We sit on 120 acres along the upper reaches of Craig's Creek in rural Craig County VA, though only a 40-minute drive into Roanoke/Salem and only slightly further to Blacksburg. My grandparents bought this land just after WWII, and farmed or leased the 8 or so acres of pasture. Upon their death in the late 1990s, a family member oversaw a clear-cut timber harvest of some 70 acres. Beyond that, the property fell largely into disuse, but thankfully was not sold. We came to live here full-time in 2017, and started tapping the sugar maples along the edges of the fields soon after.

We're engaged in a variety of forest farming activities. We tap about 175 sugar maples, and sell maple syrup at farmers markets, on our farm stand, to friends and family, and some limited wholesale to a few shops in our area. We grow mushrooms on logs, primarily oysters, which we often consume ourselves, preserve for later use, or occasionally sell at farmers markets or to local restaurants. We have about an acre planted as a forest garden, with ramps (highly sought-after by local chefs), goldenseal, solomon's seal, and ginseng, which we process into value-added extracts and other products that we sell locally at farmers markets and elsewhere.