Elise Margoles
Elysian Fields Farm
Cedar Grove, NC
www.elysianfarm.com

 

Probably the Market has been one of the best things for making me more outgoing in my whole life, just because of the practice that I’ve had with communicating with people. – Elise Margoles

A Maine native, Elise Margoles has been farming in the North Carolina Piedmont for over a dozen years. Since age 25 she has managed her own farm, Elysian Fields, north of Carrboro in Cedar Grove. On 40 sandy acres of former tobacco land, Elise has found success with carrots, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, melons, and a variety of other fruits and vegetables. More recently, she has also ventured into pastured pork. She maintains a robust CSA of over 100 subscribers and has sold her produce at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market for a decade, first at the Wednesday Market and now on Saturdays as well. Inspired by some of the generation of Triangle farmers who began farming before she did, such as Alex and Betsy Hitt and her neighbor Ken Dawson, Elise now acts as an experienced mentor to her own interns and employees, several of whom are young women hoping to one day start their own farms.

NOTE: What follows is a portion of the original interview that has been edited for length. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here.

EDITED TRANSCRIPT

Subject: Elise Margoles
Date: July 7, 2011
Location: Elysian Fields Farm
Interviewer and Photographer: Kate Medley

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Kate Medley:  This is Kate Medley interviewing Elise Margoles at Elysian Fields Farm near Cedar Grove, North Carolina, on July 7, 2011. And so now I’ll get you to introduce yourself and tell us what you do.

Elise Margoles:  Okay; my name is Elise Margoles and I own and run Elysian Fields Farm, which is primarily a vegetable farm, where I sell my produce at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market, and I also have a CSA program.

And tell us where you come from and your birth date.

Okay; so I’m originally from Maine, and my birthday is June 24, 1975.

How did you start farming?

So, I started to get interested in farming when I was in college. And then when I finished school, since I didn't know what I wanted to do, I decided to work on a farm. So I went to Upstate New York; I was going to college in Massachusetts. And went to Upstate New York and did a summer internship at a farm up there, and wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it but ended up really loving it, just being outside, and just the whole process of it was really great.

And kind of from there I just knew that’s what I wanted to do. I ended up after that coming down to North Carolina and working on a farm down here. And after that season, decided I wanted to start my own farm and started looking around for property in and around the area here and was lucky enough to find this piece that I’ve been on for the past ten or eleven years.

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And so how did you learn to farm?

Definitely learned to farm just by doing it. I went to college for four years, but none of that is helping me on this farm today. [Laughs] Although maybe in some senses, I don’t know. But yeah, I’ve learned how to farm pretty much by doing it. And the internship that I did in Upstate New York and then the one I did down here, really both of them, you know, just watched exactly what was going on and what they were doing, and tried to model my farm after them—which, you know, neither of those farms actually sold at Farmers’ Markets. They were both CSA-only, and so when I first started my farm, I thought that that was what I wanted to do was just a CSA. And it still is a strong passion for me.

But it’s kind of funny because my neighbor, Ken Dawson—when I first moved to the area—stopped by and he was on the board of the Carrboro Farmers’ Market at the time and they were trying to get some more farmers to join the Wednesday Carrboro Market. At that point, it was still new and there, you know, wasn’t, you know, that many vendors or that many customers at that point. And so he was like, “Hey, I see you’re a farmer and you’re new to the area; here’s an application. You should apply to the Carrboro Farmers’ Market.”

And I was kind of like, “Hmm, I don’t know.” And then I was like, “Yeah, yeah, okay; I’ll try it out,” you know, and so that’s actually what got me into the Farmers’ Market. And I just needed that little push, and I just fell in love with it, you know, just the whole thing.

How old were you [when you started on your own], and what was that [first] year like?

