WLOS TV Person Of The Week

Larry Blunt, co-anchor of WLOS-TV newscast came out to the farm with Emmy nominated cameraman Leighton Grant earlier this week to interview me as the "Person Of The Week" to be tentatively aired on September 9 here on Channel 13. It will be available on line as well.

It was a beautiful day for the shoot and I was fortunate enough to have Agriculture Extension Agents Melinda Roberts, who was interviewed for the segment, and Sue Colucci who came along for technical support. Also on board for an additional supportive interview was my good friend Fox Watson, local celebrity, musician, and movie star.
Melinda is getting set up for her interview in this shot above as I scoot out of the scene.

They interviewed me in three of the sections of my farm, in the butterfly flight house (as shown above), at the hop yard, and around the blueberries. I gave them the history of our small farm and how we were trying to change it to survive with new alternative crops and ideas.

Here is a rare behind the scene shot of the real director of the farm and of the shoot today. None other than the famous Martha Burnette, taking a break from all of the tension of the morning!

During Fox Watson's interview, only one question was ask. Fox did such a good job answering it that Larry said, "Gosh, he just answered anything else I could ever ask!" Fox had to leave shortly after this for his movie role in the up coming independent film, "Ghost Of Old Highways".

We all had a great time as usual as any visitor does that comes to our farm. In between all of the fun, during the serious parts of my interview, I tried to let Larry know about all of the support that my farm gets from folks like the Extension Service, WNC AgOptions Grants, ASAP, a great bunch of volunteers from good friends and especially my wife, my mother, my sister and her son who have helped in just about every aspect of this adventure.

The farm's success is totally due to every single one of those mentioned above. They are all the real "Persons Of The Week" as far as I am concerned. Oh, and I do want to add one more to the list. It goes without saying that I truly do thank WLOS for choosing me to represent the small farms in Western North Carolina and giving me the air time to do so!

All photos credit to Charlene Blevins.