A new project taking root in the Kanawha Valley aims to promote carrot production with the help of small farmers and Veterans in West Virginia.
The goal of the West Virginia National Guard’s Patriot “Guardens” and Capitol Conservation District’s “Farm Roots” project is to help participants to grow their own carrots and then market the popular product to restaurant owners, farmers markets and other local buyers.
The first educational workshop for the Farm Roots project, held April 13 at the Tackett House at West Virginia National Guard Joint Force Headquarters in Charleston, introduced 10 Veterans, active military and community members to the program.
Throughout the program, participants will learn lessons on growing carrots. Those lessons include designing and constructing long-lasting raised beds and low tunnels; how to achieve and maintain healthy soils; disease and pest control; post-harvest handling; good agricultural practices; and presentation and marketing.
In West Virginia, locally grown carrots are in high demand from consumers and many restaurants. When small farmers bring carrots to farmers markets, they sell out quickly.
Each grower will keep careful notes in journals about yields, crop failures, successes, growth, costs, soil amendments and pest issues.
“Working with the Patriot Guardens program has allowed me to find a small way to give back to our service members, active and retired, through agriculture,” said Melissa Stewart, director of Patriot Guardens Education and deputy director of Economic Development. “Sharing my knowledge of agricultural production is one way that I hope to help our participants find some peace of mind through working with their hands toward developing a more self-sufficient lifestyle.”
Organizers hope to create a program to improve and increase production of carrots for specialty markets in the State by carefully reviewing feedback from participants in their journals.
Growing carrots is no easy task in the hard, compact West Virginia soil. By using raised beds and better soils, qualified growers in the program will have a goal of increasing the market of carrot varieties and sales in West Virginia.
Some local restaurants and chefs have signed on to buy and distribute some of the carrots grown through this joint endeavor.
BY CPT Holli Nelson, West Virginia NATIONAL GUARD
