Home : Blogs : janeAnne, Asheville's "Green-o-Lina" NAR GREEN Real Estate Consultant : Asheville ECO Real Estate & Relocation: LAND & The Home Place

Egg on Your Face? Or Farm Incubator?

Recently, one of our clients, an international pilot spent the weekend with us as w farm incubator project e hunted down the perfect small farm near Asheville. In the course of our days together, he suggested I read Barbara Kingsolver's bestselling nonfiction book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. In it, Barbara, recently turned 50, talks of her family's farm and the sustainable practices that make it work for the family and their neighbors.

How did he know that I love the idea of sustainable practices and growing my own vegetables to share? (I'm smiling.)

So, I got the book.

(see cover to your left)

My client was right. I'm inspired! I'm itchin' to get out and plant seeds in my little organic garden . In fact, some part of me is just longing to FARM! I know, I know...how's a REALTOR® going to find time to FARM?!? Impossible you say? Egg on my face? ( Photo courtesy of Carolina Farm Stewardship) NO WAY! Get this!

An eco-community I represent is looking into The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's Farm Incubator Program. According to the Association, "Incubators are educational farms where new growers can lease a parcel of land and gain access to equipment and advanced knowledge without having to buy it."

The organization wants to:

Provide business planning assistance and get folks together to help create farm incubators in each of the Carolinas' major climate regions.
Encourage young farmers to continue farming in North Carolina, and help to ensure a healthy food supply for the future.
Give new farmers a chance to develop skills needed to farm without "betting the ranch."

I'm getting out my gardening gloves right now. How about you?

Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved Asheville ECO Real Estate: Trends, Legacies & The Home Place Greenolina
__~o
-\_<,
(*)/'(*)

Posted by janeAnne, Asheville's "Green-o-Lina" NAR GREEN Real Estate Consultant on 04/09/2008 09:49 AM

Comments (13)

asheville green real estate, asheville sustainable real estate, greenolina, advice for buyers sellers and investors, eco communities

Originally posted at: Asheville ECO-GREEN Real Estate: Egg on Your Face? Or Farm Incubator?

This post has been included in North Carolina Information
Post is included in group: North Carolina Real Estate
Post is included in group: Active Rain Book Group
Post is included in group: ECO-All-Stars~ GREEN Resources, Trends & Friends
Post is included in group: The Lounge at Active Rain
Post is included in group: Equine and Rural Issues and Answers

13 Comments on Egg on Your Face? Or Farm Incubator?

APR

2008

Ooooooohhhh, That's something I gotta look into.

Thanks for the tidbit. Now my wife will really be upset! (I don't get enough honey-do's done for her sometimes as it is.)

I'm getting the book today. Looking for an "farm incubator" soon.

Haha that's pretty cool. I took my boyfriend to my grandmothers in Michigan last summer and he kept commenting on how much he liked her farm. I explained it's a garden not a farm, farms have animals. :) I have grown up most my life on fruits and veggies that people are just now discovering like pomegranates (coming from a middle eastern family these were all staples) but also on the most organic stuff you could eat. My grand parents both sides, great grand mother all had massive gardens and none used pesticides. I spent hours picking stuff and eating it either in the tree or in the garden. Now that I live in Florida it's much harder to garden a lot of the stuff I am used to. If everyone with a small patch of land would garden just a little bit, your bills would be lower and we would all be just a little healthier. It's a hard but great hobby to get into.

JaneAnne: What a wonderful blog! You got my mind spinning with ideas. I lived the green life once in North Mississippi before I got sucked back into the corporate grinder. Now I'm about to retire back to North Mississippi and looking for creative things to do with my bad self. You've inspired me to look into setting up a co-op gardening incubator. So many folks are living in areas with little or no land to use for a garden....and everybody likes to fuss over a few tomatoe plants, etc. Wouldn't make much money, but wouldn't it be fun!

Good on ya', girl!

Jim Gibson, Florida Realtor, MBA, E-PRO
http://www.JimGibson.BIZ

Michael~

Last year I had an outstanding crop of parsley! I know that doesn't sound-like much, but it sure made me feel great when I harvested it...along with some other organically-grown herbs. AND...You can do that right on your deck! You'll love th boo, BTW>

Mary~

I just told Michael that i had a huge parsley harvest last year...then read your comment...guess what my parsley did for us??? The MOST incredible tabbouleh I have ever tasted d in my complete, entire life!!! i don't know about pomegranates here in NC...maybe in FL??...but I can tell you...we can do hummus and parsley...AND...thanks for the story about your grandparents...

Jim~

YAY! While you are looking into "farm incubator" projects...possibly also look into eco-communities...lots of interest in sharing good things here in Asheville, and I bet wherever you "plant" yourself, too.

That is awesome. I want to check into that as well. The snow is finally melting in New Hampshire so I should start getting ready.

This is a wonderful book and the recipes are great. We don't all live on enough land to raise our own food but it is a worthy goal.

APR

2008

Joan~

Are you thinking maybe start with some seeds inside and then transplant them to pots on your deck? I am not sure how long your growing season is...but that might be a remedy for all your Snow..=)

Bonnie~,

I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but our Book Club meets soon...this is our Book, and we are preparing a Feast based on recipes from this book. Who knew REALTORS could have so much fun ??

Hi janeAnne - get out there and start planting so you have something to feed us when we get there this summer!! ;-))

Snow's been gone here in my areas of NH for several weeks now, and spring plants and flowers are already popping up. My tulips have sprouted, daffodils, hyacinths, crocuses and more are showing up all over the place. The sun is shining and we're supposed to get into the 60's today, maybe even 70.

Ann

We all need to start planting. Have any of you heard about the Seed Vault? Tens of thousands of seed varieties have been lost already. Even if it is only herbs you can grow, do it.

Food prices internationally are up 40% over last year. Fuel costs to ship food are going to continue to increase.

Find and visit a seed bank in your area or find out what companies produce pure seed packets as opposed to those who have mixes with some weed seeds in them.

If you can't do any of these things about your food source then at least try to buy some locally grown produce.

APR

2008

This looks like a really wonderful book that I am going to have to purchase! Thanks!

Leave a response…

Name:

Email:
(optional)

Comment:

What does the graphic say?