HOME & FARM
April 17-18, 2019
Mountain Times Publications -
5
Full Moon Farm:
PHOTO BY KAYLA LASURE Jacob Crigler and Kara Dodson own and operate Full Moon Farm in Watauga County.
Entrepreneurial couple establish local produce farm BY KAYLA LASURE
After meeting in Boone, two Virginia natives put their sweat equity together to start a local produce farm that supplies items to area consumers. Kara Dodson and Jacob Crigler are a farming couple on 30 acres known as Full Moon Farm — a smaller produce farm in Watauga County. Dodson and Crigler got a taste for farming during a yearlong apprenticeship in Creston in 2015. “I thought it was a great way for me to step out the regular job scene and just reconnect with myself and learn new skills,” Dodson said. During the apprenticeship, Dodson said the two were staying in a barn without windows, doors, running water or electricity. With little to no distractions, the couple would watch the moon. “It became a love affair with the moon,” Dodson said. In what Dodson called a natural decision, she and Crigler bought land in the Triplett/Deep Gap area the following year
FULL MOON FARM Location: 141 Rhymer Branch Road, Deep Gap Email: fullmoonfarmer@gmail.com Website: www.fullmoonfarmnc.com to start their own produce business. The fascination the two had with the moon played a large part in the naming of the farm — Full Moon Farm. The moon also plays a role in the way the two plant crops. “Different combinations of zodiac alignments with the moon and the phase that the moon is in may determine better planting scenarios,” Crigler said. He explained that some moon phases are better for playing root crops or leafy green, and can determine barren periods where it may not be best to plant something. While Dodson said they will plant regardless of the moon if the weather and calendar are right, they have noticed differences with PHOTO BY KAYLA LASURE SEE MOON ON PAGE 6
Jacob Crigler and Kara Dodson grow produce at Full Moon Farm.