North Carolina is home to some of the finest farmers in the United States, assisted by the outstanding efforts of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, which works to ensure that growers in the state have all they can to be successful.

The climate and soil of North Carolina makes it the ideal ground for a variety of produce items.

For instance, Flavor 1st Growers & Packers, which grows and packs more than 30 different varieties of produce from its Mills River, NC-location, credits the unique climate with being part of its success.

“During the summer, here in the mountains of western North Carolina, we have long, warm days and cooler nights,” said Seth Grant, who works sales for the company. “Couple this with the fertile, river bottom valley soils and we can produce very high quality, and great tasting tomatoes and vegetables.”

Flavor 1st will pick in the mountains until the frost, which is usually around October 10, and after it is done there, it can continue to pick down off the mountain as they usually stay warmer for a couple more weeks.

In addition, North Carolina is very geographically diverse.

“We have mountains in the western part of the state, rolling hills/piedmont in the central part of the state, and sandy pine woods and coastal plains stretching down the beaches in the eastern part of the state,” Grant said. “This allows for a long growing season for the state as a whole. As we like to call it up here in the mountains, ‘down east’ and the middle part of the state can plant and start picking earlier than the mountains. So. we will be picking squash here shortly down off the mountain.”

Grant noted working in North Carolina is vital to Flavor 1st, and the company is strategically located on the East Coast, giving it the ability to ship overnight to most everywhere east of the Mississippi River.

“If we can’t get there overnight, we can get there in two days,” he said. “This allows us to get very fresh product on the store shelves, giving us a high level of consumer satisfaction.”

Charlotte D. Vick, partner/sales and marketing manager for the Wilson, NC-based Vick Family Farms, agreed that the good climate, excellent soils, great farm families and a wonderful Department of Agriculture all add up to the perfect combination in working in North Carolina.

“Urban sprawl is very real here in eastern North Carolina, and it is happening fast,” she said. “So much cropland is being taken over by large developments, so it is making it harder and harder to farm. We are thankful what land we own is protected so we can ensure we can continue to grow crops and our future generations still have a place to return to the farm if they choose to do so.”

Considering the Department of Agriculture has a commissioner in Steve Troxler who was also a farmer, he understands the growers’ language and works hard to fight for the industry to be the best.

“North Carolina has also built a great Sweetpotato Commission with an excellent team to market crops not only in the U.S., but all across the world,” Vick said.