The Rayburn family in the pineapple sage patch
Heads Up: Plow to Pint
Story and Photos by Sarah Jones Decker
In a town overflowing with beer varieties, local brewers can tap in to a wide array of locally sourced ingredients. Rayburn Farm in Barnardsville has made a name for itself growing produce as unique as the Asheville beer scene.
Michael and Lauren Rayburn strive to grow ingredients that brewers need for their specialty beers that go beyond just hops. He does most of the growing while she works as an environmental scientist and handles the farm’s accounting.
Rayburn Farm is a 16-acre parcel of land with about one and a half acres under cultivation that is nestled in a picturesque valley just below the Blue Ridge Parkway with Craggy Gardens shaping the horizon in the distance. The Rayburns jokingly say they fight over that seat at the dinner table that frames the view. Just outside of a town known for its beer, the Rayburns saw an opportunity.
“Farmers markets are saturated and there is over-competition,” Michael Rayburn says. ”Farming is a business. You have to look at untapped market shares. We love working directly with brewers in the value-added sector.”
The Rayburns bought the farm in 2013 and began selling to breweries during their first growing season in 2014. With backgrounds in soil science and horticulture, the couple saw an opportunity to apply their expertise to the farm and started approaching breweries to see what they couldn’t find locally. That first season, they sold pie pumpkins to Green Man Brewery and the sales expanded from there.
Currently, Rayburn sells produce to Wicked Weed Brewery, Twinleaf Brewery, Urban Orchard Cider Company, Burial Beer, Bhramari Brew House, Zebulon Artisan Ales, Hi-Wire Brewery and Blue Mountain Pizza and Brewery. The list of ingredients he grows for businesses is as diverse as it is delicious. Local breweries have enjoyed his sweet basil, Kenyan Blue basil, Thai basil, pineapple sage, juniper, roselle, pumpkins, candy roasters, butternut squash, rosemary, elderberries and strawberries.
“I swear I have bought from every catalog you can buy from,” Rayburn says. “I have spent hours upon hours prying through catalogs and experimenting. Every year we try new things and there are lots of samples to be handed out in town.”
In addition to all of his brewery accounts, Rayburn also sells mint, strawberries, lime basil, pumpkins, elder flowers, pineapple sage and ginger to The Hop Ice Cream Café. You can also try “The Rayberry” at Vortex Doughnuts. The combo is made up of two mini-cake strawberry lime doughnuts paired with an iced espresso beverage infused with their strawberries and enhanced with orange bitters. He also sells a variety of produce and herbs to French Broad Chocolates, Nectar Cafe, The Blackbird, Glass Onion and Sweet Monkey Café and grows seeds for Sow True Seed in Asheville.
In addition to farming, Rayburn is the designated stay-at-home parent and you can often find their fouryear- old son, Elijah, with his dad in the field and on deliveries. “He loves going on deliveries because he gets free samples everywhere we go,” says Rayburn, “and he can always close the deal!”
Rayburn Farm can be reached at mlrayburnfarm@gmail.com and found on Facebook.
