Meet the Vendors
Find out about the folks under the tents, and what makes them gather each Saturday morning, rain or shine.
Angel Ridge Farm • Bee Tree Farm • Celia Biers • Corners Knob Farm • Doubletree Farm • Fork Mountain Farm • Good Measure Bakery / Appalachian Shadow Farm • Highgate Farm • Appleberry Cove Farm • Rogue Harbor Farm • Leaning Willow Farm • LoafChild Bakery • LoafChild Garden Center • Long Valley Farm • Mackey Farms • New Direction Farm • Natural Handcrafted Soaps • Sunset Valley Farm • Swann’s Woodworking • Sweet Betty Bee’s Honey & Hive • Three Graces Dairy •
Angel Ridge Farm
In operation since 1997, Angel Ridge Farm is located in the Beech Glen area of Mars Hill, NC. We offer a rainbow of vegetables, including beans, winter and summer squash, eggplant, and more varieties of tomatoes than you knew existed. All produce is grown without use of petrochemical-derived fertilizers or pesticides. On the furry side, Angel Ridge raises pygmy and pygora goats, and offers handspun yarns and other fiber products throughout the year. Spinning and knitting lessons are also available.
Bee Tree Farm – Ron Gagliano, Managing DirectorBee Tree Farm and Vineyard is located in Madison County, NC. We specialize in a variety of pestos, ranging from traditional Italian pine-nut/basil pesto to specialty pestos made from our own spring greens. We also offer Italian tomato sauces, preserves, cobblers and dessert breads. Our herbs, vegetables and fruits have been grown without use of petrochemical derivatives for over 15 years. You can visit Bee Tree Farm during ASAP’s annual farm tour.
Celia Biers
Celia Biers offers necklaces, bracelets and earrings made from her own handcrafted glass beads. Due to the nature of glass bead making, each piece is unique. Celia designs her pieces with heart and soul, resulting in jewelry that is both beautiful and inspiring to wear.
Corners Knob Farm — James and Jamie Lounsbury
Corners Knob Farm has been in commercial operation since 1975. We raise more than twenty varieties of fruits and vegetables, with twelve acres currently under cultivation using low-spray farming practices. All produce sold is harvested within 24 hours of sale. This season we will have sweet corn, shiitake mushrooms, strawberries, to name a few. Corners Knob also offers Fraser fir Christmas trees during the holiday season.
Doubletree Farm
Doubletree Farm is a draft horse powered family farm. We grow a variety of vegetables for spring and summer, including carrots, beets and garlic. We also grow sweet sorghum cane for production of sorghum molasses in the fall. Check with us during the fall months to come visit our “sugar shack” and watch the process of sorghum syrup making. Our farm also offers sustainably harvested forest products (logs, milled lumber, and firewood).
Fork Mountain Farm
A Certified Naturally Grown farm located in the Big Pine Valley community of Madison County, Fork Mountain Farm has been growing for markets since 2006. We enjoy growing Italian and French heirloom varieties of many market favorites, like beans, tomatoes, squash, and peppers. We also offer less-common veggies, such as bulb fennel, Brussel sprouts, and Japanese turnips. The early season brings assorted salad and culinary greens, and melons and assorted berries brighten the summer months.
Good Measure Bakery / Appalachian Shadow Farm
J.B. Wallin and Randy Bailey have been coming to the Mars Hill market since it began in 1999. J.B. brings a variety of baked goods, including cookies, cakes and sweet breads, as well as homemade jams and jellies. Baking has been a lifelong hobby for J.B. and she enjoys sharing the fruits of her labors with friends and neighbors. Randy Bailey has been raising chickens for 25 years, and brings to the market free-range eggs from his carefully tended flock. Both J.B. and Randy love being part of the market community, and visiting with new friends and old alike.
Highgate Farm
Highgate Farm is a small farm located in the Walnut Mountains of Madison County, operating since 2008. We are Certified Naturally Grown, following the principles of natural and organic production to improve our soil and raise our crops and livestock. We focus our efforts on extended-season mixed produce, including a large selection of greens, root crops, onions, garlic and fresh culinary herbs. We also raise specialty products: gourmet dried tomatoes, berries, eggs, and mushrooms.
Appleberry Cove Farm
Appleberry Cove Farm is owned and operated by the Mickey Family. We are located at the northern end of Madison County (approx. 4100 ft. elevation) near Big Bald Mountain and the Wolf Laurel/Wolf Ridge Resort areas. We harvest most of our fruits, berries, wild edibles, herbs, and flowers from the woods, hills, and vales that make up our 18 acre farm. The fresh colorful eggs are produced by a wide variety of heavy breed chickens that roam around the farm and pastures with our small milking herd of La Mancha and Nubian dairy goats. We are a NCDA registered pet food distributor of 100% pure goat milk which is available in one quart and one gallon containers. In addition, we offer an assortment of handmade “Sweet Tooth Confections” including lollipops, brittles, assorted hard crunchy candies, and up to 15 flavors of dark chocolate fudges and truffles made with local and natural ingredients such as goat milk and goat cheeses.
Rogue Harbor Farm
Established in 1977, we’re a USDA certified organic family farm growing 5 acres of mixed seasonal vegetables and 2 acres of Fraser Fir Christmas trees. We begin our harvest season in March, with one of our specialty crops, watercress, and end our season with fresh Fraser Fir trees and greenery items. We also are proud to market cooperatively through Madison Family Farms and Carolina Organic Growers, providing our vegetable products to Madison County Schools, Mars Hill College, restaurants, groceries and hospitals in the greater Madison County and Asheville areas. Our farm is open to visitors during the Christmas season, mid-November to mid-December for wreath-making. Please call to schedule a time to come out. And we look forward to seeing you at the market this season!
