In May the NBC had Mother’s Day picnic and fundraiser pot luck on our farm in Leicester. We were preparing for mowing season in the orchard and asked for support to help with the purchase of a tractor.

It was a beautiful day and all manner of beautiful people showed up. Justin was the head chef and cooked some nixtamalized corn tacos on an open fire from corn he raised. Bill took the opportunity to clear out the last of his potatoes from the root cellar and made a mountain of potato salad. Meanwhile our guests contributed salads, entrees, pies, and casseroles. There was much abundance set at our table and we were so grateful for the support of our friends and community.

You see, where we have our orchard is a special place. Only 20 minutes from Asheville, it consists of two gentle sloping fields of fertile alluvial loam nestled at the end of a cove with pristine creeks running on either side that are the headwaters of South Turkey Creek. Quiet, secluded, and bucolic , we were so delighted to finally share this remarkable place with our supporters.

Our Collective is a funny grey area between business and community. We believe that they are intrinsically connected. No one person will make a lot of money but we hope to make decent livelihoods for as many people as possible while growing healthy, good tasting food that no one else is growing in our region. For people who envision a world made up more of deep rooted perennial based foods we are a breath of fresh air. To do things slow and with consideration of the triple bottom line will not be very appealing for the stock holders, but for the community stakeholders, who want to see our region and others like it thrive, it is a rich investment indeed.

We gave a tour of the young two year old orchard and talked about how this dream came about and is now being realized. How there was no way we could have done it without our visionary benefactors. We hope to continue weaving relationships relying on one another, and in turn create an economic model that feeds the community and will be an asset to it far into the future. After the tour we gathered for goodbyes and everyone took their empty plate home except for Bill whose mountain of potato salad was now more like the piedmont.

PS- We got a tractor soon afterwards