Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

New farmer ready with fall goodies

Posted on November 6, 2008 by Staff

photo by Emily Buehler. Will Cramer and his Verdant Furrows farm are new at the Orange County Farmers’ Market.By Emily Buehler
Staff Writer

At a single folding table at the Orange County Farmers’ Market in Hillsborough, Will Cramer sits on his tailgate behind small piles of produce: sweet potatoes just dug from the dirt, crispy heads of pale butter crunch lettuce and rumpled deep-green leaves of chard. Will’s a new face at the market this year, but he’s present every week, and always with a random assortment of good-looking vegetables.

It was the chard that drew me in. Hesitant to buy from a farmer I didn’t know, I avoided his table for weeks; but as the spring greens at other tables gave way to tomatoes, cucumbers and summer eggplants, Will continued to unload bunches of chard each Saturday morning. Finally, I went over to get some, asking the first question that popped into my head, “So where is Verdant Furrows?” This was the name scrawled on a small cardboard sign by his stand.

It turned out that Will farms land at the Breeze Farm north of Hillsborough as part of the Farm Incubator program. Col. William C. Breeze donated 269 acres to N.C. State University to be used for organic, sustainable activities. Part of the land is farmed by students (or apprentices) of the Farm Incubator program, also called PLANT (People Learning Agriculture Now for Tomorrow) or Farming 101.

PLANT began early in 2008 with the intention of helping newcomers interested in farming get started. The program included an eight-week workshop, networking with mentor farmers, and access to production land (at the Breeze Farm), equipment and supplies at reasonable rental rates. About 40 apprentices took the class. The program will begin again in January 2009 with six workshops in which technical experts and local farmers will discuss the basics of agriculture and irrigation as well as business plans, farm management and marketing.

I’ve wanted an excuse to see the Breeze Farm, so I drive out on a cold Wednesday morning to meet Will at the land. As I pull up, I see the long brown rows of a large rectangular plot, right by the side of Walnut Grove Road. It’s smaller than the rolling hills I pictured, but far bigger than any garden I’ve ever seen. The space is shared by many of the former students, who take turns watering each other’s rows. Some rows are planted with flowers, now a bit haggard in the cold, while one row is freshly dug (those were the sweet potatoes, Will tells me) and one has a white cloth tunnel protecting it from the cold.

It’s hard to believe farming can still happen when it’s this cold, but Will assures me he has plants in for the fall — beets, carrots, spinach, broccoli and lots of greens, like lettuce and salad mix; rounded, peppery tatsoi (also called baby bok choy); and hopefully the European salad green mâche. He folds back the white cloth to show me the small rosettes of mâche on the row — he planted them in May and they’ve been growing slowly ever since.

I’m dying to know how he grew chard all summer, with the oppressive heat and full sunshine beating down on his plants. “I don’t know,” he replies with a grin when I ask. He adds as an afterthought, “Maybe the okra shaded it.” I look across the field and spot the tall okra plants, now bearing only a few monstrous pods, and they do indeed tower over the row of chard.

Will and I walk closer and I can see the chard plants are stripped of leaves from the ground up their sides — these are the leaves I’ve been eating all summer. I’m glad to see they still bear clusters of ruffle-y leaves in their middles. I’m suddenly in awe of the chard plants, wondering which ones grew the leaves I bought last Saturday morning. It’s a bit like watching the cows at Mapleview Dairy from the porch of the Country Store as you eat your ice cream cone, or like meeting someone for the first time, but feeling you already know him well. In this case, it’s a row of plants, but I still wish I could shake their hands and say, “Thank you! I’ve been eating your leaves all summer!”

Will’s desire to farm began with an interest in sustainability as he finished high school. He interned on a farm and loved it, and worked on farms in nearby counties, in the mountains and in Pennsylvania for the next four years. He also took a certificate program at Chatham County Community College. This year he wanted to get beyond interning and friends mentioned the PLANT class, which was also advertised on some listservs. He felt lucky to find it.

When the workshops ended, Will rented some of the Breeze Farm land and got to work planting summer squash, cucumbers, okra and beans. All of his inaugural crops did well, and on July 25 he went to sell at the farmers’ market for the first time — he’d been able to get a space at the fledgling Orange County Farmers’ Market.

“How’d that go?” I ask.

“Well, I’ve done better and better each week,” he replies, again with a grin. “I sold out,” he adds, “but I only made like $20. I didn’t have much to sell, mostly cucumbers.”

Will plans to continue farming at the Breeze Farm site next year as well as at land owned by his new farming partner. They’re getting the new land ready now. He hopes to be farming fulltime some day, although for now he still works a second job.

It’s gotten even colder in the days since I was out at the Breeze Farm, and I’ve begun to wonder how much cold the chard plants can take before they wilt and die. Thanks to Will, I’ve had more than my fair share of chard this summer, but I want one last bunch before I have to say goodbye. I’ll have to keep my fingers crossed on Saturday morning when I head down to the market. But if the chard is gone, I’ll hold out for the spinach.

Will sells his produce at the Orange County Farmers’ Market at the Public Market House on East Margaret Lane in Hillsborough, from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. The market is open Saturdays through Thanksgiving, when it will switch to a winter schedule of alternate Saturdays.

For more information about PLANT, contact Bev at the Orange County Agricultural Extension Agency at 245-2050.

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme