David Messer, resting from tilling field in Indian Grave Gap in Madison County, N.C.
As Commissioner Troxler will be quick to remind you, North Carolina lost more than 1,000 farms and 600,000 acres of farmland between 2002 and 2007.
We’re working hard to reverse those numbers, and the N.C. Museum of History and Asheville photographer Tim Barnwell are helping to put faces and families to these statistics with their new exhibit, On Earth’s Furrowed Brow.
The black-and-white photographs will feature farmers such as David Messer, left, tilling the ground on his Indian Grave Gap farm in Madison County, as well as apple orchards in Buncombe County, gardens in Henderson County, a molasses mill in Madison County, and more.
To help visitors better understand farm life, the exhibit will also have farm equipment, family quilts and even Christmas trees, cured tobacco, ripe apples and sorghum molasses.
The exhibit opens Friday, April 3, with a mountain-themed party from 7 to 9 p.m. that will be part of Raleigh’s First Friday event.
There will also be a special curator’s tour the next day from 1 to 2 p.m., with stories of mountain farm family traditions and a personal tour led by museum curator RoAnn Bishop.
We hope to catch Barnwell and Bishop at the opening exhibit and talk with them about N.C. agriculture and its place in North Carolina’s past and present, so check back Monday for video interviews with them.