So I was twenty-five that first year that I rented the land [in Cedar Grove]. It was really hard, you know. I get so much more perspective on it as each year goes by. I mean, it was really hard and I really do think I could have benefited probably from working on a couple more farms in the area before I started. And you know, that being said, it all worked out fine because I’m happy, and I think that my farm is doing well, and I’m happy with how things are going. But in retrospect, you know, I’m sure that that could have helped. And you know, as I have some young women who are now like twenty-five who are working for me and wanting to start their farms, I can give that advice, you know. Say, “Well, you know, you could start and it’ll probably work out like it did for me, but it might be a little easier on you [Laughs] if you, you know, wait and get another year or two under your belt of working for some other farms.”

I would not want to relive that first year. [Laughs] But, you know, I made it, and I actually still have some CSA members from then. That’s good because it’s been, you know, eleven years now.

Was there any moment where you thought to yourself, “What have I gotten myself into?”

Yeah, definitely, but I mean I never doubted that I wanted to; that’s been a great thing all along. Or, well jeez, I say that, but like last year in August I was like, “Do I really want to be a farmer?” [Laughs] But I mean, August doesn’t count, okay, because it’s so hot and you’re so tired. So aside from August, I haven't doubted it, which has been a good thing, because like I said, up until I discovered that this was what I wanted to do, I really had no idea. And so it’s nice to just be like, “Wow; I’m happy and I like what I’m doing.” So yeah, there were definitely some moments where it was like, “Oh my God! This is really hard.” You know, and probably crying, you know. But, you know, that just kind of made me more determined, like, “I’m going to do this,” you know. But it’s definitely been challenging.

And then you dove in with this plot of land.

Yeah.

And sort of describe to us what it looks like out here, what you have to work with.

Okay; and so after I rented that piece of land for a year, my aunt and uncle and I decided to buy a piece of property, and I ended up getting a piece just a few miles down the road, which is nice because I really like this community here in Cedar Grove. And this piece is just perfect. I mean, I fell in love with it right away. It’s forty acres; it has a three-acre spring-fed pond that’s just gorgeous, and we can irrigate from that, and I can swim in it, and my friends take boats out on it and catch bass [Laughs]. The property was raw land. It had a few tobacco barns when I first moved here, and, you know, some sheds and whatnot. It’s probably about maybe sixty percent pasture and forty percent wooded, so it’s a nice combination. And definitely plenty of space to grow on; I have really sandy, sandy soil. This used to be old tobacco land, just up until I moved here, so yeah.

So here we are in 2011, sitting underneath your packing shed. And tell us about your business now, like tell us what you do.

Okay. Yeah, it’s just amazing how much it’s grown since the beginning. [Laughs] It’s funny; just, we’re having such a good year this year. There were good things about the first year, but it was definitely so much harder that it is interesting for me to look back and see how much things have changed. And then also there’s a girl who worked for me last year who is my age when I started, twenty-five, and she’s looking to buy land right now and start her farm and just kind of dealing with how to go about doing that, that it’s making me think a lot about what it was like back then.

But you know, this year things are better than they ever have been, and I think that’s a product of just like, for me, trial and error and experience and looking back at last year in the winter and saying, “Well what can I do better?” And I think it’s also a product of the fact that the weather has been pretty decent this year, which always helps.

So this year we’re doing 110 CSA members like we’ve done the past few years. I think that’s a pretty good size for us. It works for me to have that number and then the Wednesday Carrboro Farmers’ Market and the Saturday Carrboro Farmers’ Market, and those are the only ways that we sell our produce. We do sell it to restaurants, but they usually will just come to the Farmers’ Market and buy from me there, so I don’t really do deliveries or whatnot with them.

And that works out pretty well for me to have two full-time employees. So it’s me and usually two women full-time. They work forty hours a week, and I’ve been this year trying to take Sundays and Mondays off, although it doesn’t always happen—like this week I wasn’t able to. [Laughs] But I’m trying to just work a five-day workweek and keep it, you know, closer to like fifty hours a week for myself. It just feels healthier. It doesn’t make me burn out as fast and yeah, it’s—it’s been good.

I mean, I’ve got this one girl, Beth, who has been working for me the past four years who is just fabulous, and she has kind of taken more of a managerial role this year. And I think just with the both of us getting better over the years, things are just running so smoothly. The other woman who is working for me, Liz, is just really on it and eager to learn. She’s got some family land in Saxapahaw that she’s hoping to farm next year as well, and she’s twenty-five and looking to be a farmer. And so she’s really motivated and things are just going well, yeah.

