Bulldozers Clear Huntersville Land For Development Of An Urban Farm
Wyatt said Free Spirit Farm also will provide neighbors with fresh produce and agricultural jobs.
By David Boraks
WFAE
February 25, 2021
Excerpt:
“This is going to be the new location of Free Spirit Farm, a 28-acre farm we’re building a mile from the Charlotte city line,” said Zack Wyatt, president and CEO of Carolina Farm Trust.
Wyatt started Carolina Farm Trust in 2015 to preserve, revive and promote farming near urban areas. This site is on Kerns Road, just a couple of miles north of Interstate 485 and not from Huntington Green, a neighborhood of small houses and mobile homes.
“The North Meck corridor still has a ton of farmland around, but it’s all you know, pretty much for sale,” Wyatt said. “So we’re hoping, really, we can use this farm to be an asset to the Huntington Green community and the North Meck corridor, to really get everyone, all the residents, to kind of understand how important farmland is and why we need to keep it.”
Wyatt said it’s part of a campaign to bring farming back to Mecklenburg County and rebuild appreciation for farms.
Besides growing produce, Free Spirit Farm will have a greenhouse, an orchard with fruit and nut trees and a composting facility. A building will house equipment to process and refrigerate produce and a farmers market.
