Today we’d like to introduce you to Don And Belinda Carringer.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Our Story
Don and Belinda Carringer both grew up in Western North Carolina, where farming has long been part of their family heritage. Don has farmed his entire life, learning firsthand from both of his grandparents on their family farms. Through both of their involvement in 4-H, Don’s passion for agriculture continued to grow, while Belinda developed a love for preserving foods and traditional kitchen skills.
Together, Don and Belinda have a blended family of six children and nine grandchildren.
Don is a retired family physician who practiced in Crossnore and Robbinsville, North Carolina, and later served at Appalachian State University and Western Carolina University. Belinda was a stay-at-home mother before working in Member Records at an electric company and later as a Human Resource Specialist at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching in Cullowhee.
After marrying in 2007, Don and Belinda lived in Macon County, North Carolina. In 2008, they began selling produce and homemade goods at local farmers markets, eventually expanding to provide fresh vegetables, jams, jellies, relishes, and honey to restaurants throughout Western North Carolina.
Over the years, they purchased a home on Beech Mountain and spent time there part-time before moving to the area full-time in 2022 after purchasing a nine-acre farm in Altamont near Newland.
Today, they sell at the King Street Summer and Winter Farmers Markets, the Beech Mountain Farmers Market, and through the High-Country Food Hub in Boone. They also continue delivering produce and farm products to restaurants in Highlands and Sapphire, NC and The Community Table in Sylva, NC every two weeks.
In 2012, Don began keeping bees and now manages approximately 30 to 40 hives each summer. On their farm, he grows a wide variety of vegetables along with red and white dent corn used for stone-ground cornmeal and grits. Belinda makes jams, jellies, relishes, apple butter, granola, and creamed honey using time-honored methods in their certified farm kitchen.
In 2025, they began a new chapter by hosting farm-to-table dinners at Carringer Farms. These evenings bring together talented guest chefs, seasonal ingredients grown on the farm, and the beauty of the High Country to create a warm and memorable dining experience
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Covid
When covid hit and the stores all closed in March 2020, we were producing a large amount of produce for several restaurants and farmers markets. We didn’t know what we were going to do with all of it. We had over 300 chickens at that time and would have lots of eggs. We came up with a plan. We had a long email list of our customers from the farmers market, so we decided to send an email to all of them telling them that if they were interested, we would send them once a week, an email, listing what produce we had available. They could send a list of what they wanted, and we would meet them at the old vacant Wal Mart parking lot on a certain day. They could stay in their vehicle, pop their trunk and we would have their names on a clip board, what cooler number their produce was in, so as they pulled up, I could find their things quickly. That became very successful. We did this for several months and by the end, we had over 50 customers who came each week.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Don’s professional life and career was a physician, but here is what we do now. Farming and making jams, etc.
What we are most proud of is what Carringer Farms has become. When we started, we never imagined that our little farm would become a place where so many people would come together, share a meal, make new friends, and experience a little piece of farm life.
We’re proud that we grow much of the food that is served at our Farm to Table dinners and that we have been able to work with talented local chefs who turn what we grow into something truly special. But even more than that, we’re proud of the sense of community that has grown around the farm.
There is something very meaningful about looking around our old red barn and seeing a table full of people—some who arrived as strangers—talking, laughing, and enjoying a meal together. We’ve met so many wonderful people through the farm, and many have returned again and again.
For us, Carringer Farms has become about much more than farming. It’s about sharing what we love, welcoming people to our farm, and creating experiences and memories that we hope they take home with them.
Something different we grow is Jimmy Red Dent Corn. We take it to the mill and have it ground into corn meal and grits. An interesting history on this variety is that at one point, the Jimmy Red Dent Corn almost because extinct. What was left was just a few ears of corn seed. The moonshiners resurrected it because it had a high brix (sugar) content. The seed is beautiful. Several of our restaurants buy the Jimmy Red Grits. They love it.
Belinda is known for her jams, jellies, apple butters, squash and zucchini relish and creamed honey with different flavors. I have a certified kitchen.
What sets Carringer Farms apart is that everything we do is very personal. This isn’t simply an event venue—it’s our home and a working farm, and when people come here, we want them to feel like our guests.
We grow much of the produce used in our Farm to Table dinners, and Donnie takes guests around the farm to show them where their food comes from and how it is grown.
We think that authenticity and personal connection are what make Carringer Farms special.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
What we might call “good luck” has often come in the form of people. We have met wonderful chefs, customers, guests, farmers, and others along the way who have encouraged us, helped us, and sometimes opened doors we never expected. Many of those relationships have turned into friendships.
Of course, farming also teaches you very quickly that you cannot control everything. Weather, growing conditions, and all the unexpected things that come with farming have sometimes changed our plans. Those challenges have taught us to be flexible, make the best of what we have, and sometimes simply laugh and move on.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.carringerfarms.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carringerfarms/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carringer.farms/
