“We need to influence as many people in the world to grow food and start backyard and community gardens,” says farmer Malcolm Banks, who operates Yellow Mountain Garden in Franklin, NC, with his wife, Hannah, and kids Noemi, Malik, and Lucy. “A lot of people don’t understand food right now, but they understand inflation. Our goal is to get more people to learn about where their food comes from.”
As he’s tried new methods over his near-decade of farming, Malcolm has translated what he’s learned into gardening and farming education for others, including a YouTube channel (@yellowmountaingarden3865) and Spotify podcast. He also offers in-person classes and hosts events for families and kids on the farm.
When flooding in the summer of 2021 decimated most of the crops at Yellow Mountain Garden, the Banks family made adjustments to better protect and diversify the farm’s portfolio. In navigating those challenges and getting the hang of each new farming practice, Malcolm has shared lessons and experiences with his community. “I feel like this year is more about documenting and putting it out there so that people can really understand what we’re doing,” he says.
They moved susceptible crops to raised beds, and Malcolm posted demonstrations on how to fill them. They worked on improving soil health, and Malcolm interviewed Hannah, who has a degree in horticulture, about soil science for home gardeners. They brought in animals, including chickens, sheep, goats, and cows, so they could offer meat and eggs to their CSA customers and at farmers markets. Malcolm added vlogs on how to build a fence for livestock and how to keep flies off cows.
He also dropped an album. Last year Malcolm released “Cowboy Baby” under his recording artist name, Yuccie Banks. The album blends rap and country along with bits of rock and bluegrass in tracks about buying land, growing vegetables, and moving cattle—proving that music is yet another way he can spread his message and share his experience as a farmer.
A Farmer Personality
Malcolm grew up in South Georgia, near the Florida border. “We had to go work in the fields. A lot of us used to pick pecans, watermelons, peaches, and things like that. That kind of motivated me to be like, ‘Hey, one day I’m actually going to get a farm and operate it on my own.’”
Love for rural communities and being outdoors reinforced that goal. “Even when I was playing sports and stuff like that, I wanted to live in the middle of nowhere. People looked at me crazy. So I think it fit my personality to be a farmer, because you’ve really got to live where there’s not a lot going on.”
Hannah is a fourth-generation farmer. Her family has farmed land in Cashiers, North Carolina, since the late 1800s and now grows Christmas trees. Being able to tap into that background helped Malcolm and Hannah get Yellow Mountain Garden started. “It made my life a little easier because I was around people who had their feet in the industry,” Malcolm says. They began farming in the Yellow Mountain area around Cashiers, but now own land in Franklin. In addition to running the business side of the farm and applying her horticulture degree where needed, Hannah works as a real estate agent.
Food access was another driving force for Malcolm to start farming. “I was doing research about what a food desert is. People have lack of nutrients because they don’t have access to fresh produce.” He makes a point of selling his produce as cheaply as possible and gives a lot of it away to neighbors or people who can’t afford it. “My biggest role in the community is to provide for the people who don’t have enough,” he says.
Yellow Mountain is also connecting with schools and youth programs to make seed donations to start gardening programs. “The state’s not going to pay for it,” says Malcolm. “So we’re trying to help some of these schools and educators have extra resources so that they can teach children how to garden. Because that’s our future. If these kids don’t know how to grow their own food, it may be a bad, bad deal, especially with everything going on.”
Beyond his own farm and community, Malcolm has an ambitious, far-reaching vision. He wants to connect with networks across the country—and the world—to help people set up community gardens and teach people how to grow fresh food. “I don’t care if you’re living in an apartment. You can have something in your window. I want to motivate more people to start a garden—and also get to know their local growers.”