits.

Great Outdoors University takes a collaborative approach utilizing the strength of North Carolina Wildlife Federation affiliate resources and forming alliances with community partners, like the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. For many of these children, GoU provides their first opportunity to get outside and explore the natural world and its many wonders and benefits.

 

Mary Bures (Manager of GoU) reached out to Aaron Newton (CFSA’s Lomax Farm Coordinator) and worked to create the “Farm to Table Program,” giving kids an introduction to a working organic and sustainable farm. What some of us take for granted became a first time experience for them.

 

Photo submitted by Mary Bures, GoU

Photo submitted by Mary Bures, GoU

The kids began their adventure at Lomax by participating in an activity to discovering an assigned fruit or vegetable. Then, with Matt Warden, Lomax Farmer-in-Training, half of the group explored the community garden. There they learned about the importance of pollinators as they explored a variety of pollinator plants including bee balm, asters and mint, which the kids excitedly discovered with their senses of smell and taste. The students then learned about the drip irrigation system and one group even assisted in laying a bit of pipe. Finally, they had the opportunity to pick (perhaps for the first time) their own vegetables. We enjoyed a variety of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, okra, and eggplant throughout the season.

 

The group would then gather in the common vegetable prep area. The kids learned about this part of the operation and how the participating farmers prepared their crops for market. They assisted in washing the veggies and prepping them to eat.  Of course this was one of their favorite parts of the program!  What a thrill to see kids really enjoying their freshly picked veggies! 

 

Photo submitted by Mary Bures, GoU

Photo submitted by Mary Bures, GoU

In addition to harvesting and preparing crops, the children also enjoyed a hands-on planting session with Aaron. He taught them the importance of soil preparation and they actually had the opportunity to mix it with their own hands. Just as the farmers would start their crops, the kids were able to plant their own seeds and take them home to nurture and grow.

 

In the end the kids had a wonderful time digging in the dirt, eating some freshly picked organic veggies and learning about sustainable farming.  Who knows…perhaps some will come back in a decade and join as a Farmer-in-Training at Lomax.

 

Thanks to Aaron and his team, this was one of GoU’s most successful programs this season and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Lomax.

For more information on NCWF’s Great Outdoors University, visit http://www.ncwf.org/GoU.

How a 125-year- old recipe, fond childhood memories, and an odd-ball vegetable inspired a new food business

by Amy Armbruster, CFSA’s Communications Coordinator

Editor’s Note: When we started writing this story, we intended it to be about an upstart new specialty foods company saving summer’s flavors in a jar of salsa. But, this story about Jerusalem Artichoke Relish is too good to keep a secret. Yes, we know that Jerusalem artichokes aren’t harvested in the summer. And, we promise, read to the end and you’ll understand why this story is indeed about saving summer. Sometimes, the story is just so good, you have to follow it where it leads.

 

Angie and Marc Olear, Crouch's Gourmet Specialties

Angie and Marc Olear of Crouch’s Gourmet Specialties
Photo submitted by Angie Olear

What is the flavor of childhood? Those foods that are preserved in our memories so vividly that when we eat them again, we are right back there in our Grandma’s kitchen, 12 years old, helping her make her famous relish. We can almost summon those loved ones back to us with just one bite. For Angie Olear, one particular memory from her Nanny’s kitchen led her and her husband on a peculiar journey: from home canner to farmer to the owner of Concord, NC specialty food company, Crouch’s Gourmet Specialties.

But, it all started with a memory.  Angie told me about her Nanny Crouch, who grew up in the country with a sprawling garden and “eyes in the back of her head.” Her Nanny grew Jerusalem artichokes wild. They were tucked away in hidden places all around her yard and Angie clearly remembers going out with her sister to dig them up. The edible parts of these plants – also called sunchokes – are their knobby roots, which have a crisp texture like that of water chestnuts. “One summer, we were out under Nanny’s kitchen window trying to get some artichokes when we heard Nanny’s voice, loud and clear: “Get out of my artichokes! They’re not ready yet!”

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by Aaron Newton, CFSA’s Lomax Farm Coordinator


Photo by J.H Photo

Providing consistent access to nutrients during the early stages of transplant development is a problem many organic growers face. At Lomax Farm we’ve developed a strategy that addresses nutrient availability in transplant production and uses some key, low-cost equipment to accomplish the task.

This fall, we will be testing different seed-starting recipes, and we will share those results with everyone later this year. For this Expert Tiphowever, we will focus on equipment, and we’ll be using a standard recipe as an example.

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By Ben Street, Lomax Farmer in Training and grower of some very fine onions.

Premiere of A Chefs Life

The geographical location of “Down East” North Carolina is a baffling concept, one that continues to elude me. This past Labor Day weekend, Aaron Newton, farm coordinator at the Elma C. Lomax Incubator Farm, his wife, Jennifer, owner and manager of Concord’s local grocery, the Peachtree Market, and myself, farmer-in-training at the Lomax farm and all-around farming rockstar, set off from Lomax in their fresh-from-the-mechanic’s Volvo station wagon on an excursion to the fabled “Down East,” Kinston, NC specifically, as invitees to the third-season premiere party of Vivian Howard’s PBS television program, A Chef’s Life.

Vivian and crew visited Lomax back in May to film an episode revolving around her cooking a fundraising dinner for the farm, of which my first attempt at growing onions was the featured ingredient! I can honestly tell you that I have no recollection of what blabber I regurgitated while on camera, but I’m hoping I was as confident and charming as I am in my own mind. The dinner was a roaring success, and my onions came out deliciously, if I do say so myself.

