Farming

Back in the woods off N.C. 49, the winding blacktop ends beside a greenhouse. Thomas Gentry, a UNC Charlotte architecture professor, is watering tomatoes on a humid July afternoon. A man in a work truck creeps along the gravel drive. “The power back on?” he asks, pulling next to the greenhouse. Gentry nods. “Good.” It’s […]

Is “urban agriculture” possible in a city like Charlotte? Can backyard chickens and rooftop gardens solve urban hunger? The public will get a chance to consider those questions – and sip martinis crafted from local ingredients – at the June 13 KEEPING WATCH Clean Martini Screens. The event, free and open to the public, will […]

Where there once were weeds, there is now a farm field, planted in potatoes, broccoli and greens. Where there once was a defunct greenhouse, there are now floating trays bursting with lettuce, fed by water circulating through a tank of tilapia. A year has passed since Friendship Gardens’ Henry Owen and his team of enthusiastic […]

The approaching holidays make it a busy time in many offices, but for Kevin Redding’s small staff, this year it’s unusually hectic. That’s because the Piedmont Land Conservancy, where Redding is executive director, is scrambling to close a pile of land-preservation deals before the end of the year. The same is true at other regional […]

One could argue the local foods movement in America has its roots in the red clay of the Piedmont, on a hilltop not unlike the Uwharries near Charlottesville, Va. Nearly two centuries before Alice Waters opened her landmark restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., Thomas Jefferson understood the allure of applying French culinary techniques to […]

If I didn’t have natural places to visit – trails to hike, rivers to kayak, mountains to climb, the sound of total quiet deep in the woods and of running brooks and streams – my life would be far less full. Famous naturalist John Muir said, “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to […]

Containment policies, such as Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs), are becoming more widespread as metro regions try to control sprawl and revitalize central cities. Mecklenburg County’s northeastern neighbor, Cabarrus County, has tried such an approach in hopes of preserving small town atmospheres and farmland. Disappearing farmland and mounting pressure from developers reached an apex in 2004. […]

Members of the Farm and Food Council for Anson, Montgomery and Stanly counties: Anson County Farmer: Gary Sikes, heritage turkey farmer, Bountiful Harvest Farm. Government: Charles Dunevant, resource conservationist. Public Health/Medical: To be determined. Education: Stuart Wasilowski, vice president, South Piedmont Community College. Interested citizen: Martha Parker, retired nurse, farmer. Montgomery County Farmer: Donny Epps, […]

Just west of the Yadkin-Pee Dee River, a start-up farm and food council is emerging with a vision to fill small farmers’ wallets with money and the Charlotte region’s plates with local food. The collection of farmers, elected officials, health professionals and educators held its official inaugural meeting last week at Stanly Community College. But […]

Many people are surprised to learn that agriculture is the No. 1 industry in the state. However, North Carolina is losing farmland faster than any other state – and the number of dairy farms is down dramatically. Agriculture is estimated to be worth more than $70 billion annually to North Carolina’s economy. Agriculture and agribusiness […]