September 2008 To the Source Farm Tour

The 5th To the Source Farm Tour of 2008 visited 3 farms in Grainger County:  Moore’s Acres, Green Man Farm and Lakeview Farm.  The tour was sponsored by the Tomato Head, which purchases honey and produce from all three farms for use in the restaurant.

Bob shows Art how heavy the combs are before harvesting.

First, we visited Moore’s Acres where Bob and Dolores keep bees, grow produce and tend a small orchard.  Bob taught us how he keeps his bees and extracts the honey.  The Moore’s bought their farm in Washburn in 1994, moved from Texas in 1997 and started keeping bees in 2002, although they had keep bees at their home when living in South America.  They are interested in eating healthfully and have been growing their own food for many years.

One set of hives near the honey house.

Bob then showed us some of the hives he keeps.  He has about 35 hives that are spread throughout his property.  The bees of one hive don’t mingle with another hive.

Bob uses a smoker with burning pine needles to push the bees down into the hive.

The Moore’s extract their honey in a former dairy building that was on the property.  After viewing the bees and learning how they process their honey, Dolores gave us samples of honey on her homemade bread.

Next week visited Green Man Farm, where Nicole and Eric Gibian run a sustainable farm and CSA with the help of their son Gabriel and occasional interns.  They are a very young farm and are building by adding animals to naturally fertilize the land and keep pests down.  Eric takes care of most of the farm work while Nicole bakes pies, cookies and focaccia with toppings from the farm in their certified kitchen.

The group gathers to hear about Green Man's growing practices.

First, a tour of the gardens, where we learned about their love of compost, their experiments in companion planting, and their successes and failures.  Then to the field where young pigs were eating their way through an old planting of corn.

Eric explains the life of these pigs while Art looks for his opening to pet them.

The group walks along the path at Green Man Farm.

After the tour, we all sat down under the trees to enjoy lunch from Tomato Head,  a Italian-style sandwich with peppers and tomatoes from Green Man and cheddar from Sweetwater Valley Farm.  The beautiful fall day with a perfect cool breeze made it hard to want to leave, but we had one more farm to see before heading back to the city.

Jerry Baird’s Lakeview Farm is named literally:  a view of the lake is one of the first things we could see.

Jerry's tractor, Hickory Cane corn field and the lake.

Jerry grows organically and grinds cornmeal from his prized Hickory Cane corn.  Most all of the work is done solely by Jerry, although he gets some help from the University of Tennessee.  He has been selling with the Market Square Farmers’ Market since its opening year of 2004.  He also sells at the Three Rivers Market and Tomato Head.  His chickens also get some of the compost from Tomato Head.

Dried Hickory Cane corn in the feeder to be processed into cornmeal.

Jerry showed us how meticulously he picks the ears, grinds the meal, then sifts it all to check for impurities.  He expects to have cornmeal to sell at the MSFM by Oct. 11.  Eric, a north transplant, claims Jerry’s corn won him over to that Southern favorite:  grits.  Another crop Jerry prides himself on is heirloom tomatoes.  We walked his tomato rows as he pointed out the different varieties, from White Queen to Ox Heart to Cherokee Purple, and we picked what we liked.

Father and daughter with their fresh picked tomatoes.

After our visit with Jerry, it was back on the bus to Knoxville.  The drive is beautiful, just straight down 11W, and we saw many other farms on the way.  It’s always hard to come back to town, but if we’d stayed any longer, I’m sure they would have put us to work.

We have one more farm tour this season.  Our October tour will be an apple gathering expedition, so check back to learn more and sign up.