Attention to Quality Makes Norris Small Farmer of the Year 

April 22, 1998 

Garner, NC: Combining sound business sense with a passion for working the land helped Lesker Loyied Norris of rural Wake County earn the distinction of the state's small-scale farmer of the year.

Norris, of Garner, was named the recipient of the 1998 G. L. Dudley Small Farmer of the Year Award during a luncheon on the campus of North Carolina A&T State University.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman delivered the keynote address.

"I do business the way that business should be done," says Norris, who owns and operates a 42 acre farm five miles south of Garner, and 12 miles southeast of Raleigh, on the Wake/Johnston County line.

Norris, 60, has been farming and expanding his farmland since selling Norris Bait and Tackle, a general store that he and wife, Barbara, owned and operated until 1976. During that time, Norris also worked as a certified welder ­ a craft he used to create counters and other furniture in the general store.

Customer service and self-sufficiency are foundations that the Norrises brought with them from the general store to the farm, where they grow a variety of produce, from blueberries to potatoes.

"You're not going to get rich doing this," Norris said of farming a small plot of land. "But out here anyway, you're your own boss. When you run a store, every customer is your boss. Out here, I probably work harder, but it's stress-free work that I enjoy."

The Norrises began their farming career on the two acres where their house now stands. Their farming operation has since expanded to 42 acres ­ most of which they own.

At the center of their land sits an eight-acre pond, which is home to a variety of fish and serves to irrigate sections of land where the Norrises grow produce.

"You have to have water if you hope to grow anything," said Norris, who uses a self-crafted machine to lay the black plastic through which he irrigates his row crops.

According to Barbara Norris, every day, except Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings, finds them tending to farm chores. On Tuesdays and Saturdays, they haul their produce to the Cary Downtown Farmer's Market, where they are greeted by throngs of loyal customers.

"We sell the best eating product, which isn't always the best market product," says Barbara. "Though prices and demand for another product might be better, unless we're convinced that what we're selling is the best we can produce, we won't sell it."

According to Norris, this adherence to quality has won them loyal customers who know that what they buy is good.

"If I tell them it's good, they know that it's good," said Norris, who says that he's willing to split open a melon and offer a taste, if a customer still has doubts.

Success wasn't immediate and didn't come without years of hard work for the Norris's farming operation. In fact, part of their land was once a landfill and subsequently almost barren.

"I used to tell people that if a rabbit was crossing my land, he'd bring his lunch," said Norris.

Only after years of carefully managing the land have the Norrises been able to transform it into the fertile ground it now is. According to Norris, a large factor in this transformation has been their practice of plowing leaves and other plant waste back into the land.

"We literally had to build this soil," said Mrs. Norris, who, along with her husband, gained part of her farming knowledge from growing up on a tobacco farm in Johnston County.

With the Raleigh metropolitan area creeping up on them, the Norrises acknowledge that their land is part of a "last oasis of farming in Wake County." However, Morris Dunn, a Wake County agricultural extension agent with the NC A&T's Cooperative Extension Program, says that the Norrises have done well in adapting their operation to meet the opportunities presented by a changing population.

"Loyied and Barbara have done an outstanding job of meeting customer demand," said Dunn, who works with the Norrises and nominated them for the NC A&T award. "The population of Wake County might be growing and changing, but people will always appreciate quality and honesty, and they will seek out those growers who can provide that. Loyied and Barbara have taken their experience as merchants with them into farming, and have become examples of everything that is right with small-scale agriculture."

The G. L. Dudley Small Farmer of the Year Award was presented to Norris on Small Farms Day, a day designated by Governor Jim Hunt and Commissioner of Agriculture James Graham to honor the nearly 40,000 small-scale farmers of North Carolina.

The G. L. Dudley Award is presented annually by the NC A&T Cooperative Extension Program to a small-scale farmer who exemplifies prudent stewardship of the land while optimizing resources and enhancing farm operations through Cooperative Extension programs.

Joseph L. Dudley, president of Dudley Products, Inc., established the G. L. Dudley Award in 1986, as a tribute to his father's commitment to higher education and appreciation of farming.

- 30 -

For more information, please contact Morris Dunn, Wake County Cooperative Extension, (919) 250-1117.