The four-hour trek went smoothly, and making such great time, we were even able to make a few pit-stops to CFSA headquarters in Pittsboro, the Chatham Marketplace, and drive-by the Central Carolina Community College’s on-campus sustainable farm. Super neat. Then back in the car, refueled with energy-chunks, yogurt-covered pretzels, dark chocolate and kombucha, to the home of Vivian Howard and her restaurant of renown, Chef and the Farmer.

Chef and the Farmer restaurant

Kinston met us with open streets and closed establishments, not too surprising on a Saturday afternoon in small-town North Carolina. We managed to find a bite to eat at the Olympian Greek restaurant thanks to the guidance of Christopher, owner of Christopher’s Cafe in downtown Kinston. He caught us eyeballing his joint. Then it was off to the hotel to check in and get pretty for the evening’s festivities.

We were met in the lobby by Joe and Dani Rowland, farmers at Rowland’s Row and former Lomax farmers, as well as mentors of mine. Being farmers, we had to shirk our Saturday farmers-markets in order to attend this event. However, also being farmers, we were happy for the opportunity to have a little respite from the long season!

Not thirty minutes later, we met back in the lobby, dressed to the nines in our farm-formal attire (a term affectionately coined by our own Aaron Newton) and greeted by the final two members of our Concord group, Gina Guthrie, owner of Bocca Felice, a farm-to-table catering service, and Julie Holland, active member in the Concord local-food movement and A Chef’s LIfe super-fan. Then we rolled out in force to join in the fête du jour.

The evening air was still and humid, as I imagine many evenings are in Kinston, being so near the shore. We met our hostess, Holley Pearce, personal assistant to Vivian Howard, at the BuyLocal Gallery and Wine Bar. On display were original paintings by Ben Knight, Vivian’s husband, and Alex Matisse, a ceramicist from Asheville. After a couple drinks and some socializing, we were off to make our reservations at the critically acclaimed Chef and the Farmer.

The decor of the restaurant was rustic and cozy, with ambient lighting and wrought with reclaimed wood that contrasted nicely to the colorful and energetic paintings of Ben Knight adorning the walls. The seven of us sat at a long, rough-hewn wooden table and were greeted promptly by the staff, many of whom we recognized and recognized us from the dinner in Concord. Then came the food. It’s really all a blur.

We tried all the appetizers: ham wrapped peaches, flash-fried collard chips, fried okra with ranch ice-cream (what!?), shrimp and grits and wood grilled pizza.

I knew that if I kept eating at this rate, I wasn’t going to have any room for my entree! But alas, out came a ribeye the size of Gina’s head, cooked to perfection and garnished with roasted potatoes and a tangy green puree of I-can’t-even-remember-what. Then finally, after deciding that I was too full myself for dessert, here it came regardless. Of course, I had to indulge. The tres leches cake was something special, let me tell you. The evening was filled with great food, good laughs, and even some pitching of possible business ventures to Vivian as she made her rounds amongst the guests. I think I can say with confidence that we all left dinner that night a little delirious with full-bellies.

Some of us said our goodnights, but the rest of us made our way to Holley and her boyfriend Eliot’s new house not a mile from the restaurant for the after-party. We tried some of the offerings in the way of local spirits, and more good conversation ensued. After contemplating locking Dani in this creepy little cellar they had in their house, we decided it best to call it a night and retire to our hotel rooms to get some well deserved rest, much needed for the day to follow. Joe, Dani and I did make a pitstop at the Red Room in town to listen to the first set of Paper Crowns, a bluesy, folksy duet from Asheville. Check them out!

First on the agenda the next day was brunch at Brother’s Farm, the principal farm that supplies food for Chef and the Farmer, hosted by the farmer himself, Warren Brothers. The biscuits were made fresh from scratch by friend of the family Lilly, served with local sausages, eggs and jams. This was followed by a tour of Brothers Farm with Warren, where he showed us his pigs, laying hens, geese and vegetable production. I couldn’t believe how sandy the soil was! We discussed his tow-behind transplanter for some time, then made our way back to our cars for meandering ride back to the hotel. We’ll blame Aaron for the questionable route back.

Pig at Brother's Farm

We boarded our bus for the party at four o’clock. It was humid again, and had started raining. I was dressed in my finest Canadian tuxedo. Denim on denim, baby. The bus was stocked with Mother Earth Brewing beer, who brews right there in Kinston. The first two episodes of this season played on the screens in the bus. Very well done Vivian and crew! The party was held at Broadslab Distillery in Benson, NC. We had pork belly, butternut squash soup shooters and grilled watermelon, all supremely scrumptious. The rain fell steadily, and we huddled under the tents. There were snowcones featuring Broadslab’s moonshine, beer by Mother Earth and wine for the ladies. Pulled-pork barbecue was for dinner, with coleslaw and potato salad. The pork was taking longer to cook in the rain than expected, but it wasn’t a problem. We just decided to bust into the cake in attempts to spoil our dinners. We met a very interesting group from the Biltmore Estate who regaled to us misty-eyed farm-folk tales of tenured farmers in colonial houses on thousands of acres of land. A folk band picked their instruments under an awning, kids splashed in the puddles, Vivian made a riveting speech, we took some shots of flavored moonshine, and made our way back to the bus. We were on the brink of sending a search party for Warren, when he caught sight of him, ball-capped and barefoot, sandals dangling by his side.

It’s been a hard season for me trying to start my farm business while working a nine-to-five in the city. The reality of this dream I’ve been working towards for going on three years really hit home. It’s easy for anyone trying to make a go at farming to question the many reasons why this is what they want to do in this life, but this trip reinforced for me one of these reasons why I want to farm: to share experiences and grow in this group of like-minded individuals that have welcomed me with open-arms into their community. That’s one reason I want to be a farmer, so I can build this community. We headed back to our home of Concord, west and only three degrees north of “Down East,” refreshed and eager to get back to work. I’d call it a success.