8262 Highway 87 South Snow Camp, NC 27349
After 30 years of farming, owner and operator Eliza Maclean has decided to retire and begin a new chapter by downsizing. Below, you can view a video tour of the property, explore the Zillow listing, and read a letter from Eliza to the community she has been honored to serve.
Thank you for your support, friendship, and encouragement over the years. It has meant so much.
^^^^^Zillow Link^^^^^
It started with a registered herd of Pygmy and Nigerian Dwarf goats, but quickly morphed into a real farm with vegetables, chickens for eggs, guardian donkeys, and then pigs! Who knew I’d fall in love with pigs and want to be near them and raise them for the rest of my life…
They are the most fascinating, intelligent, noble animals and somehow they make you love cows and sheep and horses and donkeys and every other critter on a farm even more, because they notice and interact with all of them! For the last three decades, these inter-species relationships have delighted our family and everyone who came to our events and farm tours, classes, and sleepovers.
There were goats who couldn’t leave the farm without their pig friends, and cats and chickens that fully left the house and their flocks to live with the pigs. And of course, pigs who thought they were dogs and lived on the porch with the dogs. I could go on and on.
Pigs will always stay in my life. Great Pyrenees, cats, chickens, a pet sheep, and random peafowl will stay with me too, and some sort of menagerie will undoubtedly follow them because I cannot imagine life without animals. But for now, the stock on the farm is about as low as it has been since year one in 1996, and the land we live on is on the market.
I am stepping away from farming as a way to make a living after all this time because it is no longer a viable way for us to support ourselves. The funding that small farmers have depended on to keep going has, for now, dried up. This will change the work of many people who have helped farms like ours access resources and remain viable in a world where, for a generation, the motto has been, “Get big or get out.”
It is a scary time, and I have decided that now is the right moment to pass on our beautiful, mostly restored hundred-year-old farmhouse and the land that surrounds it. Over the last year, I have discontinued breeding and sold almost all of the animals. But as Ross and Jason have told many of you, we have worked hard to secure the genetics and quality of the pork, beef, and lamb that helped us open the doors of Left Bank Butchery.
Here at Cane Creek, we hope to host the corn maze again this year if we get some rain, and I still hope to have a few more square dances this fall if the wonderful buyer of this place is willing. Please spread this awesome listing far and wide so we can find the right stewards for this property, people who will continue hosting and supporting the Saxapahaw community and our neighbors throughout the area.
Dave and I won’t be far away, and we may just end up having more time to spend with people. It kind of sounds amazing.
Sustainable agriculture will always be part of my life. In what Jane Fonda calls her “last act,” I plan to visit farms, butcher shops, and farmers markets everywhere I go. I want to keep promoting agritourism and finding ways to celebrate locally produced food. It has been my life’s work, and I want to pass it on.
Enid and Quinn and Lawrence and Watts will tell you what a blessing it is to grow up on a farm, and I can’t wait to mentor anyone who wants help pursuing that dream. I have learned so much over the years and have a great deal of practical knowledge to share.
Dave and I will likely buy a place near my parents on the St. Lawrence River to help them manage the family property and raise a few animals there. We’ll also spend time here on Dave’s land along the Haw River- I don’t know what I would do without these two rivers- working with Red Dirt Design & Build, checking in on the butcher shop, and staying close to friends, kids, and grandkids.
He will keep calling square dances and I will keep throwing them, maybe even in this same barn! And certainly in other places like the Haw River Ballroom.
I will also keep Instagram and Facebook going under the Cane Creek Farm name, so you can continue to follow along. The business is not for sale, just the beautiful property we have been so privileged to steward.
Though I will still be part of Saxapahaw and hope to see you all at the shop and in town, I want to thank you for bolstering all of us up at the farm all these years. It goes without saying, but I never could have done it without your support. It has been a great ride!
See you around -Eliza