Hello, thank you for visiting our web page. I am Jodie McCord, owner, farmer, florist at Great Blue Farms. The farm has been in our family for almost 90 years. It was my grandparent’s tobacco farm. It is where my mother was born and raised, and it is where I grew up walking through stunning forest, beautiful tobacco fields, vibrant vegetables, and lush flower gardens. I’ve always had a great love and appreciation for the sustenance the farm provided our family. My mother and grandmother canned and preserved everything from wild strawberries and tomatoes to canned sausage and much much more.
I spent summers with my grandparents and uncle every year but while my mother finished her master’s degree at Western Carolina University we stayed for a few months. She had to drive 2+ hours a day to go back and forth from Nantahala to Cullowhee for her classes. She felt guilty leaving me with my grandparents but it was one of the sweetest most precious times in my life - working and playing in the garden, damming up the branch with my cousins to make a swimming hole, fishing on the lake with my papaw and uncle, eating watermelon on the front porch listening to my grandmother laugh hysterically at the TV show “Good Times.” Wonderful memories!
Fast forward - In 2007, I was coming to visit my parents in Nantahala from SC. Both my parents were highly active in their community club and had to attend a meeting in Asheville that Friday called “Come to the Table.” My mother felt bad that it would cut into our visit but invited me to attend the meeting with them. It was a powerful events it changed the trajectory of my life. I became an advocate of farms and farming and decided then that I wanted to return to NC and farm my grandfather’s land.
My uncle inherited the farm when my grandparents passed away and my mother bought the farm in 1997. It took my husband and I 10 years to be able to come to the mountains. When my uncle passed away in 2016, I felt we might be too old to start a farm, but after talking with a friend I decided it's never to late to realize your dream. I started talking with my parents and husband about what we would farm. We discussed worms and vermiculture (I love worms!), vegetables and such. I come from many generations of flower lovers and growers. At that time Erin Benzakein from Floret Farms in Washington State had come onto to the flower farming scene in a huge way. After reading her book, “Cut Flower Garden,” I knew it was a perfect fit for us to farm beautiful sustainable cut flowers for our community. So began an intensive year of research, trial and error and lots of learning what not to do, but we are enjoying every step of the journey.
My husband Carl and I love the farm and are so very grateful to my grandparents for creating a beautiful place, to my amazing mother Susie Denny Beasley for all of her hard work in keeping the farm and sharing it with us, and for her love and support for all of our dreams. Thank you, Mommy!
We hope you will enjoy the love and care we put into everything on the farm.. the land and creatures, our bouquets, our on-farm events, and our wedding work. Please let us know how we can celebrate you with our beautiful cut flowers. Hope to see you soon,
Love,
Jodie
