The Farmer Incubator and Grower Farm is located in Valle Crucis, NC on publicly accessible land owned by the Valle Crucis Conference Center. Part of the High Country of Western North Carolina, we are located about 20 minutes outside of Boone, NC in the Blue Ridge of the Southern Appalachian Mountains.
The FIG Farm is designed to provide beginning farmers with a relatively low-risk entry avenue for new producers by providing land and production and marketing infrastructure to help farmers establish lasting farm enterprises in the High Country.
The FIG Farm is designed to provide beginning farmers with a relatively low-risk entry avenue for new producers by providing land and production and marketing infrastructure to help farmers establish lasting farm enterprises in the High Country.
FIG Background
FIG is a project of Maverick Farms, a non-profit educational project dedicated to promoting family farming as a community resource and expanding access to healthy food by reconnecting local food networks in the High Country of North Carolina.
FIG represents the the next step in fulfilling Maverick Farms’ mission of bolstering the local-food economy and making local food both economically viable for farmers and accessible to low-income consumers.
Maverick Farms started the area’s first CSA in 2005, and in 2009 we opened the CSA to the area’s other small-scale vegetable farms, launching High Country CSA (HC-CSA). In 2012, HC-CSA piloted its first year of a cost-share program, which reduces the cost of the CSA program by ⅔ for EBT/SNAP users. In 2012 and 2013, we provided produce from about 10 different farmer-members to about 100 consumer-members, and had around 1/3 of the consumer-members participating through our community-funded cost-share program. In 2014, local non-profit Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture took over fiscal management of the HC-CSA.
With HC-CSA, Maverick Farms developed a scalable market suited to new vegetable farmers and provides a fresh and healthy alternative for farmer- and consumer-members. FIG is the next step in working to create a cooperative and community-based economy that provides access to healthy choices regardless of means.
The incubator farm is designed to train and equip a new generation of farmers who can revive the High Country’s agricultural economy and provide a bounty of healthy food to the region.
FIG is a project of Maverick Farms, a non-profit educational project dedicated to promoting family farming as a community resource and expanding access to healthy food by reconnecting local food networks in the High Country of North Carolina.
FIG represents the the next step in fulfilling Maverick Farms’ mission of bolstering the local-food economy and making local food both economically viable for farmers and accessible to low-income consumers.
Maverick Farms started the area’s first CSA in 2005, and in 2009 we opened the CSA to the area’s other small-scale vegetable farms, launching High Country CSA (HC-CSA). In 2012, HC-CSA piloted its first year of a cost-share program, which reduces the cost of the CSA program by ⅔ for EBT/SNAP users. In 2012 and 2013, we provided produce from about 10 different farmer-members to about 100 consumer-members, and had around 1/3 of the consumer-members participating through our community-funded cost-share program. In 2014, local non-profit Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture took over fiscal management of the HC-CSA.
With HC-CSA, Maverick Farms developed a scalable market suited to new vegetable farmers and provides a fresh and healthy alternative for farmer- and consumer-members. FIG is the next step in working to create a cooperative and community-based economy that provides access to healthy choices regardless of means.
The incubator farm is designed to train and equip a new generation of farmers who can revive the High Country’s agricultural economy and provide a bounty of healthy food to the region.
Working on a 12-acre plot of land under long-term conservation easement, the initiative will provide up to six landless farmers access to the resources necessary to launch successful farm businesses.
A ideal candidate for FIG is someone who is ready to start their own farm business, has worked on a farm, and has demonstrated the desire to make farming in the High Country their vocation.
A ideal candidate for FIG is someone who is ready to start their own farm business, has worked on a farm, and has demonstrated the desire to make farming in the High Country their vocation.
