Orange County NC Website
1 <br />Andy Petesch: Yes. And the second is SPG 23. This is an email from Mike Ortoski who is the Agriculture 2 <br />Economic Developer from the Economic Development Office here in Orange County. An email to Annie 3 <br />Bagget of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and to Ms. Brewer. 4 <br /> 5 <br />LeAnne Brown: Just for the record and let’s not get stuck on it but I’m going to object to 23 and let the 6 <br />record reflect that for multiple reasons. 7 <br /> 8 <br />Andy Petesch: And with that I’d like to ask Mr. Brewer to be sworn in. 9 <br /> 10 <br />Michael Harvey swore in Chris Brewer. 11 <br /> 12 <br />Chris Brewer: Chris Brewer and I have been sworn. 82 Jordan Hills Drive, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 13 <br /> 14 <br />Andy Petesch: And you are married to Kara Brewer, correct? 15 <br /> 16 <br />Chris Brewer: I am. 17 <br /> 18 <br />Andy Petesch: And you’re a principal in the SPG LLC? 19 <br /> 20 <br />Chris Brewer: I am, yes. 21 <br /> 22 <br />Andy Petesch: And you’ve worked closely on the chestnut operation that’s going on with the Brewer Farm 23 <br />project. Is that right? 24 <br /> 25 <br />Chris Brewer: Initially I helped clear the land, the fields that had the trees that grew through them. We then 26 <br />set out the grid for the chestnuts. We also watered the chestnuts over the summer and planted the chestnut 27 <br />trees, throughout the summer. 28 <br /> 29 <br />Andy Petesch: And how much do you have invested right now in the chestnut operation? 30 <br /> 31 <br />Chris Brewer: Over $50,000 invested. 32 <br /> 33 <br />Andy Petesch: And is this just on the Morrow Mill site? 34 <br /> 35 <br />Chris Brewer: So we have an additional property in Caswell County, which we have 319 chestnut trees 36 <br />planted. So that is a total of 354 chestnut trees, which we planted just in the spring and the fall. 37 <br /> 38 <br />Andy Petesch: Then are you actively working with any productive chestnut trees? 39 <br /> 40 <br />Chris Brewer: Right, so as Kara spoke earlier; we are still marketing the chestnuts, which we have 41 <br />harvested off of an existing farm in Orange County and we have been selling those to different vendors and 42 <br />also to some retails, to friends and family. 43 <br /> 44 <br />Andy Petesch: And approximately how many pounds of those? 45 <br /> 46 <br />Chris Brewer: So far we’ve sold about 300 so far this year. We have about 1,000 pounds in inventory. 47 <br /> 48 <br />78