Photo: Seven baby lambs have been born at our [Carla’s family’s] farm, Winding Path Farm, in the last week. When they drink milk, they waggle their tails, which is unexpectedly delightful.
When I’m my best self, it is easy to feel in my bones that this is true. But in moments of stress or darkness, the depth of connection to the world around me can recede. In fact, our current media and cultural environment seems designed to obscure our connections, resulting in many of us feeling more alone and powerless than ever.
But, I want to resist feeling alone or powerless–that pushes me further down the spiral. So, I am challenging myself this spring to be on the lookout for opportunities for connection. A big motivation for our work here at Working Landscapes is to foster and honor the attachments and relationships of which we are a part: across the food system, across the diverse communities, and among ideas or topics that might at first glance seem to be unrelated. We are committed to exploring strategies for rural prosperity that are rooted in connections and mutual responsibilities because we don’t believe we can be successful any other way.
This spring at Working Landscapes, we invite you to join us building connections across our community. We are excited to be helping create connections between farmers and community members by launching a new fresh produce box program! We are also offering 9 different opportunities to celebrate Earth Day all week long the week of April 21. We’ll be at the Bluebird Festival, sharing a booth with Warren County Cooperative Extension, on April 26th. I hope you will commit to joining us for at least one of the events, and please bring a friend with you.
When more of us are connected in prosocial* ways, we build the muscle of connection and community. This in turn gives us a little more common ground for working together for the common good. Let’s be open to small connections that can spark mutual understanding and trust, and provide just a little space for appreciating the beautiful, complicated world we share.
*I learned this term from The Great Simplification podcast, hosted by Nate Hagans. I highly recommend it–start at the beginning of the series. Let me know if you start listening.
In 2023, Working Landscapes was awarded almost $5 million from USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program. Our proposal was to develop a five-year program to support farmers by providing technical and financial assistance in implementing climate-smart practices. Cover cropping, mulching, no-till, prescribed grazing, and silvopasture are a few examples of climate-smart practices.
While the term “climate-smart farming” may be new to many, it was coined by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2010 to promote a type of farming to help address a changing climate. This includes three pillars: increasing production, creating deeper resilience, and sequestering carbon. Farmers who adopt these practices experience improved yields and increased resilience against the changing climate. By partnering with four other food hubs across the state, this project has successfully reached various communities and strengthened connections between food hubs.
Due to the federal funding freeze instigated by the current administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, we are currently pausing this program and, unfortunately, had to lay off many from our Climate-Smart team. Throughout this month’s newsletter, we will be spotlighting our four staff members who we had to lay off due to the funding freeze.
First, we want to thank our former Climate-Smart director, Jon White, who helped design, launch, and direct a team of coordinators across North Carolina. Jon’s passion and dedication to strengthening our food system were evident in his work.
We are continuing this work by providing technical assistance and further developing our soil health program to support farms in adopting regenerative and climate-smart practices.
This month, we want to highlight our food hub partners who participated in our Food Hubs for Climate-Smart Program as well as Working Landscapes’ staff who helped to coordinate our efforts for this program. Partnering with food hubs across the state allowed us to work closely with staff at each food hub to better understand the needs of the producers in the area and develop marketing strategies and other Climate-Smart programming.
We want to thank each of our partner food hubs, including Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture’s High Country Food Hub based in Boone, TRACTOR Food and Farms based in Spruce Pine, Men and Women United for Youth and Families based in Delco, and Farmer Foodshare based in Durham. Each food hub worked closely with Climate-Smart coordinators in their region to reach producers to enroll in the Climate-Smart program. Even though we have paused the Food Hubs for Climate-Smart Program, we hope to continue our relationships with the other food hubs as our involvement grows with the North Carolina Food Hub Collaborative.
Olivia Ramos, based in Celo, worked closely with TRACTOR Food and Farms to enroll a wide variety of farms in Western North Carolina. Olivia brought a host of skills to the Climate-Smart team, including her strong connections to the farming community in WNC and her passion and expertise in regenerative farming practices.
