Our afternoon tea consists of muffins, tea, fig jam made from figs from her yard, candied ginger, and those fresh, just picked strawberries. “And this…is eating your yard,” Glenda says. As we take tea, Glenda expounds on her business. Her background is in education and Paul’s is in agriculture. “I always had this idea of the edible yard in the back of my mind,” she says. At Greenbriar they sell edible plants such as blueberry, blackberry, bush cherry, currant, elderberry, fig, grape, gooseberry, kiwi, mulberry, muscadine, papaw, persimmon, and raspberry. They don’t do installation, but they offer something even better – workshops so you can learn to do it yourself.
“Your yard can be a major food source.” --Glenda Ross
An affordable way to have an edible yard would be to do it incrementally, Glenda tells me. “Add new beds, edible flowers, vines, shrubs, hedges, and trees as you are able.” She adds that your yard can be a major food source. If you live in a small place or apartment, you could plant in pots on balconies. “We usually get one or two things out of the yard to eat every day. We freeze things like berries and peppers and give away extras,” she says. Greenbriar Farm has set up at farmers’ markets for six or seven years now. “There is a lot more interest now, more vendors, more customers,” says Glenda, noting that there is a complexity of personalities of people interested in local food that covers all education levels, ethnic groups, and segments of the population. “When you buy local, you know that farmer. There is a nationwide change in eating,” Glenda adds. “People are realizing how important it is to have fresh and local food.” A fun day out would be to Glenda and Paul’s Blueberry Hill U-Pick blueberry farm in Norris. The blueberry farm has been in business for over 30 years now and has six mini seasons so that blueberries are available to be picked from Memorial Day in late May to Labor Day in early September. Visit them at 101 Reservoir Road in Norris or search for them on Facebook by typing in “Blueberry Hill Farm” in the search bar. Glenda tells me that she and Paul will soon be retiring from their farm work, but never fear, the business will be continued by their family – Holly Jones, a horticulturalist and organic specialist who already works with them, her husband Michael Smith, Mindy and Jason Wells, Kristen and Tyler Cunningham, and B.J. and Brian Baxter are some of the four generations who will continue the work of Greenbriar Edibles and Blueberry Hill.
June 2014
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