Healy Lane Farm, Mooresboro, NC
Cecil Norris is a teacher, artist, and farmer in Shelby, North Carolina. In 2017, he graduated from UNC Charlotte with a Bachelor of Arts in architecture and has taught art for 6 years. Healy Lane Farm is a small regenerative farm in Mooresboro, North Carolina. It is a mixed farm, raising chicken, turkey, and vegetables for the health of the land and community. Healy Lane Farm is a no-till farm that operates on three core principles which Norris feels are essential to good stewardship and preserving the ecosystem: (1) Disturb the soil as little as possible, (2) Cover the soil as much as possible, and (3) Plant the soil as much as possible. Healy Lane Farm utilizes Afro-indigenous agroforestry (silvopasture and cover cropping) and spiritual farming practices. Cover cropping involves using tarping and heavy mulching to smother weeds and encourage worms to do the aeration to keep the carbon in the soil. Norris believes spirituality is important to sustaining and regenerating the land.
The stipend will allow Healy Lane Farm to expand its bed space with the addition of a caterpillar tunnel. They will also be able to add gravel to their driveway. Norris looks forward to working for the community and positioning Healy Lane Farm to capture future opportunities as agriculture and horticulture grow to incorporate new directions and markets.