What are you growing, and how does that compare with what you were growing ten years ago? What worked and maybe what hasn’t over the years?

Okay; so we really grow just about everything, but we definitely grow more of some things. Right now we’re flooded with tomatoes, and that’s a good thing because we can sell a lot of tomatoes and everybody seems to love them—and I love them. And that’s actually something I’ve gotten a lot better at over the years is growing tomatoes. They’re really challenging, really hard to grow, and that’s been something that’s been a really profitable thing for the farm.

Strawberries in the spring are really, really nice. We don’t do a pick-your-own or anything, but you know, they’re great for the CSA. We pick them and give them to the CSA and sell them at the Market. Oh, let’s see; we’ve got a lot of eggplant and peppers right now. Oh, the melons; we’ve got a lot of melons, which are always really heavy to carry out of the field but they’re so yummy.

One thing about my soil here is because it’s so sandy also, I don’t have the orange clay that’s typical for Orange County. And it actually helps me be able to grow root crops. Since I’ve learned about my soil over the past ten years and what really thrives in it, I’ve really grown to liking to grow the things that thrive in it because it makes me happy when something does well. [Laughs] So that’s, you know, why I’ve really enjoyed growing carrots, for example. Because my carrots will grow very straight and very long, you know, like ten-inch, straight-down, you know, beautiful carrot, and it’s gratifying. You know, so I’m trying to do the things that I can with the soil that I have, whereas, you know, some of the folks that have the orange clay, it’s harder because it’s a tougher soil the root just can't grow down it. But also at the same time, you know, there’s always an upside and a downside to different soils. So you know, the red clay holds onto nutrients much more than the sandy soil; the nutrients in the sandy soil will just leach out when it rains. And so that’s definitely a downside; it’s harder for me to grow things that are really heavy feeders of nitrogen and whatnot—like broccoli, for example. [Laughs] I always have a hard time with broccoli.

You touched on it briefly earlier, but tell us about your introduction to the Carrboro Farmers’ Market.

I remember my first Market [Laughs]. I made, I think, thirty-five dollars, which is just so funny. [Laughs] I love telling some of the younger girls who are working for me now who want to start their own farm. But it’s just funny now to go to a Wednesday Market and, you know, make hundreds of dollars [Laughs]. But you know, that’s ten years.

Anyway, you know, when I first started going I was really shy, too. That’s something that’s changed about being forced into being a business owner is that I’ve had to really learn how to be more extroverted, you know—and it would be nice if I had a partner maybe who was more extroverted and I wouldn’t have to do that. But I didn't have that, so I had to really just come out of that.

So I remember the first couple years the Market was really challenging for me because there’s lots of communicating with customers. And I actually want to say, though, that probably the Market has been one of the best things for making me more outgoing in my whole life, just because of the practice that I’ve had with communicating with people. And it’s been a really good thing in the long run even though it was like really hard.

Indulge us for a minute. Take us through some of the cast of characters [at the CFM] that stand out in your mind.

You know, one thing I do when I get to the Farmers’ Market is I, you know, get my stand set up and then my mother, who helps me at the Farmers’ Market, will watch my stand while I go make a loop. And I like to get my breakfast, but I also like to just say hello to everybody. And so, you know, when I go around, I really enjoy—I don’t know; just, it’s like, some of the time it’s just a quick hello, but it’s just, you know, fun to see someone. There’s, you know John Soehner—he’ll see you coming, you know, ten feet before you get there and yell out your name, “Elise!” you know, just like he does with everybody. And it’s just fun to hear whatever, you know, he’s been up to, you know, the past few nights and all that.

And then, you know, I always enjoy saying hi to Kevin Meehan, who has got some interesting stories, and he’s always got good coffee. And then I always want to say hello to Ken [Dawson] and see what he’s got going on at his table, because he always has a really impressive display, and [I’ll] see how much rain he’s gotten or this, that, or the other. And he’s just got a lot of wisdom, so it’s always nice to just hear whatever little thing he’s got to say.

