parkerfarms.jpg Parker Farms
Hurdle Mills, NC
 by Emily Buehler, Contributing Writer

Weaver Street Market has a new pork supplier, Parker Farms of Hurdle Mills, north of Hillsborough.  They were brought to us by NC Choices, a group that “promotes sustainable, community-based food systems that enhance the economic, environmental and nutritional health of North Carolina.”  Parker Farms is a good model of pasture-raised pork: the pigs have spacious pens with plenty of mud. Read more.

winebottles3.jpgCooperatively
made Fair Trade Wine
By: Elizabeth Friend, contributing Writer

Wine making is an incredibly expensive, laborious process that takes years to perfect. This makes it difficult for small producers to get started, let alone turn a profit, and makes it almost impossible for them to compete with large corporations whose scale allows them to absorb high production costs more readily. By organizing into a cooperative, pooling resources and sharing facilities, individual farmers mitigate the cost of production. This enables them to craft superior wines that can be very affordable. Read more.

hillscheeseco.jpg Hillsborough Cheese Company
by Emily Buehler, Contributing Writer

It’s a surprise to discover the Hillsborough Cheese Company’s location, nestled in the narrow tract between Interstates 40 and 85 in Hillsborough. Then you realize that the enterprise is not so much a farm (in spite of the goats wandering around) but more like an artist’s studio. At the end of a long gravel drive, there’s a small olive green building that matches the house behind it; the open door reveals racks of drying buckets, plastic containers, and a large cooler. Read more.

 

To view the list of our local producers, clorganicfarmershandssmall.jpgick here .

hollygrovegoats.pngHolly Grove Farms - Mount Olive, NC

by Elizabeth Friend WSM Contributing Writer

    On 65 acres near Mount Olive, NC, Debbie Craig and her children are striving to keep a dream alive. The dream is to run a small-scale working farm, complete with hogs, cows and a herd of dairy goats. When Ron and Debbie Craig moved to NC in the mid-80s to work in the pork industry, they dreamed of starting their own farm. The idea of a dairy farm was particularly attractive to Ron, who’d worked in a dairy in Southern Missouri as a teenager. Read more.