Evan Folds, based in Wilmington, worked closely with Men and Women United for Youth and Families to enroll coastal farmers in the eastern part of the state. Evan has a rich background in soil science and provided high-level technical support to many of his farmers.
Based in Pembroke, Millard Locklear worked closely with the Lumbee Food Co-op to enroll farmers in the Robeson County region. Millard brought years of technical assistance to the team and his own experience running his farm alongside his wife, Connie, New Ground Farm.
1. Ring of Fire Kiln 2. Biochar Burn with Alex Gray and Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture at Green Toe Ground Farm 3. Finished Biochar
Biochar has increased in popularity in the past few years due to its ability to sequester carbon and serve as a valuable soil amendment. In response, the Climate-Smart team established a biochar program that makes biochar kilns more accessible to farmers throughout the state, provide educational opportunities about the benefits of biochar, and share best practices when it comes to hosting a burn and utilizing the biochar in their fields.
In 2024, as part of the biochar program we launched the WNC Biochar Loan Program in partnership with Appalachian State University’s NEXUS Program, Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture, TRACTOR Food and Farms, and two biochar researchers. This initiative involved setting up kilns at host sites across the region and hosting workshops on best practices. We are committed to the continued growth of this program in the coming years. Click here to learn more about the WNC Biochar Loan Program and our new biochar video.
We are in the process of developing our Biochar Loan Program in the Warren County region. Stay tuned to learn more about that soon!
Our staff is working diligently to adapt our climate-smart agriculture programming to continue providing services for farmers. For Rachel Kinard and Jason Maynard, who were originally hired as our two full-time Climate-Smart Coordinators, this has meant taking on new roles and responsibilities within our organization as Value Chain Managers. These hybrid roles will allow them to continue serving farmers primarily in the Warren County region but also in the locations where they’re based, with Rachel in Western North Carolina and Jason in the Triangle.
For Rachel and Jason, these new roles are bittersweet. They both expressed how much they’ll miss the Climate Smart team and how the statewide team of Coordinators was able to develop close relationships with farmers in every region of North Carolina. However, they are hopeful to continue the relationships they’ve developed with farmers over the last year.
For Jason, the most exciting part of his new role is working on the relaunch of our ByWay Foods seasonal produce box program (available for pre-order now). He looks forward to working on expanding the reach of ByWay Foods and Working Landscapes into the Triangle through this new program, as a way to expand the customer base of Warren County’s farmers and promote regional food systems.
As our most remote team member, Rachel is excited to work more directly with other Working Landscapes staff as she develops and promotes farmer services. With her experience managing the Western North Carolina biochar kiln loan program, one project she is really looking forward to is working on educational programming and a loan program for biochar here in Warren County (see above for more info on biochar).
We’re extremely grateful to Rachel and Jason for all their work through the Climate-Smart program, and are so excited for them to continue and expand on this as Value Chain Managers!
Earth Week at Working Landscapes
Working Landscapes has planned an exciting line-up of events for Earth Week! We’ll have an event each day from April 21 – April 26. We have events for building community, learning new skills, expressing your creativity, and most importantly, celebrating and caring for our planet.
See fliers for each event below, and visit us on Facebook to RSVP for reminders and updates!
Monday, April 21: Trash Pick-Up & Found Object Art Workshop
Join us for a trash pick up around Warrenton, followed by an opportunity to craft together with some of the materials we find!
Schedule:
3:30-5:30pm: trash pick up (meet at the Hive for supplies)
5:30-7:30pm: refreshments, found object art at the Hive
Tuesday, April 22 (Earth Day!): Earth Party at the Hive
Join us for a celebration of our beautiful home planet. Bring a plant-based dish to pass (and/or enjoy ours); enjoy free tea, coffee, and espresso; and add to our new community art project.
5-7pm at the hive. Stop in any time!
