At Millstone Meadows Daylily Farm in Morganton, a couple found a

Sharing
their
At Millstone Meadows Daylily Farm in Morganton, a couple
found a home and a place to grow their passions —
his for flowers, hers for food.
Written by Sarah Fauser
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT ROSE
One of Mark and Sara Hord’s
first dates in 2003 was a trip to
the farm they now run together,
Millstone Meadows Daylily Farm.
60 Our State April 2011
ourstate.com 61
Against the backdrop of Burke
County countryside, guests
come in large numbers to
enjoy the farm-to-fork dinners
at Millstone Meadows.
O
n a warm evening in Morganton, people
sit around a long dinner table in Mark
and Sara Hord’s backyard. The sun begins
to set behind the mountains that surround the 35
acres known as Millstone Meadows Daylily Farm,
where Mark and Sara work as a team. He grows the
flowers; she cooks the food.
Tonight, 80 guests share in their place and their
passions. Mark mingles, pointing out his daylilies
blooming all around. Sara finishes preparing the meal
over an open fire. These farm-to-fork dinners connect
people to this land with Sara’s homegrown ingredients
and Mark’s flowers, but they also transport them to
different areas of the world. Tonight’s theme: Tuscany.
Mark and Sara load the table — savory sausages
seasoned with fennel and garlic, pizza with fresh tomato
sauce on a hand-tossed crust, and lots and lots of pasta.
A wine distributor pours a fine selection of reds and
whites from southern Italy to round out the palate.
“I like to share,” Sara says. “And this is a great way
62 Our State April 2011
for Mark and me to share, through fabulous dinners
with good people.”
Anything for her
Mark — tall, sandy-haired, and handsome — is a
romantic. As a young flower enthusiast, Mark often
visited Charles Henson, who owned the farm Mark
now calls home. He bought daylilies from Henson and
took them back to his garden at his home in town.
Sara — petite, strawberry blonde, and a former
Cosmopolitan magazine model — became the focus of
Mark’s romance in 2003. When they met in June of that
year, Mark took her out to the farm on a date.
“Being a simple-minded guy, I thought I would take
this pretty girl out to a place where there were pretty
flowers,” Mark says. “I said to myself, ‘I’ll impress her
with my knowledge of these pretty flowers.’” Little did
he know how much he would impress her. After their
trip to the farm, he continued to charm her.
Sara spent her early years working as a culinary chef
Sara Hord was a chef in Illinois
and New Mexico before she
came to Morganton and met
her husband, Mark.
ourstate.com 63
Sara Hord loves feeding people. She’s been cooking for years, all around the country. And now, several times a year, she
and her husband open their Millstone Meadows Daylily Farm for people to come eat her cooking — particularly the many
varieties of fruits and vegetables she grows — and gain a better understanding of where their food comes from.
in Chicago, Illinois, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, and
then settled in Morganton. She continued cooking and
planted her own vegetable garden filled with carrots,
cucumbers, celery, okra, and tomatoes.
“Every year, I get crazy and plant thousands of
[plants],” Sara says. “The same year Mark and I started
dating, I had the worst time with the tomatoes. My
64 Our State April 2011
garden was so big, and I just didn’t have time to stake
all of the tomato plants. We went out for dinner one
night, and I asked him, ‘What did you do today?’ And
you know what he says to me? ‘I staked all your tomato
plants.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God!’”
“Instant love,” Mark says, beaming.
“I remember it was 95 degrees out that day, so I said
“We call that
the honeymoon
bed, since all
of the daylilies
planted there
were purchased
on our drive
home from our
honeymoon.”
Before Mark Hord took ownership of Millstone Meadows, he
had to learn how to care for the 1,200 cultivars of daylilies.
to myself, ‘If I can get him to do something like that for
my tomatoes, I can get him to do anything,’” Sara says.
“And I’ve been staking them ever since,” Mark replies.
Making it their own
After that first trip to the farm, Sara, like Mark, fell in
love with the place and its quiet, serene surroundings.
The couple got married and moved to the farm just
one year after they visited on their date. Together, they
renovated the 150-year-old log cabin and incorporated
a mixed style that reflects their backgrounds; it’s both
Southern and Southwestern. While Sara equipped the
kitchen with wide countertops and an industrial stove,
Mark turned his attention outside.
Before Henson sold the farm, he made certain Mark
knew how to care for the 1,200 cultivars of daylilies
scattered around the property.
“Charles mentored me initially on splitting them
and taking care of the plants, simple fertilizing and
how he transplanted them up here to sell them,”
Mark says. “I got to researching daylilies and seeing
what I liked.”
Mark now has almost 1,000 flowerbeds. He’s
creative in his design. In the cross-shaped bed, the
‘Canopy of Heaven’ daylily stands almost 40 inches
tall with a curly, yellow, spidery bloom. Mark is
partial to those tall, spidery ones. In the bed shaped
66 Our State April 2011
like an ice cream cone, the
‘Raspberry Candy’ daylily
presents a bloom that looks like
a pool of white chocolate with a
raspberry-red center.
“When Sara and I got
married, that first summer we
moved here, we decided that we
didn’t have enough daylilies,”
Mark says. “So we stopped at a
huge farm down in the eastern
part of the state and bought 70
more and planted them behind
the house. We call that the
honeymoon bed, since all of
the daylilies planted there were
purchased on our drive home
from our honeymoon.”
Wonders of the farm
Every June, the peak month
in daylily season, Mark and
Sara hold The Daylily Festival
for people who want to come
experience the farm’s beauty and
Sara’s cooking.
“We bring in bluegrass music
and have a neat day for the
public to come out and enjoy,”
Mark says. “If it’s not 95 degrees,
we usually have up to a couple
hundred people come to the farm
that day.”
Mark parades visitors
between the beds of daylilies.
He introduces them to Honky
the goose and Charlie the
peacock; the animals came with
the farm. He lets them pause
and listen to the water running
in the three creeks that border
the property. Visitors pick out
daylilies to purchase — most go
for about $5, depending on the
variety. They also take home
Sara’s homegrown fruits and
vegetables.
“While I don’t know as much,
or am as crazy about, the flowers,
I do know about food, so I like
to educate as much as I can,”
Sara says. “When people come
68 Our State April 2011
Mark and Sara Hord host
regular farm-to-fork dinners
at their farm. The next one is
scheduled for April 23.
to visit the farm, Mark educates
them about the wonders of the
daylilies, and I like to have them
leave here a bit more sensible
about where their food comes
from and what they are eating.”
Mark and Sara love to share
— whether it’s a Tuscan-style
dinner in their backyard or a
festive summer afternoon among
the daylilies. Mark shares his
flowers, and Sara shares her
food. And together, they share
their love.
Sarah Fauser was an editorial
intern at Our State magazine in
fall 2010.
Go
Millstone Meadows
Daylily Farm
2595 Henderson Mill Road
Morganton, N.C. 28655
(828) 433-7126
millstonemeadowsfarm.com
Upcoming farm-to-fork
dinners: April 23 and May 21.
Morganton
ourstate.com 69