WNC Farmers: You might not want to start growing for Amy's Kitchen just yet

I cannot explain why we just learned about this today, but I thank the farmer who sent an email to my employee Emily today who passed the information on to me.  That is that the organic food processor, Amy's Kitchen, has indefinitely delayed the opening of their Greenville, SC plant.  I know there was great deal of excitement about this, so this news is a disappointment to some in our farming community.  But the buyer is still interested in talking to growers; maybe even doing so test growing.  I'll let you know when I know more.

Here is a link to an article about it.  The same information is in the news section on the company's website.
delay in opening new plant

Sierra Nevada Brewing Coming to western NC!

It looks like Gov. Perdue will make the official announcement today that Sierra Nevada has chosen Mills River, NC as the location for their East Coast brewery.  If the announcement happens (it is still all unofficial, although the media is full of news about it), we will be honored to have them join our community.  They would be next-door-neighbors to the research station where I am located and where we have the NC State University western NC research hop yard.  If they are indeed moving here, I hope that they will be interested in working with us on growing high quality hops in North Carolina and purchasing fresh hops from the dozens of growers already established in the state.

Emily and Kelly harvesting first year hops from the research hop yard in Mills River