When David Vernon’s Aunt Martha was a little kid in the 1930s, she once had some friends ask to come home with her after school to play. When the school bus dropped them off at her house, though, she quickly realized that they weren’t just interested in playing.
“She got frustrated because they didn’t actually want to play, they just wanted to climb into the apple trees and eat apples,” Vernon laughed as he recounted the story.
For Vernon, he’s worried about the societal disconnect many people today have from their food and the way it’s grown. With farmland shrinking rapidly across the country, many people will go their entire lives without ever stepping foot on a farm to see where their food comes from.
“It’s very important to preserve farms. Something as simple as growing your own food is now foreign to most people,” Vernon stated. His farm, Century Farm Orchards in Reidsville, makes preservation its primary mission by growing and selling over 400 varieties of old Southern apple trees.
Vernon believes that conserving farmland helps educate and preserve hard work. For many Americans, when they want groceries, they only have to drive to their nearest grocery store or farmer’s market to pick it up and know little about the effort that goes into producing those goods. He recounts long hours spent working while fighting off the many challenges that come with farms.
“You’re at the mercy of nature,” he said to describe the experience. “This sounds cliché-ish, but every year is different. There’s always going to be a new challenge every year, and you’re just going to have to face it.”
In agriculture there are many unpredictable and uncontrollable factors that come into play such as cold freezes during the winter, pests and animals. He’s learned over the years that there’s nothing to do when faced with these issues but to deal with them.
Century Farm Orchards wasn’t always an apple farm. The farm, which is located in Caswell County, was purchased in 1872 by William and Sarah Rice on his mother’s side. Like many of the other family farms in the region during that time, it started out as a tobacco farm. The family also had their own personal garden for food, as well as cows, horses and mules. In addition, they also had a small apple orchard which was also for family use. Apples are an incredibly versatile fruit which can be stored as well as made into several different products, so some of the trees were kept over the years.
When Vernon took over the farm in the mid-1990s there were only a few apple trees left. Determined to preserve the unique apple varieties, he focused on turning the farm into an apple orchard and started growing the nursery products. Today they sell thousands of apples and trees every year. This year the farm is hosting two open houses to pick up apple tree orders n Saturday Nov. 1 and Saturday, Nov. 8. Orders placed online can also be shipped to customers. Shipping season is generally mid-November through mid-April or until inventory is sold out.
Century Farm Orchards grafts all of the trees sold to its customers. Grafting refers to taking a small section of a desired variety and connecting it to a rootstock with known qualities. All trees are grafted using the hardy, disease and drought-resistant rootstock. Most trees should begin bearing fruit within five years and when mature should stand around fifteen feet tall.
The best thing about running the farm for Vernon has been the way that it brings together friends and family. He finds that the hard labor and long hours really helps him form good working relationships with those around him.
“I think it’s preserving a way of life. Even today, my parents are highly involved working here at the farm with me. I have family that helps, I have friends that help,” he said.
Vernon’s doesn’t know what the future holds for the farm. Due to the unpredictable nature of agriculture, he knows that there will undoubtedly be some new unavoidable challenge that he’ll have to face going forward, but he’s prepared to do that.
Although he’s not in control of the future of the farm, he hopes that “someone cares about this as much as I do and keeps things together.”
The NCDA&CS Century Farm Program celebrates families which have kept their farm in continuous family ownership for 100 years or more. Century Farm Orchards is among the approximately 2,000 families in the program. This program recognizes the contributions these families and farms have made to North Carolina’s agricultural legacy.