We are a small, un-certified organic farm in Pittsboro, NC. We began In Good Heart Farm in 2010 on rented land in Clayton, NC. We moved our operation here in June 2016. We are delighted to work the farm once worked by Bill Dow & all of his apprentices & students. We are grateful for the opportunity.
We grow over 100 different varieties in annuals on about two acres & we are learning to manage about three acres in apples, pears & blueberries. We’d like to incorporate more perennials, like black raspberries, elderberries, asparagus, rhubarb & various herbs & spices. We’d also like to incorporate lots of different animals on the farm.
We grow year round using various season extension tools, proper variety selection, & a few different marketing channels, namely CSA, markets & restaurants. We are passionate about growing healthy food for a healthy planet. We believe everyone has a right to chemical-free, GMO free food. This year, 10% of our membership were community members in need. We are able to provide partially and fully subsidized CSA shares to folks due to a variety of factors, but mostly, because our CSA members rock & they help pay it forward! In 2017 + 2018 we worked with Fresh Farm Foods for Healthy Kids to provide CSA shares to low-income families with young children. We also participate in cooking & nutrition programs to folks who can really use these programs paired with CSA shares from us. We helped found such a program, Farm it Forward, with partners such as The Interfaith Food Shuttle, Wake County Cooperative Extension, Advocates for Health into Action, & Wake Med’s Energize program. We do not currently accept EBT payments, though we are interested in doing that again. If you would like to partner with us in any capacity to feed people, please contact us with more information! Patricia has served as the Pittsboro Farmers Market manager and on the board of directors at CORA Food Pantry + Ben is currently the president of the Pittsboro Farmers Market and was on the Agricultural Advisory Board for Chatham County. We are thankful to be a part of such a vibrant community. Beginning last year, we have made a decision to focus on our farm and family in an effort to take care of ourselves so we can better take care of others. We stepped down from many of our formal and informal volunteer roles, though we plan on returning to that realm again in the next few years.
Our mission is to strive for healthier people, community, agriculture & planet by growing & sharing the best tasting food we can. In Good Heart has a lot of meanings, but we decided on the name based on the Old English use of the phrase. To say that the soil is in good heart is to say that it is healthy, in good cultivation, & in good spirit. To say that a person is in good heart is to say they are cultivating wisdom, courage & spirit. We feel that our farm name should represent our vision & we couldn’t think of a better representation of what we want to do & be in the world than in good heart.
In Good Heart Farm 