2023 Local Food Guide

A Farmer Personality
Malcolm grew up in South
Georgia, near the Florida border.
“We had to go work in the fields.
A lot of us used to pick pecans,
watermelons, peaches, and things
like that. That kind of motivated
me to be like, ‘Hey, one day I’m
actually going to get a farm and
operate it on my own.’”
Love for rural communities and
being outdoors reinforced that
goal. “Even when I was playing
sports and stuff like that, I wanted
to live in the middle of nowhere.
People looked at me crazy. So I
think it fit my personality to be
a farmer, because you’ve really
got to live where there’s not a lot
going on.”
Hannah is a fourth-generation
farmer. Her family has farmed
land in Cashiers, North Carolina,
since the late 1800s and now
grows Christmas trees. Being
able to tap into that background
helped Malcolm and Hannah
get Yellow Mountain Garden
started. “It made my life a little
easier because I was around
people who had their feet in the
industry,” Malcolm says. They
began farming in the Yellow
Mountain area around Cashiers,
but now own land in Franklin. In
addition to running the business
side of the farm and applying
her horticulture degree where
needed, Hannah works as a real
estate agent.
Food access was another driving
force for Malcolm to start farming.
“I was doing research about what
a food desert is. People have lack
of nutrients because they don’t
have access to fresh produce.”
He makes a point of selling his
produce as cheaply as possible
and gives a lot of it away to
neighbors or people who can’t
afford it. “My biggest role in the
community is to provide for the
people who don’t have enough,”
he says.
Yellow Mountain is also
connecting with schools and
youth programs to make seed
donations to start gardening
programs. “The state’s not going
to pay for it,” says Malcolm. “So
we’re trying to help some of these
schools and educators have extra
resources so that they can teach
children how to garden. Because
that’s our future. If these kids
don’t know how to grow their
own food, it may be a bad, bad
deal, especially with everything
going on.”
Beyond his own farm and
community, Malcolm has an
ambitious, far-reaching vision. He
wants to connect with networks
across the country—and the
world—to help people set up
community gardens and teach
people how to grow fresh food.
“I don’t care if you’re living in
an apartment. You can have
something in your window. I want
to motivate more people to start
a garden—and also get to know
their local growers.”
appalachiangrown.org Local Food Guide 53