Dave Walker, Daffodil Spring Farm

Scaling Up Vegetable Production
Grant Award: $3,000

With the main goal of achieving greater farm revenue through diversification and resiliency, Dave will create a wash and pack line to be housed under a covered shed. This project will springboard the farm’s production, allowing them to scale up profitable niche products, such as 14 varieties of potatoes, sugar snap peas, mache (winter greens), carrots and dry beans.

The grant will be used to purchase a multi-use trailer to carry products from plots to the packshed. Additionally, the grant will pay for washing equipment (stock tanks for washing and sanitizing), a salad spinner, vegetable spray/washing tables, totes for transporting potatoes, and gravel for the shed floor.

The new pack line will also provide a much needed place to package and label products. Over the past three years, Dave’s products have steadily increased in demand. He sells his produce and humanely-raised pork year round  through the High Country Food Hub’s online farmers market, the weekday King Street Farmers Market and Boone’s Winter Farmers Market.

Watauga County

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