Drill sergeant to apple grower

By Charles Sowell  

AUGUST 25, 2011 9:13 a.m. (0)

The view at Chattooga Belle Farm is western, like a postcard from Montana, but the flavor is pure Appalachia right down to tangy apples and the smell of hickory wood smoke.

Ed Land, at 53, is well into his third career as the chief cook and bottle washer at Chattooga Belle. He’s been a top sergeant in the Army, based at Fort Stewart outside of Savannah, a drill instructor with the South Carolina National Guard, he’s run his own masonry company and now has gotten back to his roots farming the land at Long Creek.

Work started on bringing the old apple farm back to life about six years ago and it became operational about two years ago as a pick-your-own-fruit farm, with benefits.

The original farm was part of what was once the largest commercial apple orchard east of the Mississippi. It was partially owned by Groucho Marx.

The fruit trees and vines are still too young to be fully productive, but the marriage business is booming – largely driven by the view of Rabun Bald, 4,696 feet high, just across the river in Georgia.

“We’re booked solid well into November with weddings. On some weekends we’ve got two or three a day,” Land said, sitting at a picnic table in a shady corner of the wedding chapel.

What is today Chattooga Belle Farm was once known as Pole Hinge – the shattered remains of a pole barn nearly destroyed by a tornado that swept through the rural community in the early 1990s.

Long a favorite with stargazers,  the high hill is now occupied by a combination wedding chapel, farm store, and commercial fruit processing plant.

On clear nights the hill is far enough away from major sources of light pollution to draw the Clemson astronomy club.

When he was building the barn, Land also put up a stone observation platform, with the points of the compass marked, just off to one side of the chapel.

The gates to Land’s parking area are gated off at night, but he leaves a walking access point open for the stargazers and anyone else who might be interested in seeing the heavens laid out like a scroll.

Land hopes the farm tourism business that has swept neighboring Georgia and North Carolina will spread to his 130 acres on Damascus Church Road.

Lodging for visitors is an issue in rural Long Creek. The nearest commercial hotels are across the Chattooga River in Clayton, Ga.

“We just end up sending business out of state because of that,” he said.

There is a rental cabin at Horseshoe Lake, adjoining the farm that sleeps nine.

Land would like to build a lodge on a nearby rise, but financing for that kind of endeavor is hard to come by in the current market.

“I watch what they’re doing over in Georgia and North Carolina and wonder how much we could accomplish here if the state took a more active role,” he said.

By chipping out a niche here, and making a contact there, Land has managed to expand the business.

He provides peaches to flavor legal moonshine at a soon to open distillery in Anderson, has his own brand of muscadine wine, and cans his own brands of fruit relishes and pickles.

Within weeks he hopes to have a commercial kitchen operational at the barn and plans to offer catering for wedding parties and events featuring local produce, prepared by local chefs on a regular basis.

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