Small-ish town with vibrant farming & music community?

[Watchman57]

Note Boone most expensive and becoming more and more like Asheville, rapid expansion, high end everything, Appalachian State U town. Of the 3 B's my choice woyld be Burnsville. Easy access to Asheville and the Tri Cities in E.TN. Blue Ridge Parkway close too.

[roadpony]

Originally Posted by Watchman57

Note Boone most expensive and becoming more and more like Asheville, rapid expansion, high end everything, Appalachian State U town. Of the 3 B's my choice woyld be Burnsville. Easy access to Asheville and the Tri Cities in E.TN. Blue Ridge Parkway close too.

Sorry to disagree with my friend Watchman, but Boone is certainly nothing like Asheville, even on a smaller scale. Traffic can be annoying, especially in the summer (tourists) and on football weekends, but not even close to an Asheville comparison. Real estate can be a little pricey, but a wide range can be found, especially a little further out from town.

Based on OP's criteria, I also vote for Burnsville. Just don't know enough about Brevard to comment.

[911michael]

Originally Posted by poppydog

Do check out Floyd VA. I think you might really like it.

I doubt if you will find anywhere in the mountains that there won't be someone somewhere using RoundUp except maybe Celo. I'm not a fan either, but it is pretty common. Asheville will have more organics in the surrounding areas, but outside of the city of Asheville proper, progressives mix with conservatives and organic farmers mix with conventional farmers.

Originally Posted by poppydog

Floyd is a very crunchy granola musical place. Maybe like a mini Asheville, just 90% smaller. There's a groovy little free-range school there, a good organic scene, and the legendary Floyd Country Store jamborees.

I was thinking the same thing. From visiting friends in the Floyd area who live on the BRP, it seems to have a lot to offer base on the criteria stated by the OP.

[VinceTheExplorer]

The area surrounding the three B's (Boone, Blowing Rock and Banner Elk) are our pick. Higher elevation with a good mix of everything you'll ever need as far as grocery and shopping go. Beautiful Lake Watauga is close by and the area is a great base camp for exploring the region. Just look for property out in the country and nice homesteads can still be found in the area.

We personally love the college vibe of Boone and the incredible App State football games and community there that supports them. Brings a great vibe of life to the area which can be enjoyed year round, with hiking and waterfalls, leaf peeping and skiing/ snowboarding to be enjoyed too. We spend a good amount of time there as we live close by in TN (under an hour) but love our home and community here too much to make the leap to move there as we have kids and careers connected to Weaverville, NC / Johnson City, TN.

Over the winter our son had committed to App State which we were ecstatic for but at the last moment moved over to ETSU (Eastern TN State Univ) as he received a generous scholarship from them and their program for physical therapy he liked better (not to mention the in-state tuition savings / boarding from living in TN) so he switched. We were pretty bummed out but we have two kids coming up behind him so our App State dreams may be eventually become a reality.

If it were me I'd stay far away from Asheville and surrounding (especially downtown and areas to the south) and only visit there on day or overnight trips. The area there is getting too touristy, pretentious and crazy overall, with shootings there seemingly on a weekly basis now. Such a shame as it used to be a nice area and there's still things there worth seeing, but nothing worth living nearby for in our opinion.

Another great area with your requirements is Jonesborough, TN. Check out the downtown area and proximity to everything Appalachia. Beautiful farming community surrounding it with TN tax advantages, incredible scenery and reasonable property values if you search around.

You may hear from people that the areas mentioned here are "XX minutes from Asheville" as though it's a bad thing, which to us it's just the opposite as we've been there, done that with our search too, one that was similar to yours. Good luck with wherever you land.

[movedtothecoast]

Originally Posted by 911michael

I was thinking the same thing. From visiting friends in the Floyd area who live on the BRP, it seems to have a lot to offer base on the criteria stated by the OP.

Yes,
another vote for Floyd here!

[Opt-Out]

Originally Posted by GraceElizabeth

Thanks Opt-Out (love that name!) and Road Pony. Great to know that internet shouldn't be a problem. And I like that Burnsville is a bit closer to Asheville for the sake of catching a flight somewhere (my partner has family in San Diego).

I have been completely sucked in to this forum, realtor.com, weatherspark and everything in-between and it's very helpful to read posts and opinions. It amused me no end to look at the weather comparison of where I live in VT vs. Burnsville and Floyd with January in VT described as FRIGID. It really is ridiculously cold for far too long here. The chance of feeling muggy seems high in Floyd and Brevard compared to Burnsville & Boone which is notable to me.

Boone, Brevard, Burnsville and Floyd now top my list.

Does anyone have any insight about which of the NC B's above would be more apt to have a little more open space for very small scale farming/large gardening, and also has more farmers (with views towards organic/soil health/diversity)?

Thank you so much!

I don't have much detailed info to share about any of these places besides Burnsville. We have friends that live in the other "B's" that love their spots as much as we ours.

Here are some links to local Burnsville / Yancey Co. farming associations. Many of the farms are on Facebook - I follow a few of them and from what I've seen, there seems to be a strong push towards sustainable and responsible agriculture.

Local CSA:
https://tractorfoodandfarms.com

Farmer's Market:
https://yanceycountyfarmersmarket.wordpress.com

Hope this helps,
Opt-Out