And then as I keep going down, Alex and Betsy will be there, and I always enjoy checking out their stand and Alex usually comes up and gives me a little half-hug and [Laughs]. Some of my friends used to work for them and she’ll always be like, “So how is so-and-so, and what’s going on with so-and-so?”

Leah Cook, who has been the president of the Market for the past few years, is a good friend of mine, and you know, I love going up to her stand and shooting the crap for a little bit. It’s always fun, and her neighbor Joanne Horner at the Market is someone who I really enjoy speaking with as well.

And then there’s, you know, Leslie Heinz has the greatest biscuits and like donuts and just sticky, sugary, yummy things that I always buy. And yeah, so I mean Michael Perry and Kathy Jones of Periwinkle Farm—it’s always fun to say hi to them.

And who are some of your regular customers that stand out?

I was just thinking about this one woman. Her name is Karen, and she’s become a CSA member the past few years, but before that she was also a customer, and she’s still a customer. And she’s just really a dedicated Market shopper and she must just really love to cook. You know, I think it’s just a passion for her, because she’ll buy a lot of stuff, and I know she goes to other Farmers’ Markets, too, not just the Carrboro Market.

But she sends me emails about stuff she’s cooked with my food and then will send me recipes. And it’s always so nice to get that feedback. She knows my mom is a teacher, and in the summer when she has off she’ll help us out a little bit. And we have just a few blueberry plants. My mom really likes to pick the blueberries. And she does a really good job at picking blueberries, because she’s very particular. Because sometimes there will be blueberries that look like they're kind of ripe. It’s a fake-out; they’re really kind of reddish. And my mom can tell the difference, and she’ll take the time to pick only the blue ones.

And Karen has figured this out, and so Karen will only buy the blueberries if she knows that my mom picked them. [Laughs] So it’s just kind of a funny, you know, relationship to have with a Market customer where she comes up and says like, “Did your mom pick those blueberries?” And we say “Yeah,” and she’s like, “I’ll take all of them,” you know.

Describe to us your regular Market routine.

Well, for the Saturday Market, we definitely do a lot of our work on Fridays to get ready for it. And I try to get to bed early on Friday night because I have to get up, you know, really early on Saturday morning. So I usually get up about 4:00 on Saturdays to go to the Market, and that’s mainly because even though the Market starts at 7:00, there are hard-core Market customers who are there at 6 o'clock in the morning shopping, and so I want to have my stand set up.

A lot of times, we’ll make a good chunk of the money that we’re going to make for the day between like 6:00 and 8:00, you know, just because people that are there early are really serious shoppers. [Laughs] And they’re going to buy a good quantity of stuff. And then also, you know, some of the chefs will come that early too, just to get, you know, good stuff. And then they usually will buy a lot of stuff when they do buy stuff.

So yeah; so I get up at 4:00 and I definitely drink some coffee, [Laughs] and just kind of get ready and get the truck loaded up, and I’ve got a half-hour drive down into town. And it usually takes me a good hour to set up my stand, just because I’ve got to take everything out of the bins and put them in baskets, and I really like to arrange things just so, you know. I’m a stickler for things to be neat and stacked high, and kind of like try to put you know things that will enhance color next to each other like, so I wouldn’t put red next to red you know, it would be like red, green, red. [Laughs]

I get way into it, so it takes a little while to get things set up. Twelve o'clock is usually when Market is over and at that point, I’m pretty whipped and I know I’ve got to come home and irrigate or, you know, water the greenhouse or what have you, feed the pigs, so I try to get going. But before I get going too quick, I like to stop off at Neal’s Deli, which is a deli shop in Carrboro that has really great sandwiches, and they buy local produce actually for all their side dishes and whatnot. So we’ll get something to eat, get it to go, and head back and then the best part of the whole day is taking a two-hour nap in the afternoon, which I always do.

And then, you know, having Sunday off is so nice after that, but [Saturday is] a good day, you know, all in all. It’s always a long day; you know, sometimes I don’t lay down to take my nap until about 2:00, and you know, I’ve been up since 4:00 and kind of working.

And then the Wednesday Market—I do my CSA deliveries on Wednesdays also, and so we’ll pack those up Wednesday morning. And a lot of times that’s just a busy day for me, if not busier than Friday, where I’ll do the deliveries and then go to the Carrboro Farmers’ Market straight from doing deliveries. And I have about fifty people that pick up at the Carrboro Market also, their boxes there, and so setting up my stand while also, you know, divvying out those fifty boxes can be a little hectic, so yeah, it’s a good day.

What is it that really sets the Carrboro Market apart?

Hmm, that’s a good question. I mean, I think that one of the things is that it’s been around for so long, over thirty years now. And it really has some really great growers.

And so I think that, you know, there was already this really strong reputation in the Market before I joined it, and I think I’m really lucky to be able to be a part of that. I think that the growers that sell, I think the fact that we have, like, in place really good kind of bylaws and rules for the Market, the way we govern ourselves, that is nice. One of our rules in particular that I’ve always really liked is that the farmer has to be the seller at the Market—that we can't send employees. I mean, I would want to do that anyway, just because I want that connection with who is eating my produce. But I think it’s good because I think the customer probably would want that connection with the farmer who actually, you know, they can ask questions like, “What variety is this?” or like, you know, “Will have you this next week?”

And you know, an employee may know those things or may not, but it’s nice for the customer to know whose business, you know, they’re buying from, and it really creates that kind of intimate relationship. And also just like having a strong kind of knowledge base for what’s going on at the Market there because the farmers are actually there, yeah.

Where do you personally see room for improvement [in the CFM]?

Oh, I guess like one of the things we’ve always struggled with is we don’t have much parking. We’re, like, in this tight space, you know, with limited parking. But you know, Carrboro is such a walkable town, and there’s parking in like a lot of other areas of the town, and then people could walk over, that maybe that’s not an issue. But it’s not really an issue that we can deal with as a Market necessarily; it’s like, if there’s not space in the town, then there’s not space in the town.

I don’t know; aside from that, like I think that things are really good. You know, we just got this ATM machine that’s, like—it just would have never even occurred to me. And you know our manager [Sarah Blacklin] is so great where she like looks at all the successful markets around the country and, like, what are they doing and then tries to apply those things to ours, and it’s awesome. She does a great job.

And so yeah, with the ATM I think that’ll help because there would be a lot of people sort of asking like, “Do you know where there’s an ATM?” And it’s like, “Maybe at that gas station across the street—I don’t know.”

So you know, that probably will help sales a bit, I think. As far as where it could grow, I mean I think as the years have gone on and we’ve really gotten filled up with vendors is that the Board is being really particular about, at this point, who they’re letting into the Market both Wednesday and Saturday. Not that they weren't always, you know, particular, but it’s just extra particular it seems, because they’re trying to be careful, I think, to not have a lot of the same stuff at this point, since we have a lot of produce and whatnot, that we’re kind of, I think, looking at more specialty items.

So like for example this year, we let in a guy who is doing humanely raised North Carolina pork hotdogs that he’s making, you know, and so that’s kind of a specialty thing that we hadn’t had before. And so you know people like that are kind of more getting accepted. And I see that being more where we’re headed. As some people, I guess, would get older and kind of leave the Market, the newer spots would be, you know, a little bit more diversity and whatnot; yeah.

Farmers in the South have long been mostly men, increasingly older men. Is it hard to be a young woman farm owner?

I don’t know, because I’ve never been a young man farm owner! But [Laughs] it’s been fine, you know. I think coming to Cedar Grove and there being a lot of good ole boys around here and them being farmers, I wasn’t sure how I was going to be received and thinking that maybe, “Oh no.”

But one of the great things about moving here was that friend of mine who showed me this piece of land that I ended up renting or introduced me to Cedar Grove is a good ole boy, and he kind of instantly put through the community that I’m all good, you know. So I got “I’m all good,” you know, from the get-go, which really helped.

