Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on January 22, 2021.

In bygone years, family-owned country stores dotted the county, along with one-room school houses. Today, small farm stores are filling some of the gap that our neighborhood stores once filled. And it’s not just in Floyd, explained Adam Bresa, Farm Manager at the Floyd EcoVillage. Farm Stores, along with Farmers Markets, are popping up everywhere as a natural extension of the sustainable agriculture and local food movements, which have been gaining momentum over the last two decades.

The Floyd EcoVillage’s Farm Store is located at the Floyd EcoVillage (188 EcoVillage Trail), a 75-acre community complex of homes, gardens, lodging and camping with a focus on renewable energy production and conservation. The store is stocked with the best of year-round farm grown vegetables and more. “Everything you see here was picked yesterday,” Bresa said, pointing to cooler racks of packaged greens, arugula, lettuce, cabbage and kale. He describes the farm’s goal of “growing nutrient dense food, using biological farming methods that promote healthy soil and plant life.”

There’s a lot going on at the EcoVillage, home to the Floyd Event Center venue, but Bresa and his Farm Assistant Jess Sandoval, stay focused on the farm, which encompasses 3 ½ acres in production, three hoop houses, a greenhouse and the Farm Store. Bresa and his wife ran their own family farm, Fertile Crescent, and Bresa worked at 7 Springs Farm before coming to the EcoVillage six years ago.  Sandoval is the farm’s second full-time employee and a co-owner of Golden Foot Flower Farm, a seasonal flower business that rents hoop house space and manages a cooler in the Farm Store.

Last week, Jessie Benson of Buffalo Mountain Bakery posted on Facebook, “My chocolate toffee has SOLDOUT at Floyd EcoVillage Farm Store. Benson is one of several vendors who independently sells homemade goods at the store. Other local food products that fill the store’s shelves include pasture-raised chicken, granola and grains. “We don’t buy and re-sell products, except for our fruit that comes from Woolwine,” Bresa said.

The farm store operates on the honor system, like it’s forerunner Green’s Garage, an early farm store prototype (no longer in existence) that its founder Tenley Weaver of Good Food Good People once described as a “farm stand and more.” Another self-serve farm store is at Riverstone Organic Farm. Located up the road from the EcoVillage at 708 Thompson Road, the Riverstone Farm Store is open daily and year-round. Both the EcoVillage Farm and Riverstone Farm also sell their products at Saturday’s Floyd Farmers Market under the downtown Community Pavilion.

The EcoVillage Farm provides a cash box for store payments and vendors set up their own, but plans are in the works to upgrade to a one cash box payment system.  “And we’re just a car honk away if anyone needs help with anything,” Bresa said.

During the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the store added a pre-order system that Bresa expects to keep in addition to the foot traffic of shoppers. “We let them know what we have and they can come when they want and pick up their pre-packed bags from the refrigerator,” he explained, adding that they have over 100 people on the email list. “There’s almost always someone shopping,” Bresa commented as car pulled up in front of the store.

Shopper Vicky Shaffer said that since COVID she’s been shopping more at the EcoVillage Farm Store because it feels safer. “I grow a lot of my own food during the growing season,” she said as she checked out a bag of farm fresh carrots.

The EcoVillage Farm Store, which is two miles from town, off Route 221 and Franklin Pike, is open daily from 6 am to 8 pm.  Their busiest time is weekends during growing season. On Fridays, they pack the store as full as they can, Bresa said. He and Sandoval also run a traditional CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) during growing season, where shares are sold reimbursed for bags of harvest. They also sell plants. “We’ll start seeding this week,” Bresa said, “and have strawberries in a couple of weeks.

Next to the Farm Store, there is a sitting area and a tagged medicinal herb garden of plants that people take cuttings from. The EcoVillage also features picnic areas, trellises, a large pond with a gazebo, a creek and walking trails through the woods. “We welcome people to use the space,” Bresa said. ___________________Colleen Redman

____________________________Our World Tuesday