Mountain Gardens

Bus behind a church down the road

One of the many gorgeous views

     Upon arrival at Joe Hollis’ Mountain Gardens, we were astounded by the sheer quantity, diversity, and resulting beauty of the mountainside Eden. It was an intentional jungle of exotic and familiar plants. Delicious mulberry vines wound around trellises among roving bellflowers and six-foot-high poppies, while tromboncino squash spread around the bases. A mountain spring flowed through the terraced garden, providing habitat for water-loving plants such as wasabi, water lilies, and iris, as well as a healthy population of frogs. Every niche was filled with deliberate flora, some planted and some useful native “weeds.” This philosophy of designing a balanced ecosystem from the ground up with the needs of humans in mind is called “paradise gardening.” Joe Hollis has been perfecting his methods for forty years on his mountain land. When he started it was a steep, rocky, wooded hillside. Over time he gradually managed to carve out a patch of sunlight in the forest canopy where he has crammed an unbelievable amount of plants.

Cobb rocket stove

This space continues to grow and evolve in harmony with the surrounding forest. The goal of paradise gardening "is to 'naturalize' ourselves in the environment. This will involve changing ourselves and changing the environment: convergence toward 'fit.'" (from "Paradise Gardening" by Joe Hollis).

Tincture library

Our yurt

     Sprinkled amidst the winding paths and

surrounding national forest were a variety of naturally constructed dwellings, including yurts and cabins made of locally harvested timber, as well as a cobb dwelling with a living roof. We stayed in the open-air yurt, which was perched up in the woods overlooking the gardens. There was also a solar-powered community building consisting of an outdoor kitchen, extensive library, and herb shop. The herb shop was the farm’s main bread and butter, and where tinctures, salves, and formulas are made, from both Chinese and local herbs.

View of the farm from our yurt

     In a place where every plant is important, seemingly simple tasks such as planting and weeding become quite difficult. We couldn’t do anything on our own, because we did not know the extensive plans for all the plants, and invariably would step on something important. In any given planting area there were purposefully planted plants, weeds, Chinese herbs, Chinese herbs that had spread and became weeds that needed to come out, and Chinese herbs that had spread and became weeds that needed to be saved for use.

Picking out seed

One important variety of seed that we helped harvest was wasabi. Joe is the only grower of wasabi seeds in the US. Wasabi seeds are tricky to propagate because they cannot dry out and have to be painstakingly hand-separated from their pods. So, on rainy afternoons, it’s wasabi seed-separating time!

Let it be known that an Italian basketball player does fit into a VW

Jeff and Sean attempting coffee roasting

      There were six other long-term interns there when we arrived, who we enjoyed sharing meals and knowledge with. Everyone was taking advantage of this cultivating environment to pursue their own interests, from roasting coffee to making mushroom tinctures and brewing beer using traditional ground ivy.  

     We were excited to hear that down the street from Mountain Garden was an abandoned camp for mentally disabled children. When the funding was cut in the early ‘80s, the camp dried up and has been sitting vacant ever since. We are always keeping our eyes out for possible “urban” exploration and this fit the bill nicely.   We followed an overgrown path past looming feral topiaries, and came upon a compound comprised of several dilapidated cabins clustered together, and an old broken down school bus in the back. Further investigation revealed that the buildings seemed to have been vacated overnight with little attempt at packing up. The cupboards still had cans and boxes of food, books from the ‘60s and ‘70s were strewn across the bedrooms, and official mail from the ‘80s was stacked haphazardly. Pouring over the cast-aside detritus called forth glimpses into the lives of the inhabitants, almost as if a piece of them was still there.

   Randy was particularly excited to find one of the original agricultural pamphlets extolling the virtues of kudzu, the now prolific "scourge of the south." Mr. J. R. Sams, the County Agricultural Agent at Large of Columbus, NC in the ‘30s, drafted the document to encourage farmers to plant as many acres of kudzu as they could. He points out the erosion control benefits, but also that it is an excellent, attractive hay and pasture plant. Sams secures his place in infamy by declaring that kudzu is “easily eradicated when desirable, but no sane farmer will desire to get rid of it when he learns how to use it,” and that the creeping vine is “the greatest legume that God has given us.”

     We felt that there was much knowledge to be gained here, especially with Joe's years of experience and willingness to share it, but Sean from Sandy Mush called asking if we could help him out for a few days, so we cut our visit short and headed back over the mountain.

Doubletree Farm

Helping a turtle cross the road

     Doubletree Farm is a horse-powered  operation in Marshall, NC. In the past one of their main products has been sorghum syrup; they have pretty much single-handedly introduced a new generation of Ashevillians to this sweet sugar alternative, while allowing the older folks to reminisce over this tasty syrup and its deep-rooted history in the region. This year, however, the family is in the midst of a significant transition, and does not have as much time to devote to sorghum-making.

Cooking in our cabin

Sorghum is made by squeezing the juice from the sorghum cane and then boiling it down into syrup. We came at a good time, and were able to attend to the little things that might fall by the wayside when time and energy are scarce commodities.

Cathy harrowing with the horses

Teats in action

     The farm also has two milking goats with a collective trip of five kids, as well as a wether-uncle who babysits the kids while the mamas mow the fields. They had two teams of horses who worked in perfect unison whether they were hauling lumber, plowing a field, or pulling a buggy.

