Pulling up to Holly's Melting Pot, a produce market and farm in Perquimans County, a woman draped in a sun-blocking hat and rubber boots is watering tall, stark yellow sunflowers. In an adjacent field, a man can be seen in the distance, sitting atop a large tractor, filing through rows of vegetables.

This is the scene of a modern-day family farm that seeks to grow healthy food and feed as many people as possible quality, seasonal produce.

Staff photos by Brett A. Clark (ENLARGE)

Holly Wang Riggs stands by a long squash plant in the farm outside her business, Holly's Melting Pot Produce and Market in Perquimans County.

(ENLARGE)

Holly Wang Riggs (left) and her mother Yu Shing Huang Wang (center rear) prepare food to be served during their cooking class at Holly's Melting Pot Produce and Market in Perquimans County.

(ENLARGE)

Stir Fried radish, carrots and shiitake mushrooms are prepared during the cooking class.

(ENLARGE)

Grated radish (left front), pumpkin stem (center rear) and tea are prepared to be served at the cooking class.

(ENLARGE)

olly Wang Riggs holds out a long squash at the farm outside her business.

(ENLARGE)

Ching Yu Wang tills the soil on the family's farm.

Arguably one of the most pressing concerns in society today is the health of our food. Many are debating the wisdom of industrial farming and the problems associated with food quality and rising food prices. That's why more people like Holly Wang Riggs and her family are showing up on the scene, growing food and selling it in their own self-styled produce markets.

They are what might be considered alternative farmers, ironically using old-school methods such as the age-old family farm model, to produce healthy, seasonal produce.

The Wang family comes from Taiwan. They've been in the U.S. for some time now and in Perquimans County for about 15 years.

Holly Wang Riggs' father, Ching Yu Wang, is a healthy, fit 60-year-old man who spent much of his life working as a roofer. Holly says he determined that he wanted to become a farmer, but her mother wasn't sure it was a good idea.

"My mom got mad because it's a lot of work," says Holly, whose mother grew up on a tea farm in Taiwan.

But Ching Yu Wang says he's not too concerned with the hard work. Yes, it was easier being a roofer in New York City when he first arrived so many years ago, but, he says, there is far more satisfaction from working with nature, producing something that benefits people.

Ching Yu Wang speaks little English. His daughter Holly has to translate much of what is said to him, but the farmer is not without the ability to articulate his love of farming and all things natural, even through example.

First, it's important to understand that the family is Taoist. Taoism is an Asian philosophy, simply put, that recognizes the way of nature. Nature, in essence, knows best and humans do well to follow nature's lead. They believe, explains Holly, Taoism is God's way and that way is simply nature's way.

Sitting in the Wang's living room, Ching Yu Wang pours small cups of green tea. On a series of shelves below his teapot there are herbs and herbal teas that are all used for better health.

The use of herbs for medicinal purposes is something that, for a Taiwanese family, is standard and preferred over Western medicine.

"You use Western medicine," he says holding up a piece of tree bark good for several ailments, "it may be too late."

Ching Yu smiles as he says this, his wife, Yu Shing Wang, smiling and nodding in agreement behind him. Holly Wang Riggs largely agrees with the ways of her family. It is a way that also includes exercise, something that Ching Yu demonstrates in the middle of his living room.

The older Wang demonstrates his ability to stand on his head unaided while doing a series of leg exercises. Then he goes out back to an exercise apparatus he constructed himself, demonstrating further that he is probably more fit than most 30-year-old men. He is clearly in fit condition and he attributes this to his love of nature, exercise, a vegetarian diet and the good life he has as a farmer.

The Wangs are growing a number of vegetables on their farm that they will sell in their produce market that sits on the front of the property. Holly says her father used to sell the produce to markets in New York but now, since six weeks ago, the family is offering it locally and at the Elizabeth City farmer's market each Saturday along the waterfront.

Holly says right now, while her market is new, she is

offering some vegetables and fruits that have been purchased at wholesale markets elsewhere. She says, however, once the family's crops, about seven acres, come in, the public will have access to vegetables they've not experienced before.

"I try to have a variety to let people know we have a lot of stuff," says Holly.

A lot of different stuff includes five different types of mangos, two different types of kiwis, several varieties of squash, Asian pears and more that are from the wholesale market and their farm. Outside on the farm a vineyard-like row of poles and beams support the growing vines of the long squash, an Asian vegetable that will soon dominate the field. There is also North American pumpkin varieties and even Japanese pumpkins, to name a few.

"Asians have a bigger variety (of fruits and vegetables)," says Holly, who aims to introduce people to new and different varieties of fresh grown produce as they come available in the field.

Holly, like a growing number of vegetable growers and lovers, is concerned with the limited number of vegetable species available in produce markets today. According to author Barbara Kingsolver in her best selling book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," there were once 80,000 different species of vegetables available throughout the world for human consumption. Now, largely through the practice of industrial farming and genetic manipulation, that number has changed dramatically.

"After recent precipitous changes, three-quarters of all human food now comes from just eight species, with the field quickly narrowing down to genetically modified corn, soy and canola" writes Kingsolver in her book.

Those are vegetable species found primarily in large commercial markets. For small, family farmers such as the Wangs, that fact can change for the better of all concerned, and could as long as people patronize these farmers as they once did when farming was a primarily a family endeavor.

And while Holly Wang Riggs says she wants to introduce people to all these new vegetables, she also wants to teach them how to best eat them. And eating them right means learning how to cook them right.

The Wangs are vegetarians. As Taoists, explains Holly, they have a belief that all animals possess feelings and to kill one would violate a sort of natural order. That said, Holly's husband James Riggs is not a vegetarian and that's OK with her. But the other thing about being a vegetarian, says Holly, is that it's healthy. That's why every Thursday at 5:30 p.m., in her parents' home behind the produce market, she and her mother show anyone interested how to cook healthy, vegetarian meals.

"We just want to show people how to eat healthy," says Holly.

For more information about the Wang's family farm and market, contact them at 252-312-3876.

Next Sunday Albemarle Life takes a look at Weeksville wine country