Tokens are part of a new payment system Davidson Farmers Market. (David Boraks photo)

System allows the market to accept federal food aid and credit cards

By ALEX GREGOR
DavidsonNews.net

The Davidson Farmer’s Market is making it easier to pay for fresh food. A new electronic card reader allows patrons to pay with credit and debit cards. Customers can also redeem government benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) of the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service using electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards.

The market’s 2009 regular season is over. It will be back next Saturday, Nov. 21, for the next in a planned series of holiday markets. It will open slightly later than its regular season hours – 9  a.m. – and run through noon, in its location next to Town Hall. Read the full story

Davidson Farmers Market plans winter markets again this year. (David Boraks photo)

Davidson Farmers Market ends its weekly run for the season Oct. 31, but local food lovers fear not:  Again this year, local produce and meats will be available through the fall and winter months, at fall/holiday markets in November and December and biweekly “tailgate” markets this winter.

The winter markets are aimed at meeting demand, from both farmers and consumers, market manager Mary Jane Leach told DavidsonNews.net. Some farmers who traditionally have taken the winter off now see an opportunity in year-round farming. “Our farmers who are growing for the winter need to sell, and we need to eat,” Ms. Leach said. Read the full story

Will big turnout by farm supporters sway the DOT? Supporters say maybe

By ALEX GREGOR
DavidsonNews.net

The owners of Barbee Farms in Cabarrus County say they’re “cautiously optimistic” that a big turnout by supporters at a public hearing Thursday will convince the North Carolina Department of Transportation to reconsider plans for a road through the six-generation family farm. Read the full story

Owners Tommy (top) and Anna Barbee with farm manager Brent Barbee, whose home could be lost. (Barbee Farms photo)

Public hearing is
Thursday in Concord

By ALEX GREGOR
DavidsonNews.net

Just over two weeks ago, Cabarrus County farmers Tommy and Anna Barbee received a letter from the N.C. Department of Transportation announcing a public hearing on Thursday, Oct. 1. It mentioned a project to widen I-85 to an eight-lane highway, connecting I-485 in Charlotte with NC 73 near Poplar Tent in Cabarrus County.

Mr. Barbee had learned of the project more than a year ago when an earlier public hearing gave landowners the chance to speak with project engineers from NCDOT. But this letter was his first notice that the DOT plans are calling for Pitts School Road, which currently runs close to his farm, to be re-routed straight through his land. Read the full story

Tommy Barbee of Barbee Farms at Davidson Farmers Market.

As our region plans for more growth, a conflict is emerging between the need for infrastructure to support development and growing desires to preserve open space and protect family farms.

Battles are underway in at least two locations this fall – Barbee Farms in Cabarrus County, where a road project could split the farm in two, and the Alexander farm, off Presbyterian Road in Mount Mourne, where a Mooresville sewer project is planned across the property. Read the full story

Families wait for the hayride to start at China Grove's Wild Turkey Farms. See more photos in a slide show below; click photo. (Alex Gregor photo)

By ALEX GREGOR
DavidsonNews.net

About 500 people piled into cars, vans and even a few church buses Saturday afternoon to visit nine area farms on a tour organized by Know Your Farms LLC, a Davidson local-food buying club. The ticketed, self-guided tour included farms in Mecklenburg and six surrounding counties: Gaston, Lincoln, Catawba, Iredell, Rowan, and Cabarrus. Read the full story

Know Your Farms LLC, a Davidson start-up company that helps link consumers with local meat and produce, will host its first Farm Tour on Saturday, Sept. 19. Nine farms within 30 miles of Davidson have agreed to open their barn doors to the public from 2 to 7 p.m.

The self-directed tour is open to the public, and you’re free to choose which farms to visit and in what order. Organizers from Know Your Farms say it will be a day to “soak up the beautiful countryside, and take a hayride with the kids, get to know our local farmers.” Read the full story

To the editor:

The planning concept for the mixed-use parking deck as presented in Tuesday’s Town Board meeting looks at first glance to cover the town’s parking need for commuters and shoppers in a functional and attractive way. (July 15, “Parking deck/office building proposed downtown.”)  I am concerned, though, that the concept as presented does not seem to give adequate consideration to the character and future of the Davidson Farmers Market which the parking deck would displace. Read the full story