Recent Press Articles

From (or about) The Creekside Farm Education Center

Creekside Farm Video

Podcast from Asheville FM "Living Well" Broadcast 

Coming Publications from the Creekside Farm Education Center and Discovery Books

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Carrots Don’t Grow on Trees: Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities          Pub Date: February 1, 2019  

If you ask a group of elementary school kid’s the simple question, “Do carrots grow on trees?” you’ll likely get the answer ‘yes’.  And that’s just as true for kids living in rural farming communities as those living in inner cities.  We’re all a little disconnected from our food, but that’s all changing. 

Twelve years after Michael Pollan first opened our eyes to the modern problems of the industrial food complex, Robert Turner explores what has changed in our food culture and how the current grow local and farm to table movement is now determining where and how we live.  

Carrots Don’t Grow on Tress is the author’s story, as both a farmer and urban developer, of creating a new type of community where an organic farm takes center stage and residents gain a better understanding and closer connection to healthy food and the farmers who grow it.  Turner takes the reader on a three-year journey thru the process of building the agrihood and a more sustainable and resilient community of farmers and neighbors.

In many rapidly growing regions of the United States farm land is quickly disappearing or threatened by development.  Turner gives us the nuts and bolts of building an agrihood that will help city planners and developers fully consider the viability of such a project in other regions of the country.   The agricultural community is not some far off dream for the future; it’s happening right now with over 200 agrihoods sprouting up across the country.  It’s an attractive lifestyle choice that also helps to protect and preserve farm land and farming knowledge (the capacity) for future generations.  Turner wasn’t trying to build Utopia; the community he envisions is the next logical step and natural evolution of the grow local and farm to table movement.

Turner takes a no-nonsense business approach to saving small farms and protecting our local farming capacity while preserving the important knowledge of growing food for future generations.

Eat Your View!   Agrarian Values and Food Culture     Pub Date: 10/1/19

The “Eat Your View” movement has gone from niche to mainstream and has changed restaurant menus across the country and around the world.  In a follow-up book to Carrots Don’t Grow on Trees, author Robert Turner answers the next logical question; who’s growing all this local food and why are they doing it?  It’s hard work out there in the organic fields of the sustainable food web with only the simplest of hand tools. 

In Eat Your View! Robert Turner defines a values-based and principle-centered approach to food production that can restore our health and create a more sustainable and resilient system for future generations.  Turner eloquently describes the character traits and values that are at the root of positive human behavior and sustainable living, and the result is a guidebook to finding peace and happiness, building lasting relationships, and regaining trust in our political and agricultural institutions.  The author shows how our actions come from who we are and gives a step by step pathway to the important principles behind good land stewardship, healthy food, and ultimately the principles that support a good life, a life with meaning and fulfillment.

Founding Farmers-  Agrarian Values and Virtue in America   Pub Date: 7/1/20

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and many other founders and fighters in the American Revolution were farmers who were pulled away from their beloved homes and farms for a cause.  Robert Turner’s third book weaves stories of contrast between the founders farm and home life and the events that called them from it.  Even in the midst of war, we can see in their letters home that their hearts were never very far from the farm.  Turner shows us, in the words and actions of our founding fathers, how the land and agrarian values influenced our early democracy and the fight for independence.   Founding Farmers is a bold retelling of the founding of America that reveals the forgotten origins of our core democratic values.  Turner explains how these forgotten values can inspire success and happiness in government, in business, in agriculture, and in life.

Target Audience:

The target audience for all three books includes anyone who shops at Whole Foods, goes to the Farmers Market, or belongs to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.   They will appeal to anyone interested in the subjects of healthy food and healthy lifestyles.

With over 9000 active farmers markets now operating across the United States, up from just 1700 over the past two decades, and thousands more Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs sprouting up everywhere, the grow local movement is changing our food culture.