We Have New Neighbors!

Fonta Flora Brewery to expand, create ‘farmhouse brewery’ from historic local structures…

MORGANTON, N.C. — Whippoorwill Dairy Farm, a historic Burke County farm, will soon be permanently protected as part of partnership between Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina and Fonta Flora Brewery of Morganton.
With funding from private donors and the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund, Foothills Conservancy has purchased the majority of the scenic farm, approximately 40 acres which border Paddy’s Creek, and will donate the land to the adjoining Lake James State Park later this year.

Fonta Flora Brewery, a local craft brewery in Morganton, has purchased eight acres of the former dairy farm fronting Highway 126, including most of the old stacked-stone barns and structures, to expand and create a farmhouse brewery and will convey a permanent conservation easement on the property to Foothills Conservancy. Fonta Flora plans to restore the buildings, with a priority of keeping the old stone walls intact. The walls are built of river stones from Paddy’s Creek, which flows along the back of the property before draining into Lake James. The new 15-barrel (Bbl) brewhouse will have 30 Bbl fermentation and conditioning tanks which will allow Fonta Flora to brew approximately 2,500 Bbls during the first year of production. This will roughly quadruple their current production capacity. The farm’s backdrop is the beautiful scenery of Shortoff Mountain, the Linville Gorge and Pisgah National Forest. The parcel that will be added to Lake James State Park also contains an important piece of American history: a segment of the National Park Service’s Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail.

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