Leaning Willow Farm
Leaning Willow Farm is located in the Walnut Creek Community of Madison County NC. We raise a diversity of produce, free range eggs, and offer a variety of plant starts in the spring; we also work with local chefs to provide produce according to their menu needs. All of our vegetables are grown free of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. We raise Olde English Babydoll Sheep, a heritage breed, with lambs available for purchase in late spring. We tend our farm with pride and are committed to providing our community with fresh, wholesome food.
LoafChild Bakery
LoafChild is a family owned and operated microbakery in Madison County, NC. We bake our breads and other treats fresh daily using 100% organic flour milled in NC, and use other local ingredients when possible. As of February 2011, we now are powered by solar electricity; our system generates approximately 150% of our electrical needs for both home and business. Our water is heated by the sun, our bakery is not air-conditioned, we use minimal packaging (including recycled labels), and deliver only locally; this reflects our commitment to providing artisanal baked goods in a manner mindful of the environment. This year we’ll be offering breakfast cereals and granola bars, as well as spreads and dips to accompany our breads.
LoafChild Garden Center
A family nursery committed to low-impact gardening. Our 2000 sq. feet of greenhouse space is 100% solar (both passive and active), with no supplemental heat or electricity, and we collect rainwater for irrigation. All of our pots and trays have been previously used, and we use only organic fertilizers and pest-control products. Our goal is to provide healthy plants in an earth-friendly manner. Please bring any old garden pots you may have collected over the years: we’ll clean them, reuse them, and keep them out of the landfill for as long as we can!
Mackey Farms
A family farm in Madison County, proudly producing several varieties of hydroponic lettuce, available year-round. We also grow cabbages and other greens, sweet corn, sorghum cane, and mushrooms. Farm-fresh eggs and free range poultry and pork are also available. New this year, we will have rabbits by mid-summer. Stop by and see us at the market and try our home-cooked pork barbecue, you’ll be glad you did!
New Direction Farm
New Direction Farm in Madison County is a Christian residential school for boys and a farming community. We maintain generous vegetable and flower gardens, in addition to raising cattle, horses, hogs, and chickens. We also offer a unique line of woodcrafts. New Direction welcomes visitors to our farm, where you can enjoy a hayride, have a picnic in the shade, and browse the products available in the farm store.
Natural Handcrafted Soaps
Natural Handcrafted Soaps is a family owned and operated business. Our goal is to provide to the local community with soaps made with natural ingredients that are safe to use on our bodies. Our rich veggie soaps (animal cruelty-free) are made from scratch and individually crafted with care. We use only on-toxic, non-synthetic fragrances, and all-natural ingredients such as essential oils and natural moisturizing oils. Combined with herbs and natural colorants from different parts of plants, our soaps are the best alternative to those who appreciate and enjoy the freshness of nature. We regularly update our formulas to improve our soap quality.
Sunset Valley Farm
Photo credit: ASAP
We are a small five generation farm specializing in gourmet canned goods made with local organic fruits and vegetables from old family recipes and a few new twists of our own. We produce over thirty kinds of jams, marmalades and butters including a line of “Jams with a Kick” featuring a variety of hot jams sure to tickle your taste buds. Our line of herb blends, rubs and vinegars will spice up any dish and our variety of salsas are a treat for the tongue. We welcome farm visits but by appointment only please.
Swann’s Woodworking — Robert & Nina Swann
A founding member of the Madison County market, Robert Swann has enjoyed working with wood for over 30 years. His shop is located on his old family farm, purchased in 1912, in what used to be his grandmother’s chicken coop. The original floor still holds. The Swanns offer quality handmade products for indoor and outdoor use. Their porch swings and Adirondack chairs are made from arsenic-free pressure-treated lumber to ensure durability. All children’s toys are made from non-toxic, untreated pine. The Swanns enjoy meeting people at market and value the friendships they have made over the years in Mars Hill.
Sweet Betty Bee’s Honey & Hive
Lyne and Ed Vendely operate Sweet Betty Bee’s, a Certified Naturally Grown farm in the Big Pine area of Madison County, producing honey, honey soaps, and beeswax products. Our honey is unheated and unfiltered, leaving intact its amazing nutritional composition. Minimal straining removes larger particles while allowing pollens to remain, though we also offer a limited quantity of really raw honey in the natural comb. We practice organic principles to the greatest extent possible by finding alternatives to pesticides and antibiotics when caring for our hives. Additionally, we do not feed corn syrup or sugar to our bees. We see our apiaries as a partnership with the bees and with the whole of Mother Nature. Healthier, happier bees make better honey!
Three Graces Dairy
In antiquity the Three Graces brought beauty, mirth and hospitality to the Gods…Our Three Graces – the goat, the sheep and the cow give us the exquisite milks that are the source and inspiration for our French-style cheeses. Ferguson Farm is an historic farm located in the Shelton Laurel area of Western North Carolina. We offer “farmstead” cheeses, meaning all our products are made with milk from our own animals, on the farm where the animals are raised. All of our “farm pets” are generously provided a diet of healthful grain, supplements and free-range pastures managed without the use of herbicides or pesticides. Our farm is a small scale multi-tasking environment employing local people who share with us their knowledge of the community and their wisdom in all things land and animal.