Yellow Creek, North Carolina
A working homestead and heirloom apple orchard, grown slow on mountain ground.
This place started as raw land.
Woods, slope, and rock.
We cut only what we needed to open the ground. The rest stayed put.
Oak and hickory stood where they had for generations, and we worked around them. The mountain decided more than we did.
Every apple tree here was grafted by our hands.
None were bought from stores.
Some years the trees give heavy. Some years they don’t give much at all. A few take years off entirely.
We’ve learned not to rush them. The orchard sets its own pace.
The orchard is planted by season, not by fashion. Some apples come early and leave quick. Others take their time and carry us through winter.
Alongside the orchard we grow berries, grapes, muscadines, pears, peaches, and persimmons.
Trellises are built from locust cut on the land — wood that lasts because it’s meant to.
The farmhouse was built by our own hands, raised where the ground allowed and left simple on purpose.
Some things don’t fit on signs or maps. These are field notes — kept over years — about weather, trees, mistakes, and what the land teaches if you pay attention.
Read the notes →