MILLS RIVER, N.C. (AP) - Getting dirt under their fingernails is just the beginning for farmers and home gardeners at Living Web Farms, where a wide array of workshops are offered in a demonstration farm setting.
Living Web’s three locations in Mills River are unified in providing skill-building workshops in a mission to build resilience through growing food and living sustainably.
“We’re trying to model and provide examples of sustainable systems for farmers and home gardeners so we can demonstrate resilience on all levels,” said Meredith Leigh, education and outreach coordinator for Living Web. “We’re not trying to compete with working farmers.”
Natural cheese making, integrating bats and birds on the farm, do-it-yourself solar hot water systems and no-till methods for small-scale farms are just a few of the offerings on this year’s workshop schedule, which launched in January.
Leigh said workshops are rarely repeated year to year as they are videotaped in full and are available free of charge to the public on Living Web’s website. Registration is by suggested donation - which is typically around $10 to $15.
Living Web Farms was incorporated as a nonprofit in 2011 thanks to a proposal to the farm’s then board of directors from Patryk Battle, a longtime instructor with the Organic Growers School who is also known for his time as head gardener for the organic gardening program at Highland Lake Inn in Flat Rock.
Battle now serves as director of Living Web, which he said exists to give people the skills they need should the economy falter and ordinary paths to feeding each other are not available.
“Our mission is to provide people pathways to the future,” said Battle.
Living Web is now also a research farm, doing trials on cover crops, no-till methods, weed eradication and other applications; results will be submitted to the scientific community and help to inform future workshops, as well.
“It’s mostly empirical, which is how farmers learn,” said Leigh of the farms’ general experimental approach. “If we get a hunch, we go with it.”
After the recent birth of eight lambs on Living Web’s Grandview Lane farm, Leigh and Grandview farm manager Rocco Sinicrope were busy separating the ewes and castrated males in the farm’s around 100 head of sheep for herd maintenance.
On May 24, after the busy lambing season is winding down, Sinicrope will teach an introductory workshop on hair sheep, an ancient breed of sheep that are less wooly.
Grandview farm, where Living Web’s livestock is housed (there are also chickens and one steer), also has a greenhouse for vegetable production and a biochar facility, run as a for-profit entity; the biochar production can provide heat in the greenhouse, if needed.
“It’s a bit of mayhem always because there are so many projects and experiments,” said Leigh, a specialist in livestock who is the author of “The Ethical Meat Handbook.”
In 2014, 30 acres were acquired off North Mills River Road - that, the Grandview farm greenhouse and the several acres and multiple greenhouses on Living Web’s Kimzey Road farm location produce over 16,000 pounds of food a year, much of it donated to seven area food banks or directly to those in need, according to Leigh.
Vertical food production is on the schedule for a July workshop in an intensive weekend focusing on biodynamic farming. High yields of cucumbers and tomatoes grown vertically in Living Web’s greenhouses has inspired staff members at Living Web, which number around nine active farmers and two interns.
Staff member Richard Freudenberger will teach a low-cost solar workshop on Jun. 11 and, in November, a workshop in building and maintaining a composting toilet.
Cooking classes are also emphasized, with the Art of Natural Cheesemaking on April 15 and 16, respectively.
Some workshops are held at the French Broad Food Coop in Asheville; Leigh said larger workshops sometimes include a meal using the organic ingredients from the farms.
“We don’t see ourselves at all as being better than the (Organic) Grower’s school,” said Battle of the workshops offered. “We cooperate, share resources, donate food to dinners there; we share the same ethic.”
Living Web Farms, which maintains its existence through the generosity of an anonymous donor, is able to give back to the community for a minimum of investment thanks to its skilled staff members and existing infrastructure.
A seedling program in one of the Kimzey Road greenhouses assists a number of area nonprofit farms, like The Lord’s Acre in Fairview, in producing plant starts that help them in their mission to feed the hungry.
“We’ve been able to double and triple-fold their output,” said Leigh. “The feedback in the community has been very positive.”
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Information from: Times-News, https://www.blueridgenow.com
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