The Roanoker - November/December 2018 - 68

sell the vegetables he raised at market.
He'd be using land in a more productive
way, spending his days doing something he
loved, increasing the supply of local food,
educating people along the way and not
going into debt in the process.
His girlfriend's parents offered their
yard as a starting point, so Terry got busy
prepping beds there.
The pieces really began to fall in place
when Terry connected with Roanoke
Community Garden Association and they
told him about a partnership with Carilion
Clinic in Southeast Roanoke's Morningside
neighbor hood. RCGA would have
community gardening plots for rent and
Carilion would fund an urban farm to be
used as teaching tool and way to raise food
to be donated to the community. Carilion
was looking for someone to plan, plant and
harvest that space.
"I felt very fast that I was in the right
place trying to do the right thing at the
right time," Terry says.
As the growing season wound to a close,
Terry's business, Garden Variety Harvests,
had secured five yards and plots across the
city.
"It's all gone better than I expected,
truthfully," he says. "I had skepticism that
the farming community would embrace my
idea."
68

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

Garden Variety Harvests

"Small farming is the
way of the past and the
way of the future."

CAMERON TERRY

But, Terry says his produce has sold
well at the Grandin market. As he expands
production, he plans to sell more to area
restaurants, who he says are hungry for fresh,
local vegetables and herbs.
"I know I'm not going to get rich," says
Terry, who graduated from film school in
2009, intending to create documentaries. But
he thinks Roanoke is the right place to allow
him to build a good, growing life.
"Small farming is the way of the past and
the way of the future," he says.

CHOOSING FARMS
DESPITE CHALLENGES

The hurdles that stand in the way of
success for all farmers - young and old, new
and experienced - are high.

USDA statistics show that 12,000 farms
closed nationwide from 2016 to 2017. One
million acres of farmland were lost in that
same year. Fifty percent of farms across the
country documented less than $10,000 in
sales that year.
Land is expensive to acquire; the need
to buy seed, equipment and other supplies
upfront drags growers into debt; small
farmers struggle to gain access to customers
when shoppers can buy food more cheaply
and conveniently at supermarkets.
All of which makes it remarkable that
anyone, at any age, chooses farming.
But that's exactly what Daniel and Kelly
Key did.
The couple bought six and a half acres and
a 1920s house at the Southeastern edge of
Roanoke City two years ago. Their land is
steep, rocky and shaded - which has forced
them to be innovative with what they grow
and how they grow it.
In addition to working full-time jobs,
Daniel and Kelly raise rabbits, chickens,
ducks, hogs, vegetables, mushrooms and
bees. They bring a range of products to the
Grandin market every other week: eggs and
produce, as well as Kelly's baked goods and
cocktail bitters.
Their to-do list is never ending - weed,
build, research, plant, harvest, can, deliver.
"We have a lot of hopes and dreams right
TheRoanoker.com

LEFT: COURTESY OF CAMERON TERRY / RIGHT: CHRISTINA NIFONG

Cameron Terry
http://www.TheRoanoker.com
The Roanoker - November/December 2018

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