I updated our website to be more site responsive (looks good on laptops, tablets, phones etc.). There are lots of new pictures and a store where you can directly buy Farm to Table tickets and 2016 CSA shares. Thanks for stopping by!
The
glory days of tobacco in Madison County are gone, but the relics of
its success and the old tobacco barns, used for drying tobacco, still
scatter the hillsides. Tobacco was once a way of life in Western
North Carolina, and it was grown on our little stretch of bottom land
for over 25 years. We once met a local lady who at the age of four
had hung tobacco in our barn. Burley tobacco was the popular variety
grown in this part of North Carolina. Like all tobacco, it must be
air cured in a barn for four to six weeks before it's ready to sell.
Burley tobacco is a light brown, aromatic variety that is commonly
used in cigarettes and cigars. Tobacco is a very physical crop to
raise, but tobacco brought money and money built barns.
Our
barn, like many barns in the area, was assembled by the farmers using
what they had close by to build the essential structure needed for
tobacco production. When you look across the street from our property
there is an area void of trees and overgrown with kudzu vines. The
original owner's son once told me “that's where the barn came
from.” Simply put, in the 70s, his family tore down all the pole
pines in one large section and drug them downhill, across the road,
and they built the barn where it now stands.
Three
stories of pole pine rafters were built to hang and dry tobacco high
up on hand carved hardwood tobacco or "backy sticks." The
barn's facade was created with pine, poplar, oak and walnut. All of
which had faded gray with the direct afternoon sun. When asked about
their process, the former owner said 'oh heck, we just threw that
darn thing up and filled her full!' A few years later, they added an
addition to hang even more tobacco.
Before and After
Like our derelict property, the
barn had also fallen into disrepair. The tall structure sits on our
narrow piece of land high above the creek. Just last year, the barn
was in no shape for guests. Over the years, the barn was filled
almost two stories high with broken tools, rotting yarn, doors,
windows, unmarked containers of oil and liquids, and anything else
that could fill its corners. The workshop addition was spray painted
with the words “She love us Mamaw” across the front. Along the
way, boards were borrowed from its facade and gaping holes were
filled with pieces of metal, plywood, window shutters or the holes
were just left to the elements.
I
have basic building skills, but knew I couldn't do it alone. So, I
called my good friend Jon Taylor, a skilled woodworker and master
cabinet builder who lives in Asheville, to see if he could help with
the project. He came out one afternoon and the three of us stared
longingly for an hour at the front of the barn planning our attack.
It was a major undertaking that took two full weekends to disassemble
and reassemble the front.We wanted to remove as few boards as
possible. It would be a daunting task to cut individual boards to
fill in the holes of various shapes and sizes. We decided to take
them all off, reshuffle them and then nail them back up one by one
from the top down. The first afternoon we spent taking off all the
diagonal boards and placing them in the yard to see what we were
working with. The wood was gray and weathered. On more than one
occasion, Jon said he got a brief whiff of tobacco as the nail
stripped from the wood. Years of drying leaves still left its
lingering scent deep in the boards. Most boards were warped, cracked,
split or bending in multiple directions from years in the direct sun.
The ultimate game of Tetris. The next day we began the arduous
process of putting it back together. We kept the diagonal corner
design because it was mostly intact and started re-creating the
design by placing the boards horizontally along the front.
Since
so many boards were missing, there wasn't enough wood to make it to
the ground. Our options were buying new wood (which can be expensive)
or old weathered barn wood to match (which can be very expensive).
So, instead I got permission to salvage old wood off of a barn
scheduled to be demolished down the road. It was hard work, but we
were able to get almost 300 board feet to add to the pile in the
yard. This made the Tetris game a lot easier with more boards to
choose from. We salvaged multiple 18+ inch boards and saved hundreds
of tobacco sticks for the raised flower boxes that would be in front
of the finished barn. Wide boards like that are not easy or cheap to
come by these days and make horizontal rows fill in quickly. These
boards were much straighter than the ones originally from our barn.
They spent their life as a back wall hidden in shade instead of
baking for forty years in the sun. Foot
by foot the front filled in and the new design fell into place.
We
also reinforced the back wall and saved completely losing the barn
addition. Our neighbor helped us dig cement footers and reinforce the
back wall. We pulled the whole wall forward a few inches with his
truck and put it in place with large screws attached to new pressure
treated footers.
The
finishing touches really tied our artistic vision together. I hand
painted and mounted a barn quilt square (another Madison County
legacy) to the front of the barn and designed and built raised flower
boxes with the salvaged tobacco sticks.
We utilized an original board
with a unique hole in it, installed plexiglass and turned it into a
look out window that views our driveway and house while we work
inside.
All finished. A barn dream come true.
Today,
the barn is a huge part of our small organic farm operation. We use
the barn every day for washing and drying vegetables, storing tools,
and when we need shelter from the Summer heat and afternoon rain
storms that frequent our mountainous county. We also now use it as
the backdrop for our Summer Farm to Table Dinner Series held on the
farm. The barn is now fondly called 'The Garlic Pearl'. In its second
life curing garlic hangs high up in the rafters instead of tobacco.
