Farmers Hands

Join us for this fundraising event and dine on food grown just yards from the tables where it is served. The Farmers’ Hands is a 2-acre farmstead, the centerpiece being a 150-year old farm house. Meals are served family style, outside at farm tables, under a canopy of leaves.Not only will you enjoy a meal, but you will also be able to tour the property with our barn historian Taylor Barnhill to learn the history of the buildings. The date is Thursday, June 27 at 5:30pm. The Farmers’ Hands is located just outside of the town of Mars Hill at 605 Phillips Valley Rd, Mars Hill (off Hwy 213). The cost is $50 per person (or $45 for 2019 members). If you would like to have wine with your meal, please bring your own. Water and Iced Tea are provided. Reservations can be made by email to info@appalachianbarns.org or by calling Sandy Stevenson at 828 380-9146.

Farmers Hands Sebastiaan Zijp

Sebastiaan Zijp and Ariel Dixon Zijp are the farmers. Born to Dutch parents, Sebastiaan grew up on a small farm learning from his mother who grew vegetables and his father who worked with small farmers as an agricultural extension agent. Ariel, too, grew up on a small farm –a small-scale organic one in Concord, NC. In their adult lives, they both pursued studies inspired by their youth. Sebastiian attended culinary school in Vancouver and Ariel double majored in Sustainable Agriculture and Sustainable Forestry at Warren Wilson College. Sebastiaan worked in a variety of restaurants as a chef in NYC for 8 years, learning and growing as a chef in some if NYC’s best restaurants. And, then, went back to the basics and lived and worked on a farm in rural Pennsylvania for a year where he raised and slaughtered hogs, cured bacon, made sausage, grew vegetables and fruits, and cooked fresh meat and vegetables. Ariel worked for three years on an herb and vegetable garden, growing herbs, creating medicinal and culinary products during her college years. Since then, Ariel has worked with local florists and worked on farms around the southeast. Together they form a team that has created this farmstead which offers not just the Farm to Table Dinners, but also cooking workshops, farm stays, and a farm stand. Money from these events is treated as a share of the farm, helping them to pay for the costs that are required to keep a homestead running. For more information about their homestead operation, their website is http://www.thefarmershands.com/