“FALL GARDEN”
Seedlings wet behind the ears,
Others old and tough for their years,
twine around one another
on airy trellises
And produce nectar for the collector.
Pruned and unpruned alike,
Given favorable space and light,
grow
into many-hued personas
–Unlike the catalogue descriptions.
Tough-nuts-to-crack,
companion planted
With wilted rose buds,
cross pollinate
And yield eloquent rows of poetry.
– Bill Best
Row by row, he followed behind his mother, enthralled by the spectrum of colors he observed as he learned to pick beans and avoid stinging worms in his family’s garden plot in western North Carolina. This early fascination is a memory Bill Best, 78, has carried throughout his life as a grower and saver of seeds — and not just the plant variety, but of people.
Fast forward to October 2014, and it’s bean season for Bill, founder and director of Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center. Day in and day out, Bill works alongside his grandson, Brian, 23, and two part-time employees picking beans to dry out, shell and package for selling and swapping. He is an heirloom-seed saver, intensively engaged and committed to the nearly year-round process of planting, growing, harvesting and preserving the genetic potential of tomatoes, squash and beans.
Over the years, Bill received advanced degrees, served as director of Berea College Alumni Center, taught college courses, coached swim teams, choreographed dance and aquatic productions, led Upward Bound and Torchlight programs and has written many poems, articles and books. Though often “pigeonholed” by his lifetime attachment to farming, Bill has certainly inherited a legacy of cultivation, conservation and preservation. Most of all he is a steward — of people, of the arts and of the earth.
“I think it’s something important for humanity,” Bill says. “So I’m doing what I can.”