We currently grow 13 varieties of garlic and planted 7000+ bulbs this
fall. Garlic is just one of the many root crops that we grow at Root
Bottom Farm. We also grow perennial crops, fruit, five types of
berries, 24 types of vegetables and over 200 varieties of flowers.
Today, the Garlic Pearl looks better than ever as it looks out onto
the next chapter of this farm's story and the Madison County barn and
tobacco legacy.
For more information on our popular Farm to Table Dinner Series, visit rootbottomfarm.com
Eat Real Food in 2016. Join Root Bottom Farm's 2016 CSA.
Who are we? Root Bottom Farm is a small
organic farm located in Marshall, NC. We are dedicated to growing our
produce the old fashioned way; by hand, with love & without
chemicals.
What is a CSA? Community Supported Agriculture
is a way for you to buy and eat local, seasonal and delicious produce
directly from the farmer in your community. You receive a box of
weekly veggies, greens and value added products. Pick up at the farm
or from a Marshall or Hot Springs location each week.
How long does it last? How much does it cost? Mid
May - Mid October
$500 for the season. Full payment is due by
March 1st, 2016.
Payment plans are available.
What can I expect in my box? Produce and
products vary each week. Boxes will include greens, microgreens,
vegetables, root crops, berries and our value added products.
As the farm transitions into Fall, we are grateful for our most
successful year yet.
The diversity of food produced on this little strip
of land continues to
inspire us. We grew over 24 types of vegetables, and had our biggest
yield for strawberries, blackberries, and garlic. With the addition
of bees on the farm, our produce was noticeably happier and more
productive. Love Life.
So where did all of Root Bottom Farm's food go?
Two local farmers markets each week
Mars Hill Market every Saturday 9-1
West Asheville Market every Tuesday 330-630
Seven local restaurants each week
Glass Onion
Laughing Seed
Cucina 24
Plant
Rosetta's Kitchen
Farm Burger : We grew and harvested over 13+ lbs of lettuce for these fine folks every week.
Wicked Weed : 250 lbs of sweet potatoes went to our friend's brewery Wicked Weed for a seasonal beer!
Some of our garlic went into a new Asheville Product 'PFM Fire Tonic'
P.F.M.
Fire Tonic is a centuries old apple cider vinegar based herbal infused
tincture inspired and made popular by the "godmother of american
herbalism" Rosemary Gladstar. Created by Planet Kitchen of Asheville, the tonic, relish, and
spice are a powerful immune boosting, spicy circulatory moving,
anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-microbial,
anti-viral concoction of love. Based on a traditional
recipe deeply rooted in folk medicine, our tonic contains locally
sourced (when available) always organic, GMO FREE ingredients.
Our bulk orders went to one local food distributor, Mountain Foods, that connects Asheville area restaurants and farms
Three Successful Farm to Table Dinners
We
are overjoyed with the response to these delicious meals. We could not
have done it without the amazing collaboration with our friend, Dava
Melton, of Blessed 2 Cook. We will announce our 2016 dates soon. We
hope to see you around the table next year!
.
15 families on our weekly ESA delivery
What is an ESA? Similar to Community Supported Agriculture where you
receive a box every week, we offer an 'Email Supported Agriculture'
where our families receive an email each week and choose what goes in
their custom delivered box. This year we will also offer traditional CSA
shares to accommodate more families. Please contact us for more
information.
To our fantastic farm volunteers who traded a shift of work for food
Big thanks to Kris, Leigh, Meredith, Tyler, Meredith, Emma & Emily.
To our awesome intern, Justin
Many, many thanks to the best
intern, Justin. Nothing but love for this wonderful guy. He was our
friend, coworker and all around farm ninja.
Into our added value products for sale and on the tables at our farm dinners
Our popular Garlic Butter made with Root Bottom Farm garlic and herbs. Not pictured: Root Bottom Pesto
Into Morgan's homemade wine for the farm dinners. This year he bottled dandelion, strawberry, blackberry and pear wine.
And all the rest was eaten by us or canned, frozen or dehydrated for us for the Winter months.
This year Imade blackberry, raspberry,
blueberry, strawberry & mixed berry jam. I also canned tomato
sauce, salsa, dill & sweet pickles, roasted tomato soup, applesauce,
pear chutney, pears and peaches.
We love garlic at Root Bottom Farm. Garlic Fest in Asheville was a huge success and a lot of fun.
At Garlic Fest we sold garlic, garlic samplers, our homemade garlic butter, I LOVE Garlic buttons, Root Bottom Farm stickers and root crops.
Root Bottom Garlic Butter. Our organic garlic, our herbs. Great on EVERYTHING
The Spring and Summer gardens have been pulled out, tilled and composted in preparation for our big 2015 garlic planting this week (Projecting about 8,000 bulbs)
This weekend we cracked all 80 lbs into individual pieces to be planted.
