DOCUMENTING THE CULTURE OF THE HIGH COUNTRY: The Remarkable Avery County Cooperative Extension Office

When Ken Walters suggested Jason and I document the duties of Jerry Moody and his staff at the Avery County Cooperative Extension Office, it quickly brought back memories of my failed tomato crops — that is, if two tomato plants a year can be called a crop. “Ken,” I said sarcastically, “all the green bled out of my thumb many years ago. I don't think Jerry can help me.” That said, as we interviewed Jerry, we learned he is a man with many irons in the fire. In fact, he may be the busiest person in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

For more than a century, Avery County was known for apples, cabbages, potatoes, and ornamental shrubs. But during the 1960s, the county's agricultural economy began shifting, and Fraser Fir trees led the way. Today, North Carolina produces about 25 percent of the nation's annual Christmas trees, and Avery County farmers produce close to a million of those trees. But don't let the Christmas tree statistics fool you — the county still grows those other crops, and Jerry has a whole team of agents and technicians helping him coordinate the different programs they administer.

His staff operates a germplasm collection of heirloom apples so that a few years from now, if a person wants to grow a Red Sheep Nose or a Summer Banana apple, they can take a graft off one of the county's trees and grow their own. For Avery County children who do not have a safe environment for learning and playing in the summer, the extension office coordinates nine weeks of a 4-H Day Camp called WOW.

Have you ever heard the term agritourism? Well, it is a real thing here in Avery County. It lets a tourist experience some of the county's most spectacular high-elevation scenery during a hayride on a private farm. Whether it is a choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm or a U-pick apple orchard, it will be an experience you will not soon forget. You will probably be offered a glass of fresh apple cider — but if not, swing by the extension office's annual Apple Cider Pressing event and they will help you press your own. And if pressing apples is too sloppy for you, head over to Apple Hill Farm in Banner Elk and watch them shear an alpaca.

Are you old enough to remember when people touched produce before they purchased it? News flash, you still can. If you go to one of our tailgate markets you can squeeze produce to your hearts content. They start in early summer and rotate through every major Avery County once a week. But the biggest agritourism event of the year is the Avery County Fair, held every September at the fairgrounds in the Heritage Park Complex, adjacent to the Extension Office.