New book highlights eight Polk businesses
Diane Daniel had never visited Polk County prior to scouring the state for the best farms, markets, vineyards and restaurants to incorporate in her recently released book, “Farm Fresh.”
The go-to guide features eight area businesses, including Green River Vineyard/Bed and Breakfast, Apple Mill, Beneficial Foods Natural Market, Giardini Trattoria and Giardini Pasta and Catering Company, Green Creek Winery, Manna Cabanna, The Purple Onion Caf’e and Coffeehouse and Rockhouse Vineyards.

“There’s just so many cool places in the state,” Daniel said. “In your county alone, there are so many there. I have to say Polk County was not a region I had explored so that brought me an extra excitement to discover these places.”
A travel writer by trade, Daniel said the Piedmont Farm Tour in eastern North Carolina, which includes 40 farm tours in a given weekend, always excited her.
“I used to love reading the brochure for the farms you could visit – I just loved reading about what all the farmers did and what they grew. So, I thought it would be great to provide a farm guide book for the entire state.”
And she set out to do just that.
Traveling 23,000 miles over the course of two to three years, Daniel finally whittled down the possibilities to 430 listings.
“I got really obsessed with seeing everything I could,” she said.
Daniel said she did “beaucoups of research” by studying reference guides such as the local food guide put out by the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, talking to county extension agents, touring the state and making numerous phone calls and emails.
Not just any farm or agriculture business could make the cut, Daniel said. She was looking for something special.
“I’m very interested in travel that connects people with authentic experiences – not manufactured places to go and have fun; it’s the real thing,” Daniel said. “It supports local people, it supports the community, it’s healthy and it’s wholesome.”
One experience that stands out boldly in her mind involves her visit to Green River Vineyard Bed and Breakfast.
“That was a standout,” Daniel said.
Daniel said she was awe-struck by the view of the sweeping mountains as a backdrop to the vineyards. Daniel also loved how immersed she felt in the life of owners Peggy and Claude Turner during her visit.
“She has a pretty impressive garden and she uses a lot of the products from her garden in the breakfasts she makes,” Daniel said. “And Claude is very well-known in the viticulture world. I thought that would be very interesting for a traveler to be able to talk first-hand with a grape grower.”
The Turners opened their B&B in 2005 after moving to the area from Charlotte.
The Turners said they wanted to create a vineyard because Claude’s grandfather had such a love for making homemade wine. Peggy said they also love educating guests about the vineyards, how to produce their own fruits and vegetables and how to use sustainable farming methods.
“Most of our breakfast meals are served from our garden…  and we serve grape juice from the muscadines in our vineyard,” Peggy said. “It’s a great big bunch of work but it’s economical and we believe in living off the land and enjoying our fruits and vegetables without a bunch of chemicals.”
Peggy said she and her husband felt incredibly honored to be included in Daniel’s book.
“It is a celebration of our farmers’ ingenuity and successes,” Peggy Turner said of the book. “It is a guidebook, which introduces a new crop of farmers-young and not-so-young people who want to return to the land, farm sustainably and support their local economy.”
Other memorable experiences for Daniel occurred at the Apple Mill in Saluda, where she said she relished in the Atkins’ family business and unpasteurized apple cider.
“One of the neat things there is they make a lot of products from their own orchard – a lot of places don’t make their own product. So you think you are (purchasing products with produce directly from that farm) but you’re not,” she said. “Plus, there’s a window in the store and you can actually watch them cook. So, again, I’m looking for different experiences for the traveler.”
Daniel said she chose her entries carefully as well because she desired to make sure any place she suggested treated people with great hospitality.
“Both the beauty and the hazard of this kind of tourism is that it’s not like Disney World –– they’re not going to have regular hours and they’re not going to necessarily be used to the hospitality industry,” Daniel said. “So, it was very important to me that the places treated people right.”
To learn more about the book, visit www.farmfreshnorthcarolina.com.