Forgive us for our long absence....we tried to plant too many new ideas and our blog fell to the weeds...so time to sharpen our garden tools and cultivate the blog!

So to start off, we are doing a throwback Thursday for September and revisit how the Sustainable Mountain Ag Center came to be:
Over 50 years ago, Bill and his wife, Irmgard and their three children moved to a farm outside of Berea, where Bill quickly began to cultivate the land and start crops whose bounty could be sold at the Farmers' Markets (Berea and Lexington--both of which he was a founding member). As you'll read in the article mentioned below, it didn't take too long for him to realize that the beans and tomatoes he was growing did not taste like the ones he had grown with his mother, Margaret. But every fall, when he would be visiting his family, his mother would give him seed beans which she had saved from that summer and remind Bill that he ought to be growing them. She didn't say why, but simply said that he ought to keep growing them. Gradually he started growing her beans again(because you should always listen to your mother's advice!), and to this day grows nothing but the heirlooms.
People at the market took notice of the tasty difference and it soon became a subject of great interest. As a result, Bill invited customers and vendors alike to bring in seeds from their own families and a spark was lit!
Soon others became aware of the deliciousness that is heirloom fruits and vegetables and before long Kentucky Living Magazine (formerly Rural Kentuckian) did an article on the Best Family and Farm and the people read it.........and then......the letters came. Along with the letters were stories of the seeds and their importance to their families......and the seeds came with it. Following the publication of the article, over the next six months Bill and Irmgard received 86 letters from 6 states--all with seeds and stories. As Bill says, " we went from knee deep to neck deep and it still keeps growing!" (and that was in 1998).
Next week we will tell you how the Best Family made the jump from growing beans and other vegetables to sell at the markets to providing the seeds for many others to grown their own heirloom vegetables!
In the meantime--
Here is a great article from Bill Best, written in 1998 and still very relative to today's world! https://www.heirlooms.org/heirloom-beans.html
and here is the article that started their journey to saving yesterday's seeds for today and tomorrow.
https://www.kentuckyliving.com/.../july-1988-growing...

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 As you can tell from the growth in the  pics below, it's been a busy summer since June, when we announced our new addition to the website! Those bean plants are well on their way towards a wonderful harvest this year.  In the meantime, we've been setting goals for our social media and blog. Our goal for the blog will be two posts a month. Do you follow us on social media yet? If not, check us out and give us a follow--we'll be sharing some beansTALKS and some stories from the "field". To get our blog off and more than "half"-running, what better topic than to answer than that of  the ten questions most asked since our move to North Carolina!

 
10. I've got this bean I've had in my family for years, would you like a sample of it?
Yes, we would!  Send your sample and the history of it to 
Sustainable Mountain Ag Center
131 Main Street
Gatesville, NC 27938

9.  How will I know when you have seeds available?
You can keep checking our website for updates, but you can also join our mailing list (fill out the popup on the website). We will send out short updates when seeds are back in stock and available for ordering!

8. Are you all still doing the seed swap?
Yes! We are very excited to announce that it is officially back in Berea and has found a new home at Churchill's, a local Berea landmark.  We are happy to say it will always be the first weekend in November and will be at Churchill's (100 Churchill Dr, Berea, KY 40403) each year.

7.  What is your favorite bean to grow?
Shew! (or should we say, shucks?)...that's a hard question to answer!  We enjoy all of our varieties and our customers....so our favorite bean is the bean that makes you happy!   Our favorite beans are actually the ones we help our customers find...so many of  you are looking for a bean that is a family bean and you've lost track of it or want something similar to what you grew up with.  We love it when we can connect the dots and the stories for you!

6. How long does it take to get the seeds shipped?
As soon as possible!  Typically, we are able to ship them within in 1-2 days of ordering.  During the busy spring season though, we ship as soon as we can turn the orders around...sometimes the turnaround can be up to 7-10 days.  So order early!

5. How far apart do you plant your seeds?
 Our bean seeds are typically directly planted into the ground 12"-18" apart. We plant two seeds to a hole. This helps with the success rate of the growth of the bean.

4. How deep do you plant your seeds?
We plant them less than 1/2" deep.

3. Where are you all located?
At the end of June 2022, we moved our fulfillment center (which houses our inventory) to Gatesville, NC (a small town in Northeast North Carolina). We are in an old mercantile store (circa 1890) on Main Street. We are primarily an online business, but we love to meet our customers in person at seed swaps!

2. Who grows the tomatoes and beans and where are they grown?
Our beans and tomatoes are grown in Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina under close supervision of the Best Family. Michael is often on the road between farms. Stay tuned for another blog post to meet all the others who are working behind the scenes at the farms and the center!

1. And the number one question asked this year!  Are you all still affiliated with Bill Best? I met him (insert years)_______and I would love to talk with him again!
Yes! Bill Best (our dad) is still going strong with the Sustainable Mountain Ag Center! He is continuing to grow beans and tomatoes,  still loves discussing heirloom seed saving and of course, he enjoys going to the markets. He is our resident expert on all things seed saving and seed growing! We are glad he can answer all of our questions! He's seen pictured below with the next generation of bean growers!

Welcome to our blog! We will be featuring writings from the Best family members, photos, stories and helpful hints for growing and saving heirloom seeds. It's only fitting that we share these pictures of planting time at the Best Family Farm for our first post on our blog, Time to Plant--Sowing Seeds of Wisdom and Seeds of Knowledge. These photos were taken Sunday June 11, 2023.