Gobble! Gobble!
Thanksgiving food is amazing! Do we ever think about where that food comes from? Farmers! That’s who.
In 2024, 27.8 billion turkeys were grown and processed on NC farms (1).
What about the other dishes we eat at Thanksgiving? How about sweet potatoes? NC ranks number one in the nation on sweet potato production. That means that NC farmers grew over 1 billion pounds of sweet potatoes this year (2). Amazing!
What if I’m a ham eater? Glad you asked, NC is ranked third in the nation for hog production. Currently, NC has 8.1 BILLION hogs (3). Wow!
What about where we live? Great question! Even though Macon County does have turkey, sweet potato and hog production, we don’t have the terrain that you would find in the Eastern part of the state to have the large “houses.” For example, a turkey house is a barn that measures 60’ wide and 528’ long (4). These houses can hold up to 10,000 turkeys.
Even though we may not have the high production in our area, we do still have LOTS of farming. Macon County farmers produce corn, pumpkins, tomatoes, berries, chickens, turkeys, milk, hogs and so much more!
There are 346 farms in Macon County. Those farms are producing on 21,973 acres of the county (5). So, support your local farmer and they will support you!
Happy Thanksgiving!
