I arrive at Juneberry Ridge on a soggy day in October after driving through small towns and past open fields in rural Stanly County. Off Old Cottonville Road, I turn up a long gravel drive lined with sugar maples, then pull up to the hilltop and an imposing house of thick Douglas fir. There, I meet Judy Carpenter.
Carpenter, 80, owns the house and the 750-acre farm it overlooks. A self-described introvert, she’s soft-spoken and unassuming, with short blond hair and plentiful energy—she works out three times a week—that belie her age. She’s small in stature but, in her own way, as imposing as the house. We hop into a Gator with two staffers and set off for a tour of Juneberry, a farm that’s far more than a farm.
We head down the hill to a huge greenhouse…