We currently grow 13 varieties for garlic. Above: (top L to
R) Elephant, Red Russian, Music & Creole Red. We sell our garlic at
local farmers markets, Asheville restaurants and online.
THE
SPICE OF LIFE: The two basic categories of garlic are hardneck and
softneck, and there are numerous varieties running the flavor gamut from
mild to spicy-hot. Photo by Carla Seidl
“Garlic can be hot or spicy,” says Sarah Decker of Root Bottom Farm in Marshall. “Or it can be hot AND spicy.” In their 12-variety garlic sampler, she and husband Morgan sell varieties with names like Thai fire, Sicilian silver and German red.
“I like the heat, and I like the robust flavor that you can get while
cooking,” says Sarah. In contrast, the garlic you buy in the
supermarket is milder, with a less complex flavor. As she puts it, it’s
“consumer-safe.”
There are two general categories of garlic: hardneck and softneck.
Hardnecks have an edible stalk, called a scape, growing through the
center of the bulb. You can eat the scape raw or sautée it. “It’s almost
like a bean — a garlic bean,” says Morgan.
Supermarket garlic is usually of the softneck type, which stores
longer than hardneck and lacks the hardneck’s defining scape. California
silverskin is the most common supermarket variety and has extra-good
shelf life due to its tightly wrapped skins. Hardneck is more commonly
found at farmers markets.
Garlic’s health-promoting reputation is deserved: It has
anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties as well as
cardiovascular benefits. In addition, it’s rich in trace minerals
manganese and selenium, as well as a variety of other vitamins.
In her book, Eating on the Wild Side, Jo Robinson recommends
either eating garlic raw or letting it rest for 10 minutes after
chopping or pressing before adding it to your cooking in order to reap
maximum health benefits. While any kind of garlic is good for you,
Robinson explains that hardneck garlic, being closer to wild garlic, may
have retained more medicinal properties.
Before starting Root Bottom Farm four years ago, Morgan Decker farmed
garlic in Vermont and Utah. Sarah was a photography professor and grew
up on a small farm in Virginia, where her dad hunted and raised animals
and had a small garden. “I like eating food that I know the source of,”
she says.
The Deckers farm 5 1/2 acres of bottomland along a creek. Such flat
land is rare in hilly Madison County. The property was formerly a
tobacco farm, which the couple revitalized over a two-year period with,
among other efforts, 65 trips to the landfill.
The couple farm organically, spraying nothing, and not even using a
tractor. They even plant by the moon — a habit that comes from Sarah’s
father and to which Morgan has agreed, though qualifying, “only if it
works out.” So far, it’s always worked out.
VARIETY
PACK: With their 12-variety garlic sampler packs, Root Bottom Farm
owners Sarah and Morgan Decker hope to spread the word about the many
types of garlic that can be grown in Western North Carolina. Photo by
Carla Seidl
Still, the lack of a true cold snap in this area can be challenging
for garlic, especially hardnecks, and the Deckers have found it’s best
to leave some varieties to the folks in Maine and Minnesota. “This is
kind of on the warmer side of the garlic-growing spectrum,” Morgan says,
“so you have to choose the right varieties.”
Normally, garlic undergoes a curing process, in which the paper skins
become fully formed for storage and the flavor intensifies. The Deckers
cure their garlic in the rafters of the old tobacco barn, but they also
start to sell garlic as soon as they dig it up (in June or July,
depending on the variety). Morgan says fresh garlic is juicier. He
explains that chefs, especially, like it because freshly dug garlic’s
paper isn’t fully formed, so they don’t have to go to the trouble of
peeling the skin off each clove.
Garlic’s ability to store means the Deckers don’t have to sell their
garlic right away. Softneck garlic can be stored in a cold, dark, dry
environment for six months, hardneck for three to five. With the right
conditions, they can last all winter in a cellar or fridge. “We like the
longevity that root crops provide,” says Sarah.
The couple specialize in root crops and grow carrots, potatoes and
beets, in addition to garlic, but they also grow and sell other crops,
including microgreens, berries, herbs and flowers.
“We like to use everything,” Sarah says. From leftover, small garlic
bulbs not big enough to sell for seed or consumption, she started making
an organic, herbed garlic butter, which is one of their main
value-added products.
The Deckers want people not just to buy and eat their garlic cloves
but also plant them. They sell their garlic sampler in part to spread
the varieties of garlic that do well here and to keep the diversity of
garlic strains alive.
Reading the descriptions on Root Bottom Farm’s garlic sampler, I’m
especially intrigued by their Music variety: “An aromatic, slightly
spicy, incredibly flavorful garlic. Potent heat that is balanced by the
spiciness. Good in mashed potatoes.”
I will have to catch up with them again soon to try it out.
Find Root Bottom Farm at the West Asheville or Mars Hill tailgate markets, or visit rootbottomfarm.com. This story was originally posted at Earth Flavors,
a website profiling local ingredients in Asheville and Western North
Carolina. Carla Seidl is the founder and producer of Earth Flavors.
