Q&A Time with Pressly Blackley Williams of Renfrow Farm and Hardware
1. Tell us about your farm!
We are a subsidiary business of Renfrow Hardware in downtown Matthews, North Carolina. Our hardware store and farm are family owned and operated, the store was established in 1900 and the farm started in 2011 – 111 years and 5 generations later.
We provide our sustainably and naturally grown fruits, vegetables, nuts, flowers, and honey to folks through local restaurant sales, an on-farm market stand, and a week-by-week produce box subscription program. We sell four harvest seasons of honey from our 50 beehives year-round.
Renfrow Farms is the embodiment of Renfrow Hardware’s commitment to fostering community and growing relationships around food, farming, and sustainability in Matthews and the greater Charlotte region. We are educating the next generation of home gardeners through hosting on-farm gardening classes. We are committed to encouraging and empowering our community members to join the local foods movement in a most exciting and powerful way – by growing their own food.
1. Tell us about your farm!
We are a subsidiary business of Renfrow Hardware in downtown Matthews, North Carolina. Our hardware store and farm are family owned and operated, the store was established in 1900 and the farm started in 2011 – 111 years and 5 generations later.
We provide our sustainably and naturally grown fruits, vegetables, nuts, flowers, and honey to folks through local restaurant sales, an on-farm market stand, and a week-by-week produce box subscription program. We sell four harvest seasons of honey from our 50 beehives year-round.
Renfrow Farms is the embodiment of Renfrow Hardware’s commitment to fostering community and growing relationships around food, farming, and sustainability in Matthews and the greater Charlotte region. We are educating the next generation of home gardeners through hosting on-farm gardening classes. We are committed to encouraging and empowering our community members to join the local foods movement in a most exciting and powerful way – by growing their own food.
2. Why/how did you decide to go into farming?
Well it was pretty unexpected, actually. I studied mechanical engineering in college, and halfway through my degree my father started the farm in conjunction with the hardware store and I was presented with the opportunity to come home after graduation and manage it as my career – an offer I couldn’t resist! I graduated from NCSU in December 2013 and moved back to Matthews and started working full-time at the farm and the hardware store in January 2014.
As a child, I always loved growing and eating from my family’s garden. I worked at our hardware store before and after school from the age of 11 until I left for college and was always extremely interested in the seeds and plants. When I was around 10 years old my dad let me pick out several varieties of tomatoes (my favorite food) from a seed catalog to grow in our garden. Out of the forty or so I settled on, Cherokee Purple quickly became my favorite heirloom tomato variety. We started selling the plants at Renfrow’s and who didn’t want to try growing the 12-year-old little blonde girl in the greenhouse’s favorite tomato themselves? Now Cherokee Purples are in our top 5 most popular tomatoes! Gardening is in my blood, and now I am continuing to develop my skill set and knowledge base for the larger-scale business version of what was once just a childhood hobby of working in the garden with my father.
3. What has been the biggest challenge in your work?
Farming requires hard work and a lot of patience before seeing specific results – and thus has such a steep learning curve. I have spent my entire life in the gardening business and after only one year learned that gardening as a hobby and farming for a living are two totally different things. It takes much more work from the front end to be a profitable farmer – crop planning, selecting the most productive and tasty varieties of vegetables, always working to increase efficiency, and learning the specific needs and requirements of 100+ different fruit, vegetable, and cut flower crops!
Well it was pretty unexpected, actually. I studied mechanical engineering in college, and halfway through my degree my father started the farm in conjunction with the hardware store and I was presented with the opportunity to come home after graduation and manage it as my career – an offer I couldn’t resist! I graduated from NCSU in December 2013 and moved back to Matthews and started working full-time at the farm and the hardware store in January 2014.
As a child, I always loved growing and eating from my family’s garden. I worked at our hardware store before and after school from the age of 11 until I left for college and was always extremely interested in the seeds and plants. When I was around 10 years old my dad let me pick out several varieties of tomatoes (my favorite food) from a seed catalog to grow in our garden. Out of the forty or so I settled on, Cherokee Purple quickly became my favorite heirloom tomato variety. We started selling the plants at Renfrow’s and who didn’t want to try growing the 12-year-old little blonde girl in the greenhouse’s favorite tomato themselves? Now Cherokee Purples are in our top 5 most popular tomatoes! Gardening is in my blood, and now I am continuing to develop my skill set and knowledge base for the larger-scale business version of what was once just a childhood hobby of working in the garden with my father.
