The farm at JuneBug has been in operation for well over a hundred years. The earliest history we have describes tobacco as the main crop. About 45 year ago John Rowland and his crew began using organic methodology to grow vegetables for sale in local markets. Over the years the produce has been available at GreenLife, Mountain Food Products, Mother Earth, French Broad Co-op and served at various local restaurants. You may have seen veggies grown at JuneBug at local farmers markets as well. 

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Also as you may know, we have over 1,000 linear feet of innoculated trees that produce mushrooms. We call it "Shiitake Holler." We have learned how to "force friut" the logs to produce mushrooms when we need them (no mushrooms are harmed in the process despite the name).

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In 2023 we lost 70% of our tomatoes to a county wide tomato killing blight that left the field largely fallow. The local cooperative extension recommended not growing tomatoes in that soil for several years. Since we were mainly growing veggies for our pizza oven, this was a problem.

 

Then, in 2024 we had some other challenges with the farm field that left us feeling defeated. One afternoon while hanging around with some friends, I described the challenges we were going through. Our friend Kendra blurred out “Why don’t y’all get some alpaca?” That sealed the deal as they say. 

As it turned out, a few years back, Charlene and I spent a month traveling around New Zealand. One day, when we were bored, we decided to visit an alpaca farm. Needless to say we were taken with these strange otherworldly creatures. We bought a few alpaca sweaters, an alpaca blanket and then a few more alpaca sweaters. We discussed perhaps getting some alpaca sometime in the future.  Everything happens for a reason. 

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