Wednesday, April 23: Bio-Blitz Plant ID Workshop
Join us for a bio-blitz, an event where we work together to learn what sort of plants are growing in Warrenton!
We’ll use iNaturalist to help us ID and make a list of all the plants we find, so download the app and make an account ahead of time if you’re able to.
5-6:30pm at ByWay Foods.
Thursday, April 24: Swap-O-Rama
Swap-o-Rama is an opportunity to share what we can within our community, helping each other waste and buy less.
Bring any of the following to give away:
– clothes, shoes, accessories
– dishes, pots, pans
– books and records
– decor and other household items
You don’t have to donate to come and grab things for free! We will take care of donating all unclaimed items at the end of the swap.
4-6pm. Feel free to drop things off at the Hive on Wednesday, April 23 from 3-6.
Friday, April 25: Foraging Workshop
Have you ever wondered what local wild plants you can harvest and use? This workshop will be an opportunity to learn safe and ethical practices for foraging. We’ll also learn about and practice identifying some of the things you can forage around Warren County.
4:30-6pm at the Hive.
Friday, April 25: Kids Night Out
Free to attend with supervision provided (parents don’t have to stay)! We’ll vote on a (PG) movie to watch while doing a craft!. Dress code is pajamas!
6-9pm at the Hive.
Please RSVP by 5 pm April 24 with how many children will attend: email Josephine (josephine@
Tuesday-Friday: E-Waste Collection
To help take care of our Earth (and each other) during Earth Week this year, we invite you to bring in any of the following items: desktop computers, tablets, laptops, cellphones, televisions, smart displays, gaming devices, and charging cords. These items release hazardous materials into landfills–but they’re also full of valuable materials that can be recycled! We’ll make sure to get all the items to a place that can refurbish or recycle your waste.
3-6pm each day at the Hive.
Saturday, April 26: Bluebird Festival and Food for Thought Symposium
Stop by our table at the Bluebird Festival from 10-4 to learn about or purchase our local produce boxes (more on this program below), make a seed bomb with native wildflower seeds, and pick up some of our brand new merch!
Meanwhile, we’ll be hosting a symposium for our after school program, Food for Thought, in the Hive from 11-2. Stop by to hear about our students’ service projects that focus on the past, present, and future of agriculture in Warren County.
ByWay Produce Boxes
Just in time for Earth Week and Warrenton’s Bluebird Festival, sign up now to enjoy a fresh Produce Box from ByWay Foods, featuring vegetables from local farms.
We’re taking online orders for a limited number of boxes through midnight on Sunday, April 20. All boxes sold as part of this soft launch will be available for pickup during the Bluebird Festival from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 26, inside The Hive, located at 108 S Main St.
April Climate Conversations: Flooding & Disaster Mitigation
Join us to learn about affordable, environmentally friendly ways to protect yourself and your property from the natural disasters expected to increase with climate change. The workshop will feature a presentation, time for discussion, and take-home resources on this topic. We’ll provide dinner, so please RSVP on Facebook if you plan to attend!
First Friday Poetry Night
Join the Warren Artist Market on First Fridays to hear local poets, storytellers, artists, and musicians! This event happens every first Friday of the month from 7-9:30p.m in the Hive, with the next event taking place April 4.
WNC Biochar Loan Program
The WNC Biochar Loan Program provides FREE kilns for farmers to borrow in the Asheville, Spruce Pine and Boone regions. With so much woody debris leftover from Helene and the need to rebuild soil, biochar offers a great opportunity for farmers and we are looking forward to being able to provide more kilns to more farmers. See the attached flyer for more information and feel free to reach out to Rachel@workinglandscapesnc.org with any questions!
Thanks for reading! We plan to send monthly newsletters on what’s happening at Working Landscapes. If you know anyone who might be interested in our work, please forward this newsletter and encourage them to subscribe. If you no longer wish to receive updates, use the unsubscribe link below.