Things are just buzzing at the farm. Our bees have come out of their winter slumber. Norman, our resident rooster, is busy guarding his hens who are laying fresh eggs daily. Our dog, Peanut, is on the lookout for hungry skunks who recently ate one of our hives of bees; yes skunks eat bees. We are busily working in the greenhouse planting heirloom tomatoes to take to market.

Bee Log Farm is a small, 2-acre farm run by the Smith family – Robin, Wayne, Betty and Jim.

We named our farm after the small community we live in located in northern Yancey County, North Carolina. Our farm is nestled in the mountains and surrounded by wonderful neighbors whom we cherish. Wayne and I started the farm 5 years ago and have learned a lot over that time period.                 

We farm using organic methods and are Certified Naturally Grown. All of our produce is sold locally; we have many loyal farm customers at  the Yancey County Farmer’s Market who we appreciate dearly. Our customers very quickly become our friends (farm friends) and we love to hear their stories  about growing their own favorite vegetables.   We’ve even had some of our friends over to the farm to help us extract  honey – a particularly laborious and sticky process.

We believe in stewardship of the earth and preserving genetic diversity in the foods we eat. We do this by saving and growing heritage/heirloom seeds. Heirloom plants are a cultivars that were commonly grown during earlier periods in human history, but are not used in modern large-scale  agriculture. Many heirloom vegetables have kept their traits through open  pollination, provided by honey bees and other insect pollinators. On our farm, we define heirloom plants by their taste! We believe it is important to preserve these genetically diverse seeds so future generations will have access to good non-genetically modified food.