Little Farm NC

Little Farm stewards a rich parcel of Swannanoa Valley floodplain farmland through sustainable, resilient agricultural production and inclusive community programming.

Mary and Kiera Bulan have been farming an acre of this fertile floodplain since 2020. Mary holds a PhD in Agronomy from the University of Wisconsin and has taught farmers and agriculture students in Wisconsin, Maine and North Carolina. Her graduate research focused on conservation of buckwheat diversity in southwest China, and her passion for soil science, agroecology and community farming systems combine to make Little Farm a dynamic, inclusive, nerdy project. Kiera works for the City of Asheville in the Sustainability Department and has worked with farms, youth and community gardens and food justice initiatives throughout her career. Her inability to moderate her flower growing was a catalyst for their first honor stand at the home farm when they just couldn’t fit any more flowers in their house.

Mary and Kiera met in 2003 slinging coffees in the jewelry district in Providence, Rhode Island. They cut their teeth in community farm work at Southside Community Land Trust and have been wandering the farms, fields and friends of the Northeast, Upper Midwest, and Southern Appalachians together ever since. They have two young sons who appear to prefer baseball to soil science for the moment, but they maintain hope that family farm work days will spark a forever interest in stewarding the wild biodiversity of a teeming teaspoon of healthy soil. Following Little Farm on social media will also inevitably introduce friends of the farm to the well-loved four legged family members, Pepita Lightening Biscuit, Bear Pickles Michael and Thunder Ginger Joseph Bulan.

Our little family moved to Western North Carolina in 2016, have been growing in Black Mountain since 2017 and have offered flowers to our neighbors through the honor stand since 2019. In 2020 as the pandemic pushed us further from friends and neighbors we survived on moments of joy and connection shared out into our community one bouquet at a time through the social distance stand. The following year we expanded production to a rented parcel of land in Swannanoa, fired up our hoophouse to offer regionally adapted, black mountain grown seedling and plants at the Spring Black Mountain Tailgate Markets, and hosted our first community flower U-picks. Today Little Farm grows both at our small home farm in Black Mountain and on a 6 acre parcel in Swannanoa. The Swannanoa land is blessed with extraordinary, fertile floodplain soil that has sustained our thriving business offering wholesale vegetables, cut flowers, and beloved U-Pick days.

Like all of our neighbors, Hurricane Helene had a profound impact on Little Farm. The riverfront Swannanoa land we had stewarded for years was inundated, our landlord and those renting on the property lost their homes, and a thick layer of river silt peppered with muddy Pabst Blue Ribbon cans and scattered pieces of countless lives littered the fields. As soon as we could access the fields we sowed cover crop seed, planted willow live stakes, and started the ongoing process of debris clearing.

Against all odds and without power, water or infrastructure on the land, the 2025 season was a success. That season’s rows of flowers and crops brought us hope and community; a testament to the enduring resilience and capacity for healing and resurrection embodied on this land. From this destruction and uncertainty we’re navigating a path forward with a deeper conviction that our community and land care model is necessary. In 2026 we are launching a campaign to purchase the land, creating a unique, multi-faceted space and powerful community asset. Check out our LAND page for more info.