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 Mystic Farm - Pittsboro, NC
by Cat Moleski, Weaver Street Market Features Editor
At Mystic Farm, located in Chatham County, just south of Pittsboro, Matthew and Suzanne Holt learn by doing, observing, and talking. They talk to other farms about best practices, they listen to the bees in their hives to see how they're doing and they try and try again when things don't work out. They wanted to farm right out of school, but found land prices in the northeast too high. They came down to North Carolina at the request of a friend and stayed because they liked the area and the great growing season. Not really used to clay soil, though, they dug it up and replaced it only to discover that they'd made a big clay bowl for the water to sit in. They decided to do raised bed gardening and asked a retired farmer to bring his tractor over to help with the tilling. After a few seasons the farmers simply said, "why don't you farm over here instead of me bringing my tractor over there?" So they leased his old farm, where to their delight, they discovered an overgrown orchard of apple, pear, blueberry, pecan, and chestnut trees. Slowly they have been clearing the overgrowth of weeds and bushes and pruning and reshaping the trees to maximize sunlight and production.
Caring for an orchard and bees to keep them pollinated comes naturally to Matthew and Suzanne, having grown up in apple country in New Jersey. John Strickland of Busy Bee Farm helped them get started keeping bees and harvesting honey. They grew the number of hives on their land to about twenty, then lost half of them one winter. This seemed to indicate to Matthew that the bees would do much better with fewer hives nearby competing for the flowers. The bees seemed to be happier, too, with more room. They used to lose bees to spring swarming, but now have learned to anticipate the conditions that cause swarming and to adjust the hive before the bees feel pressed to leave. They both swear that bees send out scouts on Palm Sunday and swarm on Easter.
They both like to have a lot of variety in their work, so they also have an organic raised-bed garden where they grow heirloom lettuce, peas, broccoli, strawberries, potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, tomatillas, sweet potatoes and more. This year, for fun and to keep things interesting, they'll try growing Spanish peanuts, sunflowers, and irises. A stack of shitake and oyster mushroom logs occupy a shed on the edge of the property, another project to keep them busy. The farm is organic and they rely on themselves to plant, weed and harvest without the use of heavy equipment. You can visit them for the first time this year on the Piedmont Farm Tour or at the Carrboro's Farmers' Market.
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By choosing from our thoughtful range of authentic foods you will be supporting small producers and local farmers as well as enjoying some of the tastiest hand-crafted products in the area.
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