“Bel Aire” was the name Dr. James Lynch gave to his farm when he retired from practicing surgery in Asheville, NC and moved to Fairview, NC to set up a country doctor practice out of the front rooms of the log cabin he built on family land.  He was a true country doctor taking payments in sacks of potatoes, fresh eggs or even hard labor.  He truly took to farming and stewardship of the land as well.  He used local labor to cut logs from the nearby mountainsides to place in deep ditches dug in his creek side bottomlands to help with erosion, drainage and flooding.  He practiced rotational crop planting and letting fields lay fallow as well as rotational grazing of his herd of Hereford cattle.  Tried and true agricultural practices that are still being followed today here in “Lynch’s Bottoms”, Fairview, NC.

  The log cabin still stands today and is the home of Dr. Will and Susie Hamilton.  In the smaller poplar log cabin just behind, live Annie Louise and Isaiah Perkinson and their daughters, Sydney and Ivy.  Doc Lynch built the poplar log cabin in which to reside and establish HIS farm while the BIG wormy chestnut log cabin was being built.  Annie Louise and her husband, Isaiah, are Dr. Will’s and Susie’s progeny and the current owners and managers of Flying Cloud Farm, a thriving multi-dynamic organic veggie garden enterprise.

  Over the years, the original acres have been sold off due to the usual things; death, mortgages and taxes! What’s left of Bel Aire Farm that is still in the hand of “Lynches” is being managed today by Bill and Kitty Lynch.          There are 3 generations of Lynches living on Bel Aire Farm today.  Besides Bill and Kitty there are; Ridgeway and Mary Lynch, Bill’s parents (Ridgeway is Doc Lynch’s son), Nathan Lynch (Bill and Kitty’s son) and Betty Chick (Kitty’s mom).  Soon another set of Lynches will move on site as well, Popsie and Don Lynch.  Popsie is Bill’s first cousin.  Don is from another Lynch tribe altogether, but it does make for a great Appalachian-esque story. 

  Once again agricultural products are being produced on the original site of   Doc Lynch’s Bel Aire Farm.

 

A Little Farm History

Once again agricultural products are being produced on Doc Lynch’s Bel Aire Farm.