3. What has been the biggest challenge in your work?
Farming requires hard work and a lot of patience before seeing specific results – and thus has such a steep learning curve. I have spent my entire life in the gardening business and after only one year learned that gardening as a hobby and farming for a living are two totally different things. It takes much more work from the front end to be a profitable farmer – crop planning, selecting the most productive and tasty varieties of vegetables, always working to increase efficiency, and learning the specific needs and requirements of 100+ different fruit, vegetable, and cut flower crops!
4. What do you think the community could do to better support you?
Come out and visit the farm on one of our market days! Take a gardening class that we host on the farm, and learn how to grow some of your own food. Discover what is going on in our Charlotte local food scene-- there are so many people who are doing exciting things.
5. What is your favorite thing to grow and what do you like to cook with it?
I am pretty much a vegetable and flower fanatic. Right now I’m obsessed with any and all greens and early-blooming bulbs. In a few months it will be tomatoes, zucchini, okra, and zinnias. Whatever I can get from the garden shapes my menu for each week. Sungold tomatoes, a bright orange cherry variety, are better than candy to me and are planted strategically at the ends of rows that my coworkers and I walk past frequently so that we can snack on them all day long. But roasted broccoli and roasted Brussels sprouts were probably my most favorite things to cook this year. And they’re sooo easy!
Try Pressly's Favorite Veggies!
1. Preheat oven to 425 deg. 2. Cut broccoli into florets (or Brussels sprouts into halves or quarters). 3. Toss with a tiny bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. 4. Roast for around 15-20 minutes, tossing once or twice, until slightly brown and crisp. 5. Voila, enjoy!
Come out and visit the farm on one of our market days! Take a gardening class that we host on the farm, and learn how to grow some of your own food. Discover what is going on in our Charlotte local food scene-- there are so many people who are doing exciting things.
5. What is your favorite thing to grow and what do you like to cook with it?
I am pretty much a vegetable and flower fanatic. Right now I’m obsessed with any and all greens and early-blooming bulbs. In a few months it will be tomatoes, zucchini, okra, and zinnias. Whatever I can get from the garden shapes my menu for each week. Sungold tomatoes, a bright orange cherry variety, are better than candy to me and are planted strategically at the ends of rows that my coworkers and I walk past frequently so that we can snack on them all day long. But roasted broccoli and roasted Brussels sprouts were probably my most favorite things to cook this year. And they’re sooo easy!
Try Pressly's Favorite Veggies!
1. Preheat oven to 425 deg. 2. Cut broccoli into florets (or Brussels sprouts into halves or quarters). 3. Toss with a tiny bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. 4. Roast for around 15-20 minutes, tossing once or twice, until slightly brown and crisp. 5. Voila, enjoy!
Please take Pressly up on her offer and go check out Renfrow Farm and Hardware:
www.RenfrowFarms.com
www.RenfrowHardware.com
www.Facebook.com/RenfrowHardware
"Renfrow Farms Market” is open on Tuesdays from 10am-2pm when produce is available. Check the website first! They are hoping for a mid-April opening but you never know how the Spring will go. They will also be open on Thursdays from 10am-2pm during the peak of summer & early fall. http://www.renfrowfarms.com/renfrow-farms-market
409 W Charles Street, Matthews NC 28105 (behind the Matthews Help Center)
They also have a CSA-type program with a weekly produce box subscription that is ordered through the newsletter or website and picked up on Wednesdays or Saturdays at Renfrow Hardware.
Details here: http://www.renfrowfarms.com/produce-box-program
Sign up for the "Farm Happenings" Newsletter that includes weekly produce availability, market day information, general farm news, gardening class announcements, and occasional recipes. http://www.renfrowfarms.com/newsletter
www.RenfrowFarms.com
www.RenfrowHardware.com
www.Facebook.com/RenfrowHardware
"Renfrow Farms Market” is open on Tuesdays from 10am-2pm when produce is available. Check the website first! They are hoping for a mid-April opening but you never know how the Spring will go. They will also be open on Thursdays from 10am-2pm during the peak of summer & early fall. http://www.renfrowfarms.com/renfrow-farms-market
409 W Charles Street, Matthews NC 28105 (behind the Matthews Help Center)
They also have a CSA-type program with a weekly produce box subscription that is ordered through the newsletter or website and picked up on Wednesdays or Saturdays at Renfrow Hardware.
Details here: http://www.renfrowfarms.com/produce-box-program
Sign up for the "Farm Happenings" Newsletter that includes weekly produce availability, market day information, general farm news, gardening class announcements, and occasional recipes. http://www.renfrowfarms.com/newsletter
