Modern family has built self-sustaining operation from the ground up
Green Thumbs
* 1st in a 4-part series
Yellow Creek – It all started with chickens.
In 2020 – when the world was on standby, thanks to the COVID pandemic – Jeremy and Cheset Williams decided it was time to make healthier choices in their diet, and bought a few chickens. Fresh eggs and poultry became a staple in the Williams’ home.
As they continued to improve their dietary choices, the high levels of salt, sugar and fat – as well as many additives that could not even be pronounced on food labels – motivated the family to purchase
a 50-acre mountaintop in the Yellow Creek community of Graham County and establish Yellow Creek Mountain Farm and Homestead.
The family began their journey to living a lifestyle of self-sufficiency. The mountain was raw land. They built roads, cleared trees and planted grass.
Today, the mountain is home to an apple orchard with over 200 varieties of apples. There is the Junaluska Apple, originally planted on land that Junaluska sold for $50; the Carolina Red June Apple, which was believed to have originated in the early 1800s in Tennessee; and the World’s Best, which has been grown in the area around Graham County since at least the early 1900s.
“Just about every variety of apple planted has a special story to share,” Jeremy said, as he pointed to the King David Apple Tree that was originally found as a wild seedling along the fence row on the farm of Ben Frost in Washington County, Ark., in 1893.
What began as a hobby has quickly turned into so much more.
Springtime is filled with pruning and grafting. In addition to apples, Williams has 3-4 varieties of peach trees, several varieties of pear trees, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, muscadine grapes, as well as several other varieties of grapes.
There is asparagus, potatoes and tomatoes to name a few of the vegetables planted along the mountain side. With locust posts, he has cut and hewn himself for raised beds, he makes use of the materials available to him on his mountain.
The couple – along with their two sons, Kage and Kreed – have worked together to create a farm that provides for their family, as well as an orchard and working farm that will offer produce to their community.
This fall, the family hopes to be able to offer many varieties of apple trees to be purchased – as well as a variety of apples and other fruits and vegetables.
Food preservation, hunting wild game and fishing off the land has become a way of life, and a time for the family to bond and make memories together.