Basket-in-progress

     Every day we milked Lilac and Daffodil, and did a little weeding, splitting firewood for cooking, and potato bug surveillance (which were surprisingly scarce considering the mild winter). We also scythed grass for feed. The snath (handle) of each scythe is made specifically for a person's size and build, as Randy was a bit taller than the scythe's owners his scything strut ended up resembling an ice skating sumo wrestler. Cathy also showed us how to make poplar-bark baskets. Her nine-year-old son went into the woods and cut down a nice poplar for the body of the baskets, as well as a young hickory for the lacing. Poplar bark peels off easiest between May and August, and with a few cuts and scores can be shaped into a beautifully rustic basket. The poplar is held together by the inner bark of a young hickory. The simple process took us a while to master, but then we had it down assembly-line style.

Randy on one side of the transplanter

All our baby 'baccers

     On Friday, the Bennet's neighbor down the road needed help setting his tobacco plants. He is a conventional tobacco farmer who is still making his living off of a declining industry. Most other tobacco farmers have opted to grow alternative crops, such as tomatoes or Christmas trees, since the government stopped subsidizing tobacco in 2004. It seems the nation's trend toward healthier lungs did not come without a cost. Although not huge fans of the tobacco industry, we were glad to see the process of planting this historically important crop. "Settin' sum 'baccer" consists of one person driving the tractor, two people loading seedlings into the transplanter, and one or two people walking behind catching any planting errors with a "dibble stick". The transplanter has two seats on either side of a rotating belt made up of a dozen chutes that convey the seedlings into the soil. The transplanter also simultaneously furrows, waters, and presses the dirt firmly around the plants' base. The plodding pace of the tractor still produced a rushed rhythm, that, while not frantic, required our full attention. It took six of us six hours to finish a field of about 7,500 plants, which will grow to be over six feet tall. Each plant will produce about 5 cigarettes, for a grand total of 37,500 cigarettes that we helped put in America's lips. Setting tobaccos is a lot of fun, at least for a day.

Cool vehicle merger at the Marshall Junk Shop

     After a hard day's farm work we went into Marshall to relax and enjoy the town. The coffeeshop in town has a weekly bluegrass jam that really brings the community together; the judge/magistrate even did an upright bass solo.

Chicken of the woods

     On Sunday we were looking for a local church to go to, and Cathy suggested the Mars Hill United Methodist Church. We chose the right Sunday to attend this church, because not only was it the monthly potluck, the service also featured the church's bell choir. Neither of us had really ever heard a bell choir before, and we were quite impressed with the group's ability to create such harmonious music with their 54 bells. Following the morning worship was a delicious smorgasbord including everything from a huge salad with steak, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes, to a yummy jello, cool whip, and cheddar cheese dish that defies categorization. The small congregation was extremely welcoming, and we enjoyed chatting with them while we ate lunch.
     Cathy's son is on a little league team, and his last game of the season was on Tuesday, which was held at the old highschool-turned-apartments on a tiny island on the French Broad River. The game was quite exciting and ended in a hard-won tie.
     Our last Saturday on the farm we planned a "relaxing" day in Asheville with every minute accounted for. We left the farm at 7:30, and didn't get back until 11 pm.

8:37 Arrive at Randall Cove to collect forgotten bag, visited with Mary Adore and Kaitlyn

Randall Cove through the window

9:39 Arrive at Amazing Savings in Asheville to scope out discounted natural food

Bulk section at Amazing Savings

10:14 Arrive at the French Broad Food Co-op, where we stocked up on bulk staples

So many bulk options at the co-op!

10:50 Arrive at Downtown Books and News, and tried to lighten our load of books, but ended up succumbing to the store credit option

11:47 Arrive at the Shogun Buffet, for a scrumptious gorging
12:18 Still gorging

12:58 Leave buffet after loosening our belts
1:40 Arrive at the Wedge Brewing Company for the homebrew beer tasting
1:41 Contemplate participating in the Beer Run preceding the tasting
1:41:08 Decide against it
2:00 Buffet-waddle into the beer tasting
2:12 Enjoyed the first sample with its subtle interplay of citrus upfront blending into a slightly oak finish with hints of caramel and local stone fruits.

"Middle Earth Brewing. It's hobbit forming"

       

2:46 Grabbed a dark one.

Randy just won at sling-shot beer pong!

5:00 25 beers and several handfuls of boiled peanuts later, meandered around the Wedge
5:52 Left to see the Montford Park Players performing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)
6:20 Got our volunteer assignment of surveying the audience before the show
7:30 After collecting dozens of surveys, we found a seat to enjoy the show

7:38 watched Romeo and Juliet
7:52 observed Richard the III
7:55 laughed at Titus Andronicus
7:59 enjoyed Two Men from Verona
10:00 Handed in our surveys and headed back to Doubletree Farm, relaxing from our day of relaxing

      The next day Cathy was taking the kids out for a picnic at the Carolina Hemlocks State Park, and invited us along. The Toe River goes through the state park, and is apparently the cleanest river east of the Mississippi. The park was located at the base of Mount Mitchell, which is the tallest peak east of the Mississippi. The hemlocks were beautiful and plentiful for the moment, but the wooly adelgid is an invasive insect that is killing hemlocks right and left, and a good solution has yet to be devised. We enjoyed a lovely afternoon of renting tubes and floating down the river, reading, relaxing, and eating a yummy picnic which included Cathy's excellent goat cheese. The river was a bit rough in places, and Randy ended up loosing his shirt and Holly's driver's license while tubing. Once while floating down the river Holly heard someone shout "St. Louis!" and turned to see two people who recognized her and asked if she was from there. The current soon pulled her away, but later she went back and realized that the girl was an old homeschooler who she hadn't seen in at least ten years. Small world.
     The state park also happened to be just miles from our next farm, Mountain Gardens, and the next day we said goodbye to the Bennets, packed up the car, and headed back to the Burnsville area.

Our completed baskets; notice Randy's fancy etching

The doubletree namesake