Nurtured by nature: Veterans cultivate future

When Nate and Amanda Crew decided to leave the Army, they wanted to focus on family.
Their two young sons, Jackson and Willy, were growing up fast, and they wanted to spend time together as a family.
Nate, 38, left the Army in 2016.
“I was never planning to stay (in the Army) for 20 years,” says Nate, 38. “The boys were a big factor in that. I didn’t want to miss half of their lives growing up.”
Jackson is now 8, and Willy is 6.
Amanda, 37, left the Army in 2015 but returned to Fort Bragg — now named Fort Liberty — as a civilian in 2017 before leaving for good in 2021. She served in the Army for 14 years, the last eight in the Reserve. 
“It changed,” Amanda says of the military. “Our thoughts changed, especially after lots of deployments, lots of training, lots of time away. I think we both chose family and wanted to be grounded and have a place for our sons to grow roots and not be like us. I was an Army brat, so I lived everywhere and moved all around.”
The Crews have been married for 10 years. He served in Special Forces, and she was a pharmacist at Womack Army Medical Center.
After Nate left the Army, the couple used retirement and Veterans Administration savings as well as Amanda’s salary as seed money to buy a nearly 46-acre property in Wagram, where they launched Crew Family Orchards.
“We did take a big leap of faith, but we also strategically kind of set ourselves up so that we were able to launch the business,” Amanda says.
Nate did some contracting work to help make ends meet.
“A couple of years I spent after I got out of the Army flipping houses and stuff,” he says. “I think the watershed moment for us was 2020 or 2021. That was really where we had to take a breath and realize that, ‘Hey, we’re not going to starve.’”
The pair has a grove of olive trees on their Wagram property and are cultivating several other varieties of fruits and nuts, according to their website, creworchards.com.
“This isn’t for everybody,” Nate says. “Money isn’t everything. Living that out practically has been so freeing and empowering because when money doesn’t matter and profit doesn’t matter anymore, then it’s like, ‘What are we born to do with our lives? So OK, let’s do it.’ That’s a very satisfying thing.”
They got started by selling their produce at local farmers markets. Their specialty and first product on the market was a 100% organic olive oil. They also sell bourbon-infused balsamic vinegar, blackberry moonshine vinaigrette and raw honey produced from the 40-plus beehives on the Wagram property, according to the website.
Their products are sold at about 30 stores across North Carolina and one in Virginia, Nate says.
“Growing fruit trees had always been an interest of mine over the years,” says Nate. “It kind of gradually grew from a hobby to being the main thing I wanted to do.”
Amanda says the business has allowed her to combine her passion for holistic health and wellness with bringing “some really good products to the farmers market.”
Strengthening the community
Over the past couple of years, the Crews have become involved in a project that they hope will bear fruit for the community for years to come.
WoodmenLife Lodge 60 had been trying to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic and find a better use for the pool area on its property at 414 E. Mountain Drive. The pool had been a popular gathering place for lodge families, but it was shut down during the pandemic.
When the lodge’s board was told that it would cost as much as a quarter of a million dollars to restore the pool to health and safety standards, its leaders began looking for other ways to use the property.
“It was just not a good use of resources,” says Gary Dudley, who has been WoodmentLife Lodge 60 president since December. “I loved the pool; don’t get me wrong. I can’t say anything negative about it. We just needed to find something to do with the property.”
WoodmenLife is a not-for-profit insurance company established in 1890 in Omaha, Nebraska. It’s mission statement is: “Using hardworking Americans to secure their financial future while strengthening our communities and country.”
According to its website, woodmenlife.org, there are 1,300 WoodmenLife lodges with 88,000 members across the nation. David Patterson, recruiting sales manager in Fayetteville, says there are 3,300 members of N.C. Lodge 60.
Anyone who purchases a WoodmenLife insurance policy becomes a member of the lodge, Patterson says.
Nate and Amanda Crew became members of the local chapter in 2018, buying a life insurance policy from David Patterson. And then, they started talking.
“I had to come in and sign a policy, and things came up while I was talking to him. I figured out he had a business background, so I said, ‘Hey, I need some advice,’ and I ran some ideas by him.
“That helped bring all of my scattered ideas into focus. It’s now not just all these scattered, random things. It’s like this practical thing that we want to do.”
Amanda joined the Woodmen board in 2020, and Nate, in 2021. About a year ago, they pitched the idea of replacing the pool with a community orchard. Nate is Chapter 60’s vice president and Amanda is the treasurer.
“What we were already trying to accomplish as a family business, we kind of saw and still see it get to expand to be way more than anyone’s own personal property kind of business, any of that stuff — to be more communicable and self-sustained together,” Nate says. “Cumberland County has all this space. No matter who owns the property, the space is just mowed lawns or whatever it is. COVID exposed all these issues, and now we’ve got hungry people hurting more and more.”
Long-term outlook
Unlike the typical community garden, Family Life Community Orchard is home to perennials — long-term plantings that will grow for years to come once established, according to a brochure compiled by Nate, the orchardist for the garden.
The Crews and their two young boys, Jackson and Willy, and several volunteers have cultivated the grounds to grow apples, blueberries, blackberries, cherries, figs, nuts, olives, peaches, plums and pears, among other foods.
The orchard also will feature a 1- to 2-mile walking trail, resting benches, a running waterfall to a tranquil pool area, picnic tables and memorials to lodge members’ loved ones, according to Pamela Patterson, secretary of the lodge.
Nate says it takes about five to 10 years for an orchard to be fully established.
“Hopefully, it can be a community resource that can truly bear fruit on many different levels down the road,” he says. “Even just as a space for maybe people who don’t own their own home, a place where they can find solitude and shade and peace and quiet. Something like that.
“It just seems like a beautiful and productive use of the space than having a big mowed lawn.”
Nate says the orchard will build food security and community bonds.
Appreciating the bounty
Amanda, who was born in Washington state, also produces a health blog. Nate has a self-publishing book line called DeepRichDirt Publishing that sells children’s and adult books on Amazon.
Nate, who like Amanda moved around a lot as a child but considers Woodbridge, Virginia, his home, said he got interested in growing things when he visited his grandpa’s house in Nevada City, California, when he was about 7.
“He always had fruit trees and bushes around his house,” Nate says. “I was a city boy. It just blew my mind how much bounty he had. That planted the seed, and I never got around to actually having our own place and putting time and effort into it until 2016 when I was in my 30s.
“It’s just kind of taken off from there and become an obsession.”
Nate Crew envisions what he calls a “mother” orchard.
“We live in a part of the country and part of the world that can grow a beautiful variety of eatable nuts, fruits, berries, all kinds of permanent stuff that when it’s planted, it’s there feeding you for decades. And we just don’t see it being taken advantage of,” he says.
Both the Crews and members of WoodmenLife Lodge want the orchard to provide food and tranquility for more than just members. The orchard is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, except for holidays.
The sign on the gate entering the orchard asks visitors to respect that it is a family-friendly environment — meaning no alcohol or drug use — and to pick only enough produce for immediate personal use.
“We named it a family life community orchard because that was what our initial vision was,” Amanda says. “It’s a safe spot for families to come and to mingle, to talk and enjoy and do things together.”
Teamwork and the future
They may have had the vision, but the Crews say they had a lot of help putting the orchard together.
“There’s been a key village of people that have put in some time and sweat, not just members but people in the community who like what we’re doing here,” Nate says.
Amanda appreciates the help from the WoodmenLife community to feed the hungry.
“On so many different levels, this is a true bonding experience for families. We’re hoping people will come and enjoy it, whether it’s the solitude or just letting the kids run. Just be yourself.”
The first memorial in the orchard was dedicated on Memorial Day. An Arbequina olive tree was planted in memory of Dustin M. Wright, a friend of Nate who also served in the Special Forces and was killed in action in Niger, West Africa, on Oct. 4, 2017.
A groundbreaking for Family Life Community Orchard was held on June 10.
“When you look around and there’s so many places that this could make a big, profound splash in, feeding and teaching people about health, I think this is just a start,” Amanda Crew says. “This is getting back to the real crux of what WoodmenLife stands for.
“I feel like this is a profound group of people, and I think we’re very blessed to be here. And we got here for a reason. I can’t wait to see the chapter grow and keep doing and giving more back to the local community.”
For more information on Crew Family Orchards, go to creworchards.com.
For more information on WoodmenLife, go to woodmenlife.org.