Nice article and great work that these younger folks are doing, but c'mon, Jen: "Follow a gravel road through the heart of Leicester"? [“New Crop,” Sept. 11 Xpress] Really? Do you know where the heart of Leicester is? It's on a paved stretch of N.C. Highway 63, where it has been located since it was first incorporated in 1859.
Prior to asphalt, the road was macadam for decades, meaning it hasn't been a gravel road since decades before that. Even Sluder Branch Road, off which the Gaining Ground Farm is located, sports a width of 17 feet of pavement. The only gravel is the 921 feet of driveway leading to the 2 acres owned by the Griers, and at 15-feet wide, it's almost as wide as the main paved road.
There's no need to embellish an otherwise good story with bogus notions. And you should bone up on local geography and history before writing about it.
— Pat Cothran
Leicester
Xpress responds: Cothran is absolutely correct: Leicester is basically bisected by four-lane Highway 63. Perhaps we let our picturesque narrative run off the (paved) road. And we applaud Cothran’s unflagging support for Leicester, which includes her well-known efforts in 2007-8 to incorporate the area.
