Producing sustainably grown, high quality food year-round while improving soil fertility.
Located on the outskirts of Pittsboro, NC, Piedmont Biofarm is a year-round vegetable farm surrounding the Piedmont Eco-Industrial campus. Farmer Doug Jones and his production team grow a diverse repertoire of vegetables with minimal mechanical equipment and no synthetic chemical inputs. We use local leaf mulch and composted horse manure to enrich our soil, locally made biodiesel when fuel is required, and benevolent pest management practices. Beyond food production, we work to cultivate climate specific varieties of vegetables by selective seed saving and breeding. We also commit significant energy to our educational programs including seed saving workshops, seed exchanges, farm tours, and internship opportunities.
The best way to contact Piedmont Biofarm is to call Doug at 919-444-9680 or send an email to piedmontbiofarm@gmail.com.Our Story
Piedmont Biofarm is like the quiet little sibling of Piedmont Biofuels. Piedmont Biofuels started as a coop around 2004 and began to gather members to itself. Pretty soon the leaders of this little backyard operation realized that the interest, demand and determination were enough for them to expand. The current Piedmont Biofuels site was an airport parts factory that operated for about eight years in the 1980’s. It was abandoned until the Biofuels cooperative bought it and revived it for an industrial revolution of a different sort. The original pioneers of the industrial operation here are still involved, Lyle, Leif, Rachel.
These founders were visionaries and knew that our relationship with our fuel is our relationship with our land. It seemed natural to also address our relationship with the land through the avenue of food consumption. Very quickly, in 2006, they hired Doug Jones to start the Biofarm at a remote location. A year later the farm moved from that location to the land surrounding the Biofuels plant, which offered more land, better quality soil, good facilities and proximity to town. At this point the farm was selling primarily to the Chatham Marketplace and an organic wholesale distributer on site. The Biofarm quickly began selling at farmer’s markets and in the fall of 2007 the CSA was born.
Our farmers and interns work hard to steward this gift of land and bring us the bounty every week. Our CSA dues go mostly to cover their labor, a service they do for us at a very low cost.
The Biofarm hopes to continue to grow in the pioneering vein of its parent organization, Piedmont Biofuels, under the leadership of Doug Jones. Doug’s vision includes having a production as well as a research farm here. We are well on our way to that goal with lots of plant breeding and seed saving happening already. This high-quality production farm is a good site to do research, test varieties, grow seeds, and experiment with all purpose crops that are adapted to this climate and produce seed as well as food. Doug hopes to do this all while feeding, educating and inspiring a new crop of farmers and eaters.