And so, you know, what’s funny though is it’s not just me; there is another friend of mine who farms in Cedar Grove who is a younger woman, Leah Cook, who is about fortyish, but all the guys, all the tobacco growers and the dairy or the beef guys, I mean they show us a lot of respect. And I think because they know how hard we work because they’re farmers, too. So to them there’s no difference.

We have this local tire shop, Pope’s Tire, where if you go there kind of in the afternoon sometimes, all the tobacco growers like to just kind of go and hang out in the waiting room and just chat. I mean, sort of like, we don’t really have anywhere for people to meet up in Cedar Grove, so they turned the tire shop [Laughs] into that. And so if I ever go in there and they’re there, I mean they’re all so nice to me, you know. And they go, “How are things growing?” And, “Don’t work too hard,” you know, and like everybody’s really accepting.

So in that sense, in the community that I’m in right now, it’s been really good. And I haven't been really treated like any different, I don’t think; I couldn’t imagine. But you know, at the Farmers’ Market, I think that there are some people, who especially when I was, you know, in my twenties, who were more kind of like, “Really? You’re the farmer; really?” You know, [Laughs] and I think even now some people, when they come up to the stand, who may not know the rules of our Market, like assume that I’m not the farmer—and that’s fine, you know.

But I actually think in some ways it’s like helpful because the employees that I’ve gotten over the past few years have been young women who are single who want to farm and kind of want to learn how to do that from someone they know did that also. So that’s actually been something that’s helped me get some really good employees in the past.

What’s next for Elysian Fields as you grow your farm?

Well that’s an interesting question. I, you know, really feel like I don’t want to, like, get any bigger, I guess, so as far as growing what I want to do is just get smarter. And [Laughs] I want to, you know, just each year try to do more with what I have in a better way, so, you know, just really try to hone in on what each crop really needs and get better at that to increase yields from what I’m doing, and maybe be able to, you know, cut down on how much I’m doing because I’m doing it better.
           
I’d like to, you know, focus in on ways to cut costs, you know, so that I don’t have to get bigger to make more money but just, like I said, get smarter. You know, aside from all that, like I said, I really like the size that I’m at; I like the amount of CSA members I’m doing. I like the two markets that I sell at, and I don’t want to sell at any more markets, and I don’t really want to increase in CSA, and I like that quantity of what we sell calls for three full-time people including myself. I think that three people working together is a good dynamic for me, and I enjoy that. But I think that one thing is that I really would like to have children sometime in the next couple of years, and so the biggest changes that will come about will probably be from that, because, you know, I don’t really know how that’s going to play into things.

And I think, you know, honestly, when I have a family, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to, you know, be a part of the farm to the extent that I am now. And backing away a little bit might come in, and kind of looking at other people that I can rely on, like this woman who has been working for me the past four years, kind of taking more of a manager role. So there’s definitely going to be some changes in those regards hopefully one day.

Are there things that I haven't asked you about—about yourself or your farm or your way of farming or the Market—that we should talk about?

One of the greatest things about the Market for me has been that I’ve been able to create a relationship with the restaurant owners in town, because I definitely was a little bit too nervous or shy to sort of just cold-call restaurants [Laughs] in the beginning. So just meeting the chefs at the Market has been a really great thing for me.
           
I feel really lucky to be in an area where we have so many great restaurants, and then the chefs all go to the Farmers’ Market and walk around and talk to everybody, and it’s just really a nice thing. And it has been like a really good thing for the farm as far as selling quantity at a Market.

Like who do you see there?

I’ll, you know, weekly, sell produce to Miguel who works for the Lantern Restaurant and Kevin of Acme restaurant in Carrboro, Ben and Karen Barker of Magnolia Grill in Durham, and that’s just off the top of my head, but there are definitely plenty more. And one of the great things, too, that’s so nice is if I ever go to eat at one of these restaurants, that I usually get treated so well, and that’s just such a nice thing. I think the restaurant owners and chefs really appreciate having the Market as well for their business. So it definitely